On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 5:38 PM, Greg Potts <greg@pottsfamily.ca> wrote:
>
> Hi Volks,
>
> A couple of times in the past two months I've had stutters at highway
> speed that remind me of the time the coil went bad in my baywindow
> camper. And when it happened last week I just happened to be looking at
> the tach; and watched it spike briefly towards zero. Definitely an
> ignition event rather than fuel delivery.
>
> This morning it was raining on the way into work, and it happened twice.
> �And then again later in the morning on my way to a service call. The
> first two times it happened the engine died for 2-3 seconds, and the
> tach was flatlined even though the engine was still turning. The third
> time was just a short blip, more like when I first saw the problem.
>
> I suspect the coil or the hall sensor; though Mark Dearing at Salem
> Import suggested it could also be the ECU.
>
> At work this afternoon I took a close look at the engine compartment,
> and when I checked the coil wire going into the distributor cap was
> sitting about 1/2" high on the post. I pushed it down flush on the cap
> and since then (35-40 miles) the problem hasn't recurred.
>
> So what do you'all think? Was it just a loose plug wire, or are there
> deeper issues lurking?
>
>
>

Did you feel it kind of "click" into place when you pushed it down?

Regardless, my vote is "yes". Likely the wire from coil to cap was
making a poor connection.

--
Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"

http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/

http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines