The engine is still running pretty smoothly, though it has had two hard-to-start-when-hot incidents. We filled the gas tank for the first time earlier this week, and I added a dose of Techron fuel system cleaner in case we still have any sticky injectors. I plan to try to run the MAF-cleaning test this weekend. No matter the outcome, we're hoping to take the vanagon on a round-trip 600-mile run on Monday/Tuesday, but we may change our mind, because the weather has been beautiful late spring temperatures, and the motorcycle beckons.
I'm afraid there's a small leak in the rear heater core. After trying to extract the heater core during the last round of cooling system connecting, I found, via a stepwise disassembly, that you must remove its cover, then remove the front skirtboard, then pull up the rug and padding, then finally find out that you can't actually remove anything more unless you remove the entire rear seat and its support structure. So, I threw in the towel and put everything back together, after blotting up the tiny bit of coolant that I found underneath the heater. However, it still smells whenever we turn it on. Unless the leakage increases to a noticeable amount we'll live with it. I've seen on another site that other users have complained of this component developing leaks in its core.
Speaking of heaters, we've had a problem completely turning off the front heater. No matter how hard one shuts off the temp lever, the air blows out slightly warm once the engine warms up. My suspicion is that I've hooked the heater flow backwards, so that the hot water doesn't hit the cutoff valve until it passes through the heater core, instead of vice-versa, and that some small amount of hot coolant fills the heater core when this is the case. There's also an audible gurgling, when the van is stopped after driving awhile, that I think may be related to this. The connections are easy to reach, but I'm mulling over ways of switching the hoses without spilling a lot of coolant in the process. It's easy to pinch-clamp the hoses, but the connectors plumbed into the main coolant lines will need to be corked or something. Until I fix this, if we drive the van on the long trip and don't need the heat, I'm going to clamp the heater hose off at the engine, so that NO hot coolant reaches the heaters. Lazy but effective (as long as we don't need to defog the windshield).
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you are getting these comments, but here goes. First off I would like to thank you as your problems have bee the same as mine.
Throttle cable routing, no reverse gear due to my messing around with the shift shaft,brake booster coupler etc. Anyway your efforts have been a great help to me. Thanks for Blog.
Today I started the Zetec for the first time. Started right away! What a relief!
Still some problems getting enough coolant into it, but it is not over heating. Road test next week as I still have a lot of tidying up to do. I really need reverse gear. The weather has turned cold again and as I am working in my driveway it is miserable.
Ian
ipclark@rogers.com
It's amazing that I am having the same problems as you. Stalling, not sure what is going on there. Whenever I let my foot off the gas and put the clutch in, say to stop, the revs drop to zero and the van stalls. It's not the speed sensor, maybe the throttle cable. Your problem disappeared, I hope mine does. Still have problems with the shift linkage, pops out of first, more ajustments required. I have a Scanguage hooked up to the OBDll onnection, huge disconnect between the indicated speed on the scanguage and the GPS. Jim says this is normal. On the onramp the scanuage says I am doing 160 KPH, GPS 90. I'll trust the GPS. Still pretty peppy compared to my old 1.9.
ReplyDeleteBeing a Westfalia camper and never driving in the winter, I got rid of my rear heater long ago. Simplifies things.
If you are reading this please contact me on my email.
ipclark@rogers.com
Cheers,
Ian