A few years ago in my "88 Wolfsburg I was on the road and mine began
stumbling.  I pulled into a VW mechanic and he sold me a static diverter which
dirverted stray electrical charges from the air meter I believe. The real
kicker was that it was sold just as a normal VW part, (should have been part of
a recall).  Anyway this 'wire harness' cost about $100 and took a chunk out of
my road burrito budget , I was really pi**ed.  It solved my problem though.

Mike G.

'87 Syncaru

harald_nancy wrote:

> Jeffrey,
> Your post was a good description of what happened to
> our '90 westy last time we drove to California from
> Washington state.
> Prior to entering California, our vanagon ran perfectly.
> As soon as we entered California, the vanagon made a
> couple of stumbles, but then ran ok again.
>  By the time we got to Death Valley, the stumbling
> became totally annoying, and sometimes the engine
> would almost stop running, even backfiring.
> But then it would always start up again, and run ok
> for awhile.
> The vanagon always runs perfectly up here in Washington
>  and Oregon on both mountains and flat, heat and cold.
>  I was never able to duplicate the stumblings here.
> I spent 3 whole days in Death Valley, trying to
> figure out what was wrong with the vanagon.
> Things I tried: cleaned all grounds and connectors,
> checked ignition switch, interchanged a fuel pump with
> a spare that I had with me, changed the fuel filter,
> short-circuited fuel pump relay. I even bought a
> new distributor in a San Bernadino VW dealership, since
>  one mechanic thought it was the Hall sensor.
> (the '90 westy has the hall sensor inside the distributor.)
> Changed spark plugs, distributor cap, and the vanagon
> has an almost new AFM.
> One theory was that maybe it was a clogged carbon cannister,
> from constant topping off with gasoline.
> Or maybe a vacuum in the gas tank?
> So I drove without the gas cap for a bit.
> Every time I did something, it seemed like I fixed it, because the
> vanagon would run well again for a time.
> But then later, the stumbling would start all over again.
> We decided to drive it back home to Washington state,
> despite the stumbling.
> When we reentered Oregon, the vanagon ran
> perfectly again, and has ever since up here.
> Some wild guesses:
> 1) my westy doesn't "like" California
> 2) Static buildup on the afm.
> 3) Mtbe, gas additive in California gasoline.
> 4) Ecu was getting "warm", perhaps bad solder connection in ecu.
> I put the capacitor in the AFM now, and sometime I'll have to take
> another trip to California to test it. How about a 1,000 mile test drive?
> Harald
> '90 westy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeffrey R" <Oxroad@aol.com>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 10:30 PM
> Subject: SoCal, Heat, Condensation, & Gasoline?
>
> > I'm fairly newly relocated to Burbank, CA in the SanFernando Valley (6
> > months). I'm wondering if a problem with my bus can be due to climate
> > conditions and if there's an easy solution.
> >
> > The problem:
> >
> > Occasionally and very sporatically my bus will stumble as if for a moment
> > it's getting no fuel. Sometimes I'll be cruising at 3,000 RPMs and just
> get a
> > slight stumble as if I've taken my foot off the gas pedal momentarily. ( I
> > have a 4 speed manual trans). Sometime maybe with this scenario the RPMs