Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 09:08:02 -0700
Reply-To: Brian Dipert <bdipert@PACBELL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Brian Dipert <bdipert@PACBELL.NET>
Subject: Re: Advice please
In-Reply-To: <NCBBLJAGEKNPLOFKAENJAEJLLAAA.bdipert@pacbell.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi folks, wanted to give you all some followup to my earlier posting below.
Last week we got Bertha into Kombi Haus, a Volkswagen repair shop down the
street from us. They put in the Bosch relay which many of you had suggested
to alleviate the hot-solenoid problem, and it's working like a charm. They
also discovered that when the prior owners had the EGR valve replaced, the
mechanic had apparently forgotten to also include the corresponding gasket.
This omission was causing the engine to run hotter than it should (vacuum
leak problems?).
Lil and I took Bertha to the Trinity Tribal Stomp
(www.trinitytribalstomp.com) last weekend. Most of the drive was a straight
shot up mostly-flat I5 to Redding. From there we went over a 3200' summit on
twisty highway 299 west, followed by a 3600' summit on equally curvy highway
3 south enroute to Hayfork. On I5 she didn't get above 230 degrees (55-60
mph)....heading up to both summits in mid-afternoon Friday she'd
occasionally poke above 260 degrees (at which point we'd pull over and take
a break to let things cool down) but nothing like the 300 degrees we'd seen
earlier. And she ran much cooler than that yesterday morning on the way back
home.
FYI ambient temperature Friday afternoon was around 95 degrees, on Sunday
morning it was probably around 70 degrees; I'm amazed at the amount of
difference this made in the engine temperatures we saw. I think our success
was a combination of more skillful driving (ie tightrope walking between
under-rev'ing and over-rev'ing) and the work that we had done to the engine,
plus a lighter overall load (this time we didn't have 150 lbs worth of two
dogs in the back, and we also didn't have full water tanks). We'll be more
carefully planning our trips in the future; I'm about to install topo map
software on my computer now! Thanks to all of you for your feedback; we've
tapped into an amazing Volkswagen enthusiast community for which we are most
appreciative
p.s...I also discovered the speed, gas mileage and engine temperature
benefits of drafting off 18-wheelers on this trip!
==============================
Brian Dipert
Technical Editor: Mass Storage, Memory, Multimedia, PC Core Logic and
Peripherals, and Programmable Logic
EDN Magazine: http://www.edn.com
5000 V Street
Sacramento, CA 95817
(916) 454-5242 (voice), (617) 558-4470 (fax)
mailto:bdipert@edn.com
Visit me at http://www.bdipert.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Dipert [mailto:bdipert@pacbell.net]
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 7:01 PM
Subject: Advice please
Well, Bertha our new-to-us '81 Adventurewagen, as of two weeks
ago, is certainly living up to her name.
Drove her from Sacramento up to Chico beginning just before noon
today (arrived in Chico at about 2PM), where we filled her up
with gas. She wouldn't start. Let her cool down for an hour; no
luck. Banged on the starter with a hammer....no luck. Towed to
the local VW dealer....mechanic gave the starter one tap with a
hammer, with the ignition key in the start position (key point?),
and she fired right up.
Normal highway oil temperature is 260 degrees (sensor in the
bottom of the engine....a temperature gauge is one of the
upgrades we had put in her right after the purchase). Climbing
out of Chico on highway 32, a moderately steep, somewhat long
grade, at 45-50 mph in 3rd gear....she hit 300 degrees quite
quickly and a tapping noise (rods?) started coming from the
engine compartment. Turned around right way and headed back down
the hill for home....temperature dropped back to 260...climbing
to 270 or so at red lights.
Back in the driveway at home......won't start again.
The oil temperature has me very very concerned. Simply a
combination of a steep grade in the middle of the afternoon in
the Sacramento Valley....or something more worrisome? Did I do
permanent damage to Bertha's engine (she 'sounds' normal now)? Is
the starter quirk 'normal' (Saint Muir's book seems to indicate
this) and do I therefore just need to keep a hammer handy...or do
I replace the starter, or do something else? My wife wants to
take Bertha back out in the morning, albeit to a more moderate
environment.....would this be totally nuts?
So many questions...any and all advice welcomed. Thanks in
advance! (and happy Labor Day weekend, all)
