On Sat, 1 May 1999, Eckie Prater wrote:

> >Recap: I was experiencing a stalling problem when the engine was warm and
> >dropped to idle from running speed.  It was also difficult to restart.
> >In addition, I was experiencing a lackluster performance overall, lots of
> >'hiccupping' (which I now know as 'missing') and generally slovenly
> >acceleration.
>
> My 82 air cooled had the same symptoms as above.
> I think it is one of the reasons the PO wanted to sell it.
> It had the tune up and a Petronics point replace module installed.
> Guess what?  If the dip stick was just a little loose in the dip tube
> air sucked into the engine case.  Ran like a big vacuum leak.
> If you push the dip stick in to the seal, problem solved.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out why a loose dipstick would cause
the engine to run poorly, and I can't.  I frequenly find my dipstick tube
out slightly and I've never noticed and poor performance when it's that
way, or any improvement when I push it back in.

An air leak in the FI system can give you running problems for sure, but
the dipstick tube just opens into the case, so it's not the same thing.

Anybody have any rational explainations?

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Tom Young               young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA  94549    '81 Vanagon
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