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Date:         Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:34:49 -0500
Reply-To:     David Clarkson <dvdclarksn@AOL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Clarkson <dvdclarksn@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Follow up to spark plug wires inquiry/problem
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Well my initial hunch was wrong. I had a coil wire that broke or burnt in two right at the end near the coil and cut off a bit of the wire and put the end back on and everything was okay for a while. It's possible that this wire may have been hit or damaged when I had exhaust work done at a local shop (replaced the entire exhaust). Then I started having symptoms that were the engine running at a slightly higher idle and wanting to stall when starting from a stop. I thought that the coil wire was going out in another spot and started asking questions about plug wire recommendations. What saved me from spending money on the wrong parts was my $23.00 oxygen sensor monitor. The display stopped moving back and forth when I stalled and had trouble restarting after finally getting the engine running rough enough to get me out of traffic. My next step, of course, was to unplug the sensor. Everything ran normally with the sensor unplugged. I ordered another sensor since mine had just over 60K on it. Bentley says that is the proper interval for replacement of the sensor anyway. After installing the new sensor the van ran great again. I think that the heater element in the old sensor may have gone out first since the van would sometimes stall when cold after running for a couple of minutes and then starting off from idle. This oxygen sensor monitor was a great investment. I got the monitor from Ken Lewis his website is: http://www.neksiwel.20m.com/index.html. He has several other vanagon goodies and many of you are probably familiar with him. Since our vehicles predate even OBD I but have sensors and an ECU this is a very useful monitor to have onboard. It fits nicely in one of the blanks on the dash below the emergency flasher switch. I may still need a set of plug wires soon but would have been out at least $60.00 if I had gone that route and it would not have fixed my problem. Getting the old sensor out was quite a chore and I added a bit more anti-seize than was already on the Bosch universal sensor so that next time I hopefully will not have to drop that section of the exhaust to mangle another sensor off. Busdepot had it for $49.95-best deal amongst the list vendors that we are all familiar with by at least $20.00. Just a bit of follow up and a plug for the O2 sensor monitor. Happy motoring listees.

David Clarkson 90 Westy

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