Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2014 19:56:53 -1000
Reply-To: "SDF ( aka ;jim lahey' - Scott )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "SDF ( aka ;jim lahey' - Scott )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Organization: Cosmic Reminders
Subject: Re: 88GL - Intermittent Failure to Start Continues
In-Reply-To: <5394DC8C.8080009@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
The Temp Sensor II is not an expensive part,
so even if not super suspect, if you can convince yourself it could
cause the symptom you're having , it's worth trying a good one.,
the vary in quality from scary inexpensive to decent ..
I recommend the one Van Cafe sells.
you should always have a spare one of those on hand anyway.
Pay particular attention the connections to it . Something dodgey there
can cause all kinds of weirdness and be hard to track down or identify.
those tests on coil and hall sender are not very difinitive IMO.
I wouldn't dream of not having a know-good distributor on hand to try.
with high miles the hall sender is suspect for sure.
I have fixed intermittant 2.1 wbxr no-start by installing a new good
german hall sender.
coil..
coils are 'nebulous' to me.
I have never seen one that was 'flat out of spec' or 'dead' ...
on a few occasioons, with a coil that is 25 yrs old and has fired 99
jillion million times..
I just could tell it was well due.
I did see one inline four in a vanagon with a points distributor .
and it would just 'shut off' while idling.
a new coil fixed that one ...like black and white ..
but that was a rare case.
I also would not be without a fuel pressure gauge for testing ..
sometimes I just leave on on until 'the whole saga' if over.
this is the process...
be clear what the symtom is.
come up with theories that match the symtom..
then TEST ....say test fuel pressure ..or run with a timing light
showing where you can see it ...
so you can catch if ignition goes out in flight ..
or whatever..
without some TEST METHODS to go with your 'theories that match the
symptom '..
you are just guessing wildly ..
which is what a lot of shop do often actually .
without a pretty full set of known-good units to try ..
unless you have a clear test that says X part is bad ..
you're still just guessing.
ya gotta have test methods .
and understand how the system works ..which is not that complicated at
all really.
Scott
On 6/8/2014 11:58 AM, JRodgers wrote:
> I'm still dealing with this failure to start issue, even though engine
> turns well.
>
> When I tested power on the Hall sender - it was good.
>
> When I tested ignition control and the coil - both appeared good.
>
> Yet still it has times when it fails to start after a shutdown.
>
> I have noticed a couple of times that there was an after fire or two or
> three. Don't think it was a back fire - that would have been back up
> through the intake system. But in any case - it would not start. But the
> after fire makes me suspicious of a temp II problem.
>
> Anyone care to weigh in on this? I'm down to the point of starting to
> replace parts without knowing which part is actually at fault. That gets
> expensive.
>
> One last thing - is the Vanagon temp II sensor a common sensor part to
> other VW's.
>
> Thanks,
>
> John
>
