Hi Cecil,

Unfortunately, you are dealing with technicians who are trained to
replace modules rather than repair your van. The FI system in the
vanagon is not rocket science, most faults can be diagnosed with a
fuel pressure gauge, vacuum gauge and trouble light. You need to have
the Bentley manual, and be willing to invest the time to read and
understand it.

And that's the problem: The vanagon is not a "normal" car as a modern
mechanic understands it. The engine is at the wrong end, for crying
out loud!

Throwing parts at a problem is a good way to waste hundreds of
dollars and many hours of time without coming any closer to the
problem. The best solution will come from reading the manual and
working your way through the symptom charts to come to a resolution
in a quick and cost-effective manner.

Your throttle position switch (TPS) might be bad, but it won't
prevent the van from starting. That is MUCH more likely to be a
result of a vacuum leak or a wiring problem inadvertently caused by
the work on the TPS. The rich running condition initially detected is
more likely due to a bad O2 sensor or a bad fuel pressure regulator
than to the TPS.

A lot of mechanics won't want to take the time and invest the effort
to learn how to work on a vanagon; their business is already
profitable as-is and the return on investment just isn't there. You
may want to start shopping around for a seasoned vanagon mechanic to
avoid paying someone to learn on your van in the future. There's a
great list of shop reviews on Larry Chase's website at http://
www.roadhaus.com/shops.php

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973/74/77/79 Westfakia "Bob The Tomato
www.pottsfamily.ca
www.busesofthecorn.com

On 18-Oct-07, at 8:41 AM, Eastman, Cecil @ ELM wrote:

> You're right: they chose the
> low-hanging fruit, but at least it was cheap stuff and they didn't
> do any
> harm by going into stuff for which they had no experience.  I use
> these guys
> for our "normal" car and they do well enough.