I am in VW campmobile hell!

lendaddy · 07-14-2004, 07:19 PM

I dropped of my '80 westy maybe 3+ weeks ago for a tune up, you know brakes, plugs tires, blah blah(it was running on three intermitantly). Anyway I gave them a week to get it done before a camping trip. They said no problem. A week later he tells me they can't get it to run well so they were going to do another compression test (first one was so so). Anyway this second test shows two pretty low cylinders and they reccomend a re-ring and valve job. I say live it up. Another week goes by and I call. "well your van is cali spec and the motor isn't. Hence the computer(huh?) isn't getting the signals it needs from the O2 sensor etc.. We recommend going to carbs. Is this right? Did they really have "brains" on these things in '80? Why can't he just put a O2 sensor on the existing exhaust? WTF really, am I gettin jerked around? Should I go with the carb? Sounds like BS to me.

island911 · 07-14-2004, 07:34 PM

sounds like BS to me.

I had a "brain" go bad on my 84 . . .got another from a junkyard, plug and play, no prob's.

By the way they are bouncing around over "the problem" I will suggest the biggest problem is with them.

ronin · 07-14-2004, 11:49 PM

have to agree with island on the BS. don't know what type of injection system your Westphalia came with, but methinks '80 had the L-Jetronic system with lambda sensor. are you the only owner of the car? had the engine ever been changed? still wouldn't make sense though, as I am assuming that the car ran fine during at least some portion of your ownership. whether the car is Cali spec or not, all L-Jetronics still ran with a lambda, so what they're saying doesn't make sense

john70t · 07-15-2004, 07:58 AM

Time to put down the foot and get the snout in the situation, that one doesn't sound right Lendaddy.
Schedule a time and have him walk you through his entire rational process: i.e. "I found misfiring because the non adjustable timing and fuel curves are ???, the engine/vin #'s show ??? according to this book, etc...) Any honest mechanic should be able to do that if asked politly.
What would the Cali version have different? Air injection, dist. recurve?

lendaddy · 07-15-2004, 08:06 AM

He claims it;s an emission thing(O2). The van ran great at startup and idle, but would occasionally drop a cylinder.

Superman · 07-15-2004, 08:35 AM

Steve Weiner knows a great deal about the Type I engines such as in the 914s. My 79 Rabbit had no computer or O2 sensor. My 84 Rabbit did. I liked the K-Basic system in the '79 better.

Len, conservatives are not allowed to drive VW busses, or even to be interested in them.

lendaddy · 07-15-2004, 08:37 AM

"Len, conservatives are not allowed to drive VW busses, or even to be interested in them."

lol, ya, I know. My buddies just shake their heads, I'm not normal

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

My guess is they don't know WTF they're doing, and the path of least resistance is to install carbs.

Incidently, I had a shop pull the exact same crap with me and my MFI 911 years ago. I ran, found a competent shop that fixed 'er right up.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Superman
Steve Weiner knows a great deal about the Type I engines such as in the 914s. My 79 Rabbit had no computer or O2 sensor. My 84 Rabbit did. I liked the K-Basic system in the '79 better.

Len, conservatives are not allowed to drive VW busses, or even to be interested in them.

914s and early Vanagons are type IV (4) VW engines, and I agree w/ the others that it is a lot easier and cheaper if the wrench knows the motors. Otherwise you are paying for on-the-job training. Maybe John Walker will see this thread?

And yes, Len sure does like them furreign cars.

lendaddy · 07-15-2004, 10:17 AM

"And yes, Len sure does like them furreign cars. "

Yep, American trucks, Foreign cars and SUV's. It is simply an attempt to break the US auto unions

I should call these guys today, havn't heard anything in over a week. Supposedly the guy is a former van specialist and trained the dealerships on them in the 70's/80's. Yea right.

lendaddy · 07-15-2004, 12:06 PM

Ha ha. Profiled. Reminds me of a funny story. I had my 930's windows tinted(ya I know), and a cop pulled me over in a fast food drive thru, no kidding! Anyway, he goes into this long spiel about how it's for the cops safety(which I understand) and says he may have to draw down on me if he can't see through the windows, again no kidding. My reply was, "well as long as you don't pull the trigger, we don't have a problem". He didn't care for that

Anyway he then says this will lead to me being pulled over more often to which I told him "that's fine, I'm not the guy you're looking for and I have nothing to hide, so live it up" He didn't care for that either. Anyway he handed me the R&R ticket and asked me if I was going to re-tint again, to which I said "most likely". And yet again he was oddly unimpressed

Now, I have a ton of respect for officers and my record was spotless till two weeks ago but pulling a guy over in a FF drive through for such a petty thing is asinine! Plus this is in my little home town which hasn't seen a serious crime in decades. Plus I was quite a bit younger & cockier. Anyway, I've been "profiled", never bothered me much

304065 · 07-15-2004, 01:42 PM

There's a bigger risk to you owning a VW van.

I recently sold my VW Eurovan. It was an OUTSTANDING tow vehicle: pulled my '71 and about 500 pounds of garbage all over the place, even over to Gingerman in your neck of the woods. 201 HP, 181 ft/lb torque, 201 cubic feet of interior volume and just the most aesthetically sound choice for towing a Porsche race car there could be.

But here's the trouble. Once you get into the VW van lifestyle, you never get out. When I tried to sell mine, the thing was about as liquid as shares of Enron. Every single response I got was from somebody who either had a VW van, or had owned one back in the heyday. I eventually sold it to a guy who had a 91 or something, his was rotting away, he wanted the newer one to replace his old one.

Here's my point: the only people who buy or sell VW vans are current or former VW van owners. If you unknowingly enter the club, you're in for life, unless you are fortunate enough to escape. The relatively late model year of mine was a factor, I think. If I'd owned a '60's era van, I'd be thinking about how to shoehorn in a 993 motor right about now.

But you're a lifer, Len, so I suppose the best advice is to learn up on L-Jet, or D-Jet, or whatever-jet . . .

Kevin Taylor · Kevin Taylor's Garage

Jokeswagon Does it agan.

K.T.
1973 911 E 2.4 MFI
1965 Devin - 1967 912 Power Plant