Don't feel too bad, Greg. Right now, my wife's 2003 Mitsu has the air bag light on. My daughters 1998 New Beetle also has its air bag light on, for the second time in just over a year. Last air bag light on the new Beetle cost me $503.00. My 1985 Westy? No warning lights on at all!! Jeff

Jeff Stewart

----- "Greg Potts" <greg@POTTSFAMILY.CA> wrote:

Oh the joys of adding another 20-something year old vehicle to the fleet.

I picked up my recently acquired 1988 Vanagon Wolfsburg at the emissions
test shop this afternoon and it drove really well. It failed initially
but passed with flying colours once a fresh cat was installed.

After dinner Colleen and I drove back to fetch the 87 vanagon and
halfway there the engine suddenly fell to pieces. Bogging and sputtering
and running like crap. Figured it had to be the fuel pump, until I
switched the ignition off and on again and it totally recovered for
about 30 seconds. Reset the ignition again and same thing... 30 seconds
of reprieve. OK, thinks I; maybe it's a bad AFM. (ie, vanagon syndrome)
I have a spare AFM in the other van, so I figured I'd try swapping that
in when I get there.

When we arrive at the other vanagon I listen to the engine for a moment,
and the exhaust is just a little more ragged than I remembered it being
earlier. Looking underneath I see that the O2 sensor has come apart. I
guess it didn't swap from one cat to the other without some stress. At
least it held up well enough to survive the driveclean testing.

So I unplugged the sensor and it drove home perfectly. Colleen told me
that it's the nicest vehicle she's had yet.

Frank, if you're still reading, please order me an O2 sensor for local
pickup, THANKS!

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario Canada
197x Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
1987 Wolfsburg Weekender Hardtop
www.pottsfamily.ca

BUSES OF THE CORN - AUGUST 13-15th, 2010
www.busesofthecorn.ca