

| Subject: | running rich/low power |
| From: | Aaron McKay |
| Date: | Sat, 27 Nov 1999 18:15:47 -0800 |
It is with mixed emotions that I write this list again, as I dropped this list when summer vacation started, because I would be offline all summer, and now school is making it very hard for me to do much that is computer related. Now that my van is having a very elusive problem, I need your guys's help. My Van is an '85 GL( with the 1.9L and 4sp) which seems to run and idle fine when I'm off at college, where it is very dry most of the time. Then I come home where it rains much of the time, and after half an hour to an hour of driving in the rain, my van starts to hesitate, but not die, especially gets bad when after accelerating to speed, and then letting off the trottle to maintain speed. Sometimes while accelerating, the van seems to either loose or gain power, and it doesn't really seem to be related to which RPM I'm running at, so this varying power happens throughout the RPM range, and throttle range. Another thing, with the van parked, I can bring the engine up to an idle speed of anything, lets use 3000, and then with the throttle constant, the engine clears up and gains another 600 - 800 RPM. And at a an idle, when it is running rough, the engine is also running very rich (my dad said I smelled like raw gas when I came indoors after working on it, and I toutched no gasoline). Needless to say, my gas mileage has gone down the tube, now I get 10 - 14 MPG. I have owned this van for 2-3 years mow, so I know this is not right. Things that I have done so far: new cap, rotor, spark plug wires/connectors, checked spark plugs, and they looked normal and consistant throughout the four cylinders, VW's $150 capacitor band-aid on the AFM harness, and a brand new O2 sensor. I apologise for any weird format that this letter may be in, because I am telneting into my college's server which is using PINE. Please P-mail me back soon, as I plan on leaving around 1:30 PM PST tomorrow. Thank you all very much for your support and answers. -Aaron McKay '85 GL "Darle" Student in Mechanical engineering at Oregon Institute of Technology mckayaa@oit.edu
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