TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:47 pm

I'm hoping you guys can help me with the vanagon I recently bought on Craigslist as well as you just helped me fix my buddy's vanagon coolant pump.

It's an 85, the guy I bought it from says it started losing power and the cat started glowing red, and that his mechanic though the element may have collapsed because he thought that at a certain RPM he could hear the element shift inside the cat.

So I bought it and drove it 50 miles to Seattle, stopping every now and then to let it cool off. It's been parked for a few weeks, and I just now drove it a mile at low speed to park it at my girlfriend's house.

When I parked it, a LOUD fan was blowing up front and wouldn't stop. I do not remember this fan from when I drove it a few weeks earlier. I sprayed the garden hose into the radiator and on the exhaust, and ten minutes later it still sounded like a turboprop engine. I had to disconnect the battery.

I also noticed that the odometer and speedometer no longer worked, might I have damaged a bunch of connections driving it 50 miles with a really hot exhaust?

[UPDATE]

just found some clearly non-OEM manual switch I apparently tripped earlier, and the fan went off.

Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:53 pm

If the converter is glowing RED--it's plugged up.

The tiny holes in the stone that's inside of it are all plugged, not allowing the exhaust to freely flow through it.

This is the cause of lost power & high engine heat too.

Get a new converter or a straight pipe in there , and your problems will be all gone.

Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:15 pm

You can drive it until you get a new cat, you just have to take off that plugged one.
Not a big deal really. There's 6 bolts you have to take off, 3 on each end of the cat. Remove the cat, and attach the muffler where the cat was. It will only be very slightly louder.

Mon Jan 11, 2010 4:14 pm

Wow, didn't expect any replies. You guys' input is definitely encouraging, but I have two problems:

(1) my cat is welded to the muffler and to the pipe with the sensor. Not sure how that wire isn't cooked. The sensor may be. Maybe I can connect the muffler to the pipe using flex pipe?

(2) isn't it just as likely that it's glowing from burning unburned fuel that is making it into the cat? That whatever clogged it up in the first place still needs to be addressed?

I'm thinking maybe a cylinder isn't firing, some sensor is jacked, etc.

Thanks!

Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:05 pm

Not to mention the disconnected battery and the non-working instruments.

When my fan wouldn't stop I replaced the fan switch and it worked as expected.

Van Cafe 251.959.481K

Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:40 pm

You mentioned that the Van is losing power.

How is it losing powr?

Like a big open hand is pushing on the front of the vehicle when you hit the throttle?
Won't accelerate real good?

If the converter s plugged up this is what'll happen.
You'll have the throttle mashed and be going nowhere fast.

There is a holed stone inside of the converter--thousands ( Ok I've never counted them--but there is plenty of them) of holes.
If they are blocked, plugged up the exhaust won't flow through it as fast as it should causing big heat in the stone & converter.

You have a couple of choices with the welded converter.
Cut it out on both ends and weld in a straight pipe--
Buy a new converter, pipe & muffler.
Buy a whole exhaust system and start over.

I don't know what's in the budget--ya have to do something here , that's for sure.