Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 18:23:21 -0600
Reply-To: "hkellogg@netdirect.net" <hkellogg@NETDIRECT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "hkellogg@netdirect.net" <hkellogg@NETDIRECT.NET>
Organization: netdirect.net
Subject: ECU Problems?
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Hello Folks!
Another new Westy list member with some questions for the masses.
I have a 85 Westy that I call Betty (as in the old Dentine
advertisement;“Hello Betty”). I have had it for three years and it has a
manual trans and 140,000 miles.
My problems started when I took it in for a tune up to a local garage.
It had been a long time and I thought that the maintenance was overdue.
The tune-up was completed and I drove it home with that satisfaction of
taking care of an old friend. The next morning it seemed to hesitate off
of a stop. Nothing dramatic but it seemed to “drop” on its nose on
acceleration. I took it back to the shop and after a 10 days I finally
went to pick it up. I figured that if they didn’t fix it in that time
they weren’t going to be able to do anything and I needed it for a trip.
They said that they needed it for another day as they thought that had
located the problem. They thought that it was the ECU.
I took the car anyway and started on the first leg of my journey
traveling about 250 miles without any problems. The next morning I
started out in the pouring rain. I started to lose power on
acceleration, forcing me to down shift until I was max'ed out at about
25 mph. It finally died and I looked in the engine compartment to see
that the cable for the ECU was not connected. I connected it and started
out but it never got much better. I limped home and took it to a VW shop
that assured me they could locate the problem. After extensive testing
they said that they thought it was the ECU. We located a rebuilt ECU on
the net, had it installed and I finally thought Betty was fixed. This
lasted three days and the power drop-off has returned.
Now to the questions... Would entering the ECU connection caused any
problems? Is it a possibility that the rebuild ECU is bad? I have
replaced the O2 sensor, could it be anything else. I really like this
vehicle but she is starting to test my patience.
Hans P. Kellogg
Muncie, IN
85 Westy “Betty”
