O2 was first on my list, but how about the cat?
Sounds like it really plugged up.
I've got a buddy in Guaymas that could possibly help;
pmail for his info.
 Good luck guys!
JC...

On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:28 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>wrote:

> Sounds like an O2 sensor or wiring issue.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Mister Tom
> Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 6:43 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Help in Mexico?
>
> Just a shot, but have friends in Mexico having problems with their '87 wbx.
>
> They are in hermosillo, sonora. I said I would ask about any mechanic help
> that might be near.
>
> Here's a bit of the email she sent me. She is trying to join the list.
> She's
> "Jes".
>
>
>     the main symptom is that while driving and stepping on the gas, we
> aren't accelerating.  there were a couple of things from back when we were
> in portland that i assume are connected.  we noticed that there would be
> this hiccup thing that would happen, like a lurch when accelerating, and
> this happened usually right after filling up the gas tank and usually in
> 4th
> gear.  then it would go away.  additionally, there was an idle issue where
> occasionally we would be sitting in neutral and the idle would just go up
> and down, past 3 rpms and just run real high for a while.  and then the
> next
> time we started the motor it would have stopped.  i don't know if that is
> connected but definitely something i've noticed.
>     back to our most recent driving issues with the non-acceleration; we
> were also burning a lot of gas, as in black smoke and a tank lasting us 1/2
> as long as it usually does.  we took it to a mechanic where they surmised
> the compression was really low (about 25 when it should be about 45, i
> believe?) and we had to drive it to a big enough town that had mechanics
> with more ideas and possibly parts.  there was that hiccup i mentioned
> before that would happen before the black smoke would burst out of the
> muffler.  also, after driving for a while, even in low gear it would hiccup
> and barely have enough power to get going.  i had to really balance out the
> gas and clutch to get enough gas where it needed to go, it seems like to
> me.
> we had the air mass flow sensor cleaned out, the fuel injectors cleaned out
> and the coolant and all that checked, as eventually the temperature light
> was flashing (i imagine from burning all that gas).  then it was still
> doing
> the same thing so we replaced the air mass flow sensor.  now it is still
> doing the same thing and when we opened it up again today, there was oil in
> the air sensor.  the oil for the motor was not low but it was still going
> where it's not wanted.  we got that cleaned out and the current diagnosis
> is
> that the respiration of the motor is not working properly.
>
>
>
>
> I'll forward any inputs I receive to her.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom Salicos
> '87 Syncro Westy EG-33
>