No, actually, I'm not sure at all about the condition of the O2 sensor.

Likewise with the distributor and hall effect sensor that Bob Donalds
and others have mentioned.

This part of vanagon troubleshooting is my weak point, in that I have
had not one minute of trouble out of the engine, other than leaking
headgaskets, in 215000 miles. Now, I find that the car idles high and
there's this cutting out problem. I can't verify when the last sensor
was put in because that, of all things, is missing from my records,
and though it's something I'd do myself today I didn't do it that
time. I'm guessing is was at about 170000 miles. I'm not experiencing
bad mileage, either, or bad running.

What's the process to find out?

Jim

On Feb 9, 2007, at 8:21 AM, Tom Forhan wrote:

> Are you sure the O2 sensor is good? This really sounds
> like my syncro's beaviour with a bad sensor.
> Essentially the sensor is cut out of the circuit
> during warmup, so it runs fine on startup, but then
> bad things happen once the computer gets out of the
> startup mode.
>
> Just a thought...
>
> Tom F.
>
>
> --- Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET> wrote:
>
>> A month or more ago I had a weird cutting out
>> problem where the car,
>> mostly after sitting cold, would run OK for half a
>> mile or so and
>> then cut out, with the tach needle falling to zero,
>> and then catching
>> almost immediately. Always happens on deceleration,
>> or so it seems
>> (maybe because half a mile from my house, any
>> direction, there's
>> something to decelerate for).
>>
>> A few times it has not immediately caught after
>> failing. I have
>> learned to immediately jiggle the key, but have no
>> way of knowing if
>> this is causing the engine to catch or if it is some
>> mumbo jumbo I
>> have developed that I think is working. This has
>> happened four or
>> five times recently. Twice the car has died and
>> taken several minutes
>> to restart. I'm wondering if it could be the
>> mechanical part of the
>> switch getting sloppy. I notice that my annoying
>> key-in-the-lock
>> chime happens intermittently, sometimes not at all.
>>
>> Anybody had this happen, where the mechanical part
>> of the lock won't
>> turn the electrical part far enough?
>>
>> Jim
>>
>
>
>
>
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