Matthew-- Your stop light episodes sound too familiar. Unfortunately, it could be many things. Possibilities: grounds -- bad ground could easily do this (and many other wonderful and exciting things) -- check all of them afm -- air flow meter not giving proper signals to ecu -- cause could be sensor itself, connections, grounds, or you need the magical harness on it (harness only 'fixes' problem if shutting the engine off and restarting 'fixes' problem) vacuum leak -- would account for stop light problems, but probably wouldn't cause detectable surges while driving. On the 87's you're only talking about a foot or so of hose (and that's probably being generous) so if it's been a while, you might as well change them just for the sake of changing them -- consider it routine maintenance. O2 sensor -- try unplugging it (single wire is all that you need to unplug, I think, but you can unplug all 3 to be safe) -- if problem goes away, you've found the source. It's safe to drive with it unplugged until you have the opportunity to replace it. You WILL want to replace it as you'll be getting less than optimal fuel economy and performance with it unplugged. Coolant temp. sensor (the one that feeds ECU) -- $12 including o-ring gasket, simple to swap out yourself -- this wonderful little doo-dad will make your van run (if you can call it running) extremely poor when it malfunctions. Those are your most-likely candidates. Good Luck! Tonya 87 Vanagon GL Wolfs (still leaking a little oil, but better -- thanks ALL! I'm bringing it to the dealer next week for an oil change) 74 S. Beetle |
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