Date:         Wed, 04 May 94 12:40:50 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Gas spillage & other oddities

On Wed, 4 May 94 12:17:34 CDT Adam Ware said:
... bunch of stuff deleted ....
>kind of hits low rpms for a gear, usually 3rd and 2nd, but this has
>happened out of the blue a few times.  Anyway it will suddenly switch to
>its other personality: it will putter and cough in 1st and then I shift
>to second and give it some gas and... nothing happens, it coughs a little
>and smoke puffs out with each cough, its like the car is out of gas... I
>have found that at this point the best thing to do is pull over turn off
>the car and swear at it for 30 seconds and then it starts back up in its
>good personality. I figure this is some problem with my fuel line or fuel
>injector? but i know little about engines so if anyone knows whats up
>please help me out

this sounds like a couple of possible problems to me: since yours is an 86,
can you find out if that recall about replacing the fuel tank was ever done
on your car?? they changed the fuel pickup inside the tank ... and it sounds
like your car is having a problem picking up fuel when the level gets low.

the other possibilities are the fuel filter is clogged and/or the fuel
pressure regulator is not working right (the little round gizmo up in the
engine compartment,  where three fuel lines come together).

>now for this dilema:
>> guess from the size of puddle left that 8-10oz spilled over.  No gas came
>> out of the filler neck.  The only other time I have filled up I was on the
>> other side of the pumps so I was pumping gas up hill instead of down and
>> this did not happen.
>> Is this a common experience?
>
>for me it sure is, I have to crouch down and put my ear right by the tank
>to liseten for when it is almost full or it will burp out a about a 1/4
>gallon all over the car and the ground, it sucks I can't wash my
>windsheild or go the bathroom while I'm filling up :-)
>what can ya do?

sounds like the vent hoses need replacing or the fuel gauge sender gasket
is flaky.  if a dealer did the recall on the fuel tank (years ago), it is
quite possible that that dealer (like mine here locally) screwed up the
process and it has been leaking like that ever since. i'd almost bet that
you are NOT the original owner, and that this is the case. the local dealer
'claimed' that they left the gasket off ... my bet is that that tried to
re-use the old gasket (and were gonna charge vw for a new one on the warranty
repair charges), and it didn't work.

i'll send you the recall notice so you can look around your door jams and
see if you see the recall sticker. well, i'll post it to the list.

joel