Date:         Wed, 17 Apr 1996 20:53:47 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Ben Jaffe <bjaffe@reed.edu>
Subject:      '85 Vanagon..Running rich/poor mileage ??


Hello all...

I used to read this list on a regular basis, but it's getting to be finals
time around here, so I haven't been able to keep up.  Anyway...I've got an
'85 Vanagon that's getting really poor mileage.  this same scenario
happened to me about a month ago.  My mileage was sooo low then (6-8 mpg)
that I thought that I had a fuel leak!  Well..I checked everything out,
but I couldn't figure it out...so I ended up bringing it in, and it turned
out that Temp Sensor II (coolant temp.) was shot.  I got that replaced and
mileage went back up to the 20 mpg region and my plugs were no longer
black.  Now I'm back again with black plugs (NOT oily) and horrible
mileage.  I checked Temp. Sensor II against Bentley's graphs and I got
about 25 C cold ( which seems reasonable) and about 87 C after it was
operating temp.  (which also seems reasonable).  I'm not really sure where
to go from here.  I haven't really noticed any power loss...the beast is
just inhaling my expensive ($1.36/gallon) Oregon gasoline.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I should look?  Is it
possible that there is some sort of cold-start idle enrichment thing that
is not closing or turning off?  I'm not all that familiar with working on
my Digijet FI system, but the Bentley Manual definitely makes it helpful.

Any help on where to start and what to check would be greatly appreciated.
I'd really like to get this going myself rather than shell out the $45-50
diagnostic fee that seems pretty standard around here.

E-mail works best for me, as I only occasionally have chance to check the
web archives.

Thanks for all the help (in advance),

Ben


P.S.-  Where do you take your Vanagon when you're stuck in PDX?  I've had
pretty good experiences at the VW yard up around 150th and Foster
(Quantum Enterprizes).