Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 15:19:29 PST
Reply-To: Matthew Wallenfang <mwallenf@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Matthew Wallenfang <mwallenf@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: 87 possible ignition problem
Content-Type: text/plain
Does anyone have any idea what's causing me and my Vanagon so
much
grief?
I have an 87 Vanagon that has an intermittent engine problem that
is a
significant player in our love/hate relationship. From time to
time
the engine begins to miss causing the tachometer to go to zero
and
then recover within a second. This happens at highway speeds and
around town causing a torque spike through the drive train that
makes
the van lurch forward. The last time it started I pulled over to
the
side of the road and wiggled every wire and connector I could
find
hoping to stop the skipping or cause it to occur. No luck.
The problem shows no preference for weather. It's happened on
cold
days, warm days and wet days. At times I think that it may be
induced by rough road but it occurs on perfectly smooth road and
then
may not occur on rough road. Once this problem starts the tach
can be
observed "hopping" even when the van is parked and I attempt to
maintain engine speed at 3000-4000 RPM.
Of course it prefers weekends when my local VW mechanic is
closed.
It typically starts within the first hour of a trip and doesn't
relent. I can get it home and then the next day it may be fine
or
only slightly affected. By the third day it shows no symptoms at
all.
When it first happened 2 years ago I tried a fuel injection
cleaner
while it was skipping and it had no affect. By the next day the
skipping had stopped. I noticed that the rotor and distributor
cap
had some corrosion so I changed them and the plugs.
Periodically I
continued to experience a single skip usually on rough road or on
bridge transitions.
My mechanic said that electrical problems can come and go with
Vanagons and that the rotor, distributor cap and plugs probably
had no
affect. He told me that there's a replacement cable that
connects to
the air flow sensor but he was reluctant to sell it to me since
he had
no confidence that it would solve the problem. One of his German
mechanics said that he tried the cable with no improvement. Only
after disconnecting the computer from the firewall and laying
down on
the floor did his Vanagon problem "go away." I also tried the
computer thing with no improvement.
Has anyone else experienced this problem and solved it?
Are there any measurements electrical or otherwise that can be
done to
locate the source of this problem?
Are there some other web sites that might be a better forum to
present
this problem?
I look forward to learning a solution.
Regards,
Matt
p.s. I apologise for any crummy formatting - I'm forwarding this
for a friend. Thanks i
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