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Date:         Tue, 19 Dec 1995 21:38:12 -0500 (EST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ringo@spike.aerodyne.com (Chris Getschow)
Subject:      Re: Cold-Starting Problem

Jesse Taylor (jtaylor@ccnet.com) wrote -

> I'm having a problem with an '85 Vanagon that I was hoping someone on > the list could help me with. > > This particular model has no cold-start switch. Starting it in warm > weather is no problem at all. But whenever the weather drops to about 50 > degrees or lower, the van will not start. The starter turns over, but > the engine will not engage. The engine gives the impression that it is > having trouble getting fuel. Once the van has been started...even if the > van continues to be cold and cuts off if you don't give it a lot of > gas...it will continue to start. It seems as if once the fuel begins to > flow it will continue to flow, almost as if there is some pump-priming > mechanism.

This sounds mighty familiar, and it gets even worse below 10 degrees... When this happened to my '85 I wound up replacing the fuel pump and that took care of the initial start problem. However, the van still ran like s**t until it warmed up and today it finally sputtered, steadily lost power, and died on the freeway (when warm!). Since there's a nasty snowstorm bearing down on us here in New England I didn't want to leave the bus out there to be impounded, buried, bashed in by a snowplow, or any other horrible thing like that - so I had it (gasp!) towed to a (double gasp!) VW dealer. The mechanic there found that the fuel pressure regulator was allowing the system to run to over 100psi (it's supposed to be 28). That would indicate a problem, I think. I'm wondering if this trashed my first fuel pump.

I'd slap a fuel pressure gauge on there (there's a convenient fitting right in the middle rear of the engine compartment just for this purpose) and see what you get.

Of course we all know that, like the common cold, there are many potential root causes for the same set of symptoms. This one's easy to check, though. Good luck.

-cg

--- Chris Getschow (ringo@spike.aerodyne.com) '85 Vanagon GL


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