Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1998 10:39:46 -0400
Reply-To:     Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Subject:      oil leak diagnosed and fixed (oil sensor)
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The oil leak manifested itself as a spray that covered the rear of the van
going up the highway. Very alarming.

I could not find the leak, as it was slightly to the left of center of the
engine, and toward the far rear.

I finally noticed an oil pressure sensor down there in that region and
searched the archives. Sure enough, several others had reported oil leaks
through the high pressure oil sensor. So I went to work to change it. The
sensor is at the craziest position behind the muffler and it is a pain to
remove because you have to fold the engine splash tin backwards to get
access to it. Luckily I was changing the muffler at the same time, so I was
able to do the job. An ordinary Sears 12 point 24mm socket just barely gets
the thing on or off.

Interestingly, there appears to be nothing wrong with the sensor that I
took off the engine. But changing the sensor repaired the leak.



________________________________________________________
Derek Drew                              New York, NY & Washington, DC
drew@interport.net
'90 Syncro Westfalia...
...seen off-road at http://www.tiu.net/~des/vw/drew/index.html
         Note: most valuable Vanagon site on the planet (for owners) is
         http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=vanagon