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Offline 42pvan

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River Adventures
« on: July 23, 2015, 09:21:53 pm »
Took the EVC on a river trip. Well, we didn't take the van on the river but used it to get to the put, run the shuttle, and return. The trip up from Corvallis, Oregon to The Dalles, Oregon (about 3.5 hours driving) went fine towing the raft on the trailer. We camped at the take-out for the river with some good friends. They had just given up on their Vanagon and raft/trailer set-up similar to ours. Here's a picture both of us parked next to each other for the night. Instead of their Vanagon, they got an A-Liner pop up and pack their gear in a Toyota Tacoma pickup.

We were camped at Deschutes State Park which was nice but campers were packed in like sardines and trains ran all night blowing their whistles.

Next day was HOT (100+). We packed up and headed to the put in which is an hours drive up and over a pass (about 2000'). On one of the last climbs, the check engine light popped on and we lost some power and the engine seemed to be missing under high torque situations like going up hill, towing a trailer (1000+ pounds with all the food and gear), and carrying 4 people (3 adults and a 9 year old). We were more than halfway to put-in without any towns nearby on Sunday, so we kept going. Got to put-in, rigged rafts, and then got in the rigs to run shuttle (bring cars back to take-out). Here I am on the way out of the take-out just below Shearer's Falls.

Drove slowly and gently all the way back and parked the van. Left ice cream Oreo Klondikes in the freezer and a cold beer in the fridge (TruckFridge TF-65, DC only) and closed all the shades and opened top vent.
Got a ride back to put in with one of our party in another Toyota Tacoma ( we chipped in and paid someone to drive that truck back to put-in. Then spent the next 3.5 days on the Deschutes River. Next day was again hot, but then it cooled to 85 or so for the last 2 days with some fierce winds. Got to take-out, put raft on trailer and derigged for the trip home.

When the work was done, I enjoyed an ice cold beer, and my family all indulged in the Oreo Klondikes (my lovely wife and 17 year-old son here).

The fridge did a great job keeping things cold and frozen over 4 days with some battery power leftover (2 225-amp hour Trojan T-105s). On the other hand our friends with the brand new A-Liner trailer with a dometic 3-way fridge similar to the original EVC fridges had to throw out a bunch of food because their fridge failed on propane mode! Glad I made the switch to the DC only fridge .

Got a read on the OBD check engine light and it showed "secondary air flow incorrect" and "misfire in cylinder 3". I won't have time to get this checked out until after next week, but any thoughts out there as to what is going on?


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Offline BobB

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Re: River Adventures
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2015, 03:05:17 pm »
I have seen that "misfire in cylinder #" once before. 

Traveling back from NC this spring, leaving a rest stop, I punched the accelerator quickly to pick up speed and the CEL came on.  Code reader gave me that message.  Continued my drive home - another 300+ miles.  EVC ran fine the whole way, very smooth.  I have had a misfire in a car a long time ago and I know what that feels/sounds like - this was not that.

My local VW dealer checked it out and could not find anything wrong.  Engine was running great.  Possible culprits are bad spark plug or spark plug wire or, worst case, ignition coil.  He recommended not doing anything and monitor it.  Drove another 1000 miles on it and everything is fine.  I also now accelerate smoothly, with no "punching it".

If it happens again (and more than once), I will replace that particular spark plug + wire, and see how that does.

BobB
'99 VW EVC

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Offline 42pvan

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Re: River Adventures
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2015, 12:09:04 am »
I got this checked out by my local mechanics. They ended replacing all the plug wires. Here's what bugs me: when we bought the van 4 years ago or so, we had them do a full tune up including replacing plug wires. Part of what drove this was a CEL that was sporadically coming on. The van worked great for a year or so, but the the CEL came on again and it was clearly misfiring but fiddling with the spark plug wires seemed to temporarily solve the problem. Took it back in and they replaced the wires (charged for labor and not parts) citing bad wires. Now the same problem crops up again! In 4 years and about 8,000 miles, I'm on my third set of spark plug wires! In my 35 years of driving and a dozen cars or I have never gotten new plug wires. What's the deal?
I'm a bit dismayed at this point because the CEL seems to always come on during big trips involving long river shuttles. Having a reliable vehicle is pretty important for river trips as there are several groups going with you and the river permits are for set dates. A vehicle failure can kill a trip that tools tons of planning and permit acquiring and coordinating several groups.


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Offline BobB

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Re: River Adventures
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2015, 06:29:14 am »
Somewhere - maybe here or on the Yahoo group or Samba - I remember reading something about spark plugs and spark plug wire for the EVC. 

(1) use only VW (i.e. Bosch I think) plugs specifically specified for the Eurovan and (2) use only the VW wire made for the Eurovan.  The wires for a Jetta or Passat also work but they are tad shorter than the Eurovan and that tiny difference causes problems in real use - wire pulls off spark plug, etc. 

My plugs, wires and ignition coil are all aftermarket, so that may have contributed to the misfire code. For now, everything is working fine.
BobB
'99 VW EVC