Not always. Disconnecting the sensor and letting the engine run slightly
rich can mask a real issue such as a cylinder with a lean miss condition or
some other cylinder balance problem.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jack Botts
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2015 9:08 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: 85 GL. 1.9 Woes- like whoa, won't go....

 Disconnect the O2 sensor and try it.  If it runs smoother....bad O2

________________________________________
I wasn't going to reply until I saw this post because, altho' my symptoms
were similar, I connected my driving in wet conditions to the problem
described.

During what turned out to be an adventure (or excruciatingly horrible
experience -- my wife's opinion), we were about 150 miles from our home in
Columbia, MO, when the engine started "cutting out"; it would just quit. No
pattern to the quitting, so hard to relate to any conditions I had knowledge
of. I found that I could depress the clutch (of course), key off, key to
start and sail on 'til quit, then repeat procedure. My BW put up with this
for a while, then, after a couple of jerks and raggedy re-starts, she would
have no more, her stress level was sky high, and the ride home was in the
seat of a roll-back with '86 Westy behind us. Turns out that the wires to
the not-even-previously-connected O2 Sensor were dangling, and, apparently
the wet conditions enhanced the chances of the wire contacting some other
metal part of the car. This may or may not be a logical explanation for the
symptoms, but tying up the still-disconnected wires to the O2 sensor seemed
to keep the symptoms from returning. This was on '86 #2, and #3 has Sensor
connected as God and VW intended.

Jack Botts

'86 Vanagon Westy Weekender (#3)

'14 Passat TDI (sigh)