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In a message dated 3/17/98 5:00:58 PM US Mountain Standard Time, gregm@vwtype3.org writes: > type-3@umich.edu Becky, Greg is right...the computer rarely fails. Only problem that I've had is that the connectors on the computer were dirty and prevented the car from starting. I cleaned it and it started up fine. If you still think it is the computer, perhaps you can seek these guys for help: http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/vw1218_tester.htm Good luck! Andrew 1971 f.i. auto Fastback Return-Path: <type-3-errors@umich.edu> Received: from relay30.mx.aol.com (relay30.mail.aol.com [172.31.109.30]) by air08.mail.aol.com (v40.9) with SMTP; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 19:00:58 -0500 Received: from twins.rs.itd.umich.edu (twins.rs.itd.umich.edu [141.211.83.39]) by relay30.mx.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id TAA18297; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 19:00:45 -0500 (EST) Received: (from root@localhost) by twins.rs.itd.umich.edu (8.8.6/2.5) with X.500 id SAA11879; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 18:59:12 -0500 (EST) Received: (from root@localhost) by twins.rs.itd.umich.edu (8.8.6/2.5) with X.500 id SAA11875 for type-3-members@umich.edu; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 18:59:11 -0500 (EST) Received: from izzy4.izzy.net (izzy4.izzy.net [198.108.102.10]) by twins.rs.itd.umich.edu (8.8.6/2.5) with ESMTP id SAA11862 for <type-3@umich.edu>; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 18:59:11 -0500 (EST) Received: from [207.75.185.121] (pm360-21.dialip.mich.net [207.75.185.121]) by izzy4.izzy.net (8.8.5/8.6.9) with ESMTP id SAA06231 for <type-3@umich.edu>; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 18:59:08 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 18:59:08 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <l03010d03b1347500f326@[207.75.185.121]> In-Reply-To: <19980317152255.AAA12856@skyddan> To: type-3@umich.edu From: Greg Merritt <gregm@vwtype3.org> Subject: Re: General SOS :( - a plea for help Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit (Be careful with the I & II designations--I can quote you, in print, totally opposite labels for the head & intake temp sensors! I find it safer to use the names "head temp sensor" or "intake air temp sensor".) >Before we had had problems with tempurature sensor II, but we fixed >that....now it's tempurature sensor I that is giving us the infinity >reading... I recall that you made a repair w/ the head temp sensor. Now you're having trouble w/ the intake air temp sensor, right? An otherwise well-running car can run with the intake air temp sensor disconnected. In fact, one book cites disconnecting this sensor as a way to make a rough car idle better. Clearly a kludge--it'll run rich--but it shouldn't kill the car, I think. >and when we checked the wiring, it gave us an infinity >reading too...but the wire that sticks out of the harness is >complete, which means the break is somewhere inside the harness, and >I don't know how to tackle that sort of problem. Don't mean to be rude, but I thought it would be a good idea to confirm your testing of the harness. How did you test the harness? With a good harness & a good temp sensor, you could of course take off the big harness plug at the brain & measure resistance across the correct pair of leads. A busted (open circuit/infinite resistance) temp sensor would of course give an infinite resistance at the big harness plug. Now, removing the sensor--good or bad--would give an infinite reading. To test the harness, you'd have to check each of the two leads separately. One end of your tester would be at the big, huge brain plug end and the other end would be at the corresponding lead on the sensor connector plug at the other end of the harness. I would suspect that 99.9% (don't quote me;) of damaged harnesses are damaged right at the connector. (It sees all of the action; all the rest of the harness pretty much just sits there.) I would pull back the rubber sleeve over the connector to expose the hard plastic plug & the leads. If you need to "rebuild" the connector, you can slip the individual skinny, skinny spade connectors out of the plastic plug by inserting a stiff wire or pin or something into the hard plastic plug at the business end--you need to depress a little tab on the back of the spade connector, and it'll slide right out the back of the plug. >But we're concerned >that that's not all of the VW's problems...can tempurature sensor I >be responsible for the car not starting? See above... I don't *think* so, but I've been known to be wrong. :) I'm assuming you mean the intake air temp sensor. If the sensor were bad & the harness good, you could rig a resistor (Radio Shack!) of appropriate value in there to tie you over until you replaced the sensor. >Paul is worried that my car's brain died.....is there any way to test >the brain? Is there anyone in Southern California I can seek help >from? :( It is exceedingly rare to have a failed computer. Really, really rare. Super rare. I know of several people who have taken their Type III to a VW dealer(!) and paid for the 60 or 90 minutes of labor for them to hook it up to their diagnostic equipment & give a complete report of the injection system. Tell them thank-you-very-much, pay your bill, and go find your parts elsewhere & install them yourself. You'll find that this costs much less than a brain--particularly if you find out the hard way that the brain isn't the problem! Persevere... -Greg '69 & '71 Squarebacks '63 Beetle