Date:         Thu, 1 Jul 1999 02:30:00 PDT
Reply-To:     mlichtenberger@HOTMAIL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Michael Lichtenberger <mlichtenberger@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      '89 Vanagon 10 years of Curiosities and Observations
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Well where should I start. I have been very happy with my Vanagon over the
years, she has never left me stranded (ok once but it was basically in my
own driveway) in our 10 year relationship. I have, however, noticed a few
curious things.

1) She seems to have the bucking at low speed which is common in these
vehicles. I have the little dealer capacitor patch but it never fully cured
the problem. I have also done the Debbie cleaning fix and replaced the
little switch under the throttle body. Is there anything else to do or
should I just live with it for another 10+ years?

2) I too have experienced the miss-that-turns-into-a-stall condition that is
cured by simply restarting the engine. Most of the times this has happened
when driving in mountainous areas, usually starting the van at a higher
altitude and descending to a much lower one. I had surmised that there was
an air pressure sensor that set the mixture for that altitude and as I
descended, the mixture kept leaning out until it fell out of the correctable
range of the FI. Restarting the engine reset the computer and all was well.

Some people have claimed that the Hall sender was the culprit for this
condition. Is it, and what is the mechanism of failure?


3) Right now my problem is that I seem to have no high idle on cold start
anymore. The engine used to catch on the very first rotation of the crank
and idle at 1000+ rpm for the first 10 sec to 30 sec then slowly return to
the proper idle. Now I have to crank it for a couple of seconds and when it
does catch it runs very tenuously, acting as if it wants to die. Sometimes
it will die and I have to crank it even longer, feathering the gas pedal to
give enough gas to start again. It also never seems to act like is is fully
warmed up and running smoothly. It stumbles away from a stop (again with the
pedal feathering to keep it running) except now it bogs down if you give it
too much gas and only accelerates when you find the "sweet spot" with the
gas pedal.

By the way, this condition is intermittent and totally unreproduceable at my
mechanic's place. It seems to happen on damp nights more than any other
time, but has happened in all temps, humidity and seasons.


4) Gas quality seems to have a big effect on the tractibility of the
vanagon.

5) I have whistles from air leaks at the top of the door frames. Any good
remedy besides playing with the heating and ventilation controls. I believe
the whistles come form an excess of air pressure forcing its way OUT.


Thanks for the help,
This list is such a great thing.


Mike
'89 Carat @ 175k


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