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Date:         Fri, 24 Dec 1999 08:31:59 -0800
Reply-To:     "Buettner, Peter" <PGB@DOLBY.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Buettner, Peter" <PGB@DOLBY.COM>
Subject:      Re: Digitool saves the day
Comments: To: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Comments: cc: "Sylvia Buettner (E-mail)" <monkey@onemail.com>,
          "Steve Schwenk (E-mail)" <sxs@concentric.net>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

I'd like to second Mark's post and extend a big THANKS to Darrell for making this tool. Just imagine the nightmare. Stranded in the middle of the Mexican desert. The next tow truck 200 miles away. The next garage that know anything about Vanagons ??? miles away. Luckily, between Mark and I we had everything we needed to locate and fix the problem.

Darrell, please let me know how I can get a Digitool myself and what it takes to hook it up to the ECU.

Many thanks and Happy Holidays to all on the list!

Peter Buettner

-----Original Message----- From: Mark Drillock [mailto:drillock@EARTHLINK.NET] Sent: Friday, December 24, 1999 6:25 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Digitool saves the day

Hi Darrell. Thank you for sending me the Digitool. It really paid for itself last month in Baja. We were traveling with our friends Peter and his wife and daughter when Peter's Vanagon Syncro up and died in the middle of nowhere 500 miles south of the border. The road was narrow and there was no shoulder so he was stuck blocking half the road. His engine had just stopped and would not restart. We hooked up my Digitool and it was immediately obvious that it was an electrical problem as the Digitool showed NO POWER to the ECU. We got out the Bentley, voltmeter, and hat pin and soon discovered a bad wire to the ECU control relay in the engine compartment. We replaced a short section of wire to the relay box and the engine started right up. We were stopped less than an hour thanks in large part to your invention.

Mark Drillock

Darrell Boehler wrote: > > Hi Woody, > Thanks for your purchase and here is some information about your new > digitool. I post it to all because the digitool displays nothing that is not > available to someone with a meter and a hat pin to stick in the desired wire > one needs to observe. > > The temp1 sensor lives inside the afm and measures the air temp. > Temp2 measures the coolant temperature and lives in the thermostat > housing. > o2 sensor lives in the exhaust before the catalytic converter. > The afm wiper voltage is developed inside the afm by the wiper / > resistor. > > PWR led indicates the ecu has battery power. > STR led indicates the starter solenoid is being told to energize. > FP led indicates the fuel pump relay is being energized by the ecu. > TS led indicates the throttle valve / butterfly is at idle or full > throttle. > Coil led indicates the coil is being pulsed by the distributor and ignition > module digijet and by the distributor ecu on vanagon digifant. > Fi led indicates the ecu is pulsing the injector. > ...... > You mention the digitool indicates voltage and not resistance of various > sensors as the bentley suggests. Resistance is an ok thing and that is the > easiest way to check the various sensors with out a digitool. However with > the digitool the voltage readings are displayed with the flip of a switch. > The ecu makes decisions based on the voltage it receives from the sensors. > The digitool is displaying live data going to and from the ecu allowing you > to notice anomalies dynamically as they happen, much better imho. Rant mode > off. > Merry Christmas vanagons and their people also. > Darrell Boehler > Makanda Illinois


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