Date:         Tue, 15 Nov 94 10:23:50 PST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Kautz <dkautz@hpsidms1.sid.hp.com>
Subject:      Re: More questions on my '85

> 
> 	Donald Baxter wonders:
> 
> > When the engine is cold on this '85, the idle is about 900-1000 RPM.  
> > When warmed up to normal operating temperature the idle increases to 
> > 1400-1600 RPM.  The van also seems to be getting not so good gas 
> > mileage--not sure of the figures (and in fact, I don't know how much the 
> > tank really holds) but in 90 miles of driving, I have used 1/2 tank 
> > according to the fuel gauge.
> 
> 	Don, 1400-1600 rpm is *WAY* too fast for idle! I'd suspect your
> idle enrichment is on all the time, or the mixture is mis-adjusted.
> There is a third, more illusive problem, which I saw on a Rabbit. The
> O2 Sensor is fail-deadly- on the waterpumper inline-four, a bad O2 sensor
> will drive the K-Jetronic system to full-rich, which will eventually
> cause the poor catalytic converter to melt, giving one a truely wierd
> set of symptoms to troubleshoot.
> 
> 	BTW, any excessive enrichment will have some effect on the cat,
> if you have one- it tries to burn the extra gas.
> 
> 	Bill
> 
>
A co-worker of mine had the same thing happen on his '81 Westfalia, with the
California version of L-Jetronic. The O2 sensor failed (he ignored the light
prompting him to change it) and his Catalytic converter "loaded up". The 
symptoms were a smooth running, good sounding bus with a top speed of about
50 mph. 


Dave Kautz