My HUGE mistake - I was referencing the mass airflow sensor.

And no, I would not carry a spare ECU - I never did & still don't for my Mercedes, even the ones past 300,000 miles..

Thanks, Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of mark drillock
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 9:48 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Now Preventative Maintenance, Was Do U carry spare ECU?

I doubt you meant to say to open up the ECU regularly to inspect for wear. No moving parts in there to see.

It is a fine theory to say replace things in advance of their failure but experience shows that the replacement parts are often what fails these days. Whether that is due to declining parts quality or lack of workmanship in the replacing, I'd say some of both.

Mark

Tom Hargrave wrote:
> I quit carrying spares&  tool boxes over 20 years ago.......................
>
> Your ECU should fall in the inspect&  repair / replace category. Disassemble it once every 10K miles&  look at the wear stripe in the carbon. If it shows a lot of wear then relocate the wiper BEFORE IT FAILS. If you don't do this then you are "planning to fail" like I used to do 20 something years ago.
>
> This may seem like a lot of work but it's nice to know that you can take off on a long trip in a vehicle with over 200,000 miles on the clock and expect to arrive at the other end with no issues.
>