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Hi guys, As greg posted, I had some problems on my trip...I thought I had everything covered... I was driving down the road, about 150 miles into a 400 mile trip to invade. I had just gassed up about 15 minutes earlier....great mileage-35 mpg. The squareback started behaving a little weird, not quite responding to the gas pedal as it was earlier. It was kind of like I was climbing a steep incline, but I wasn't. I tried to drive through it...thinking I was being too sensitive. But it definitely continued. So I pulled over, off the highway into a Dunkin Donuts parking lot. (New Haven, CT). I got a muffin/bathroom rest. Let the engine cool a little bit. I checked the engine-nothing looked immediately out of the ordinary-I was thinking maybe a wire came loose. I then read Muir, he suggested checking the grounds. So I did that, tightened what I could see, took the number 11 ground off, cleaned around it(it was a little greasy) the reconnected. I went to restart-and it didn't want to idle, I had to keep pumping the gas. I re-read Muir, checked my Bentley-couldn't figure it out. This guy in the parking lot sends me down the road to a mechanic. "Tell him Linda's nephew sent you", I went down he checked a couple things- he was busy. He suggested replacing the distributor cap-the contacts inside looked dirty. Changed the rotor too....he thought it was a problem with compression or maybe valve adjustment. No time to look at it-sent me down the road. I went down the road to another mechanic. I thought I was in a set for the "Sopranos"-with the way these guys were talking. Then I saw an autographed photo on the wall of one of the guys from the show. "Do you work on VW's?" "Hey we're mechanics we work on all cars. We'll take care of you?" I waited here about 20 minutes...listening to a lot of shouting between employees, owner and his wife over the phone, a thrown cell phone...I figured this is not where I want to be. I drove down the road to another mechanic. This guy's shop had burned down and he was in the process of rebuilding/cleaning. Power surge on the computer, caused a fire. Anyway he was willing to help me out. He listened to it...we checked/replaced spark plugs, rotor, & points. Now it was running, but it would race at idle-up and down. I test drove it, and it seemed fine...only problem at idle. This is when I called Greg. We talked for a couple minutes. So we decided to try it-if it is going ok-just make it to Hershey. I went down the road, about 10-15 miles, when I heard a boom kind of noise, and the engine just stopped. It would not start again. I coasted to an off ramp and got off the highway. I didn't feel safe working on it here, so I needed to get it towed somewhere. I called Greg again-he hooked me up with some phone numbers from AIRS. I made some calls, and found a mechanic recommended in Winsted. I got towed up to Winsted(wrong direction with Hershey as my ultimate destination). This whole process took a long time. I got up to Mechanics Advantage in Winsted. The owner-Fred, was having a Bus Night-working on restoring some buses for himself, son and a friend. He worked with me trying to diagnose the problem for a few hours...until around 12:30. Amazingly nice guy. This guy has all those crazy electronic tools that you see in the Bentley! So I had already changed the spark plugs, rotor, dist cap, & points. He found the problem for not starting-if I remember correctly the temp sensor had become disconnected, and the #3 fuel injector had come off. Simple things to see-but at the time I was tired, in the hot sun, and didn't feel comfortable looking at my engine at all on the side of this busy road. I'm thinking the injector may have been knocked loose when replacing the spark plugs, then came off when driving, somehow caused an explosion in the engine compartment, and knocked the sensor loose. This explained the smoky smell. We got it running again-but it didn't idle properly still surging, and 3&4 were not firing very well(when we disconnected the spark plug wire-there wasn't any difference in the engine sound). We checked the throttle valve switch, checked timing, dwell, valve clearance-3&4 were a little bit tight, but not enough to cause this problem, this seemed to get them to fire better. We checked for vacuum leaks by spraying some carb cleaner on all the connections in the engine compartment.WE checked fuel pressure-steady at ~32psi. We tried adjusting the idles speed adjustment-the thought being that the idle speed setting was fighting the ECU. We checked and saw that the fuel injectors were firing. It was idling around 1500, we couldn't get it go any lower consistently. Side question-when this screw is screwed in as tight as it goes-shouldn't the engine have trouble idling? Or not idle at all? We tightened this all the way, and the engine kept running no problem. According to Bentley-trouble shooting this Ch. 4, sec 10.3, pg 21, Engine surges at idle- hose between aux air regulator & intake air dist detached. This is not the case. Uneven idling injector pairs or their connections interchanged-this was not the case, the grey boots were on 2 & 4, and the black on 1 & 3. To try to end this email...We got it running-but it still surges, we finished around 12:30/1am. Unfortunatly I didn't think I could make it to invade. I started heading home. I drive about 45 minutes, it drove fine. I was tired I pulled onto a side dirt road, and tried to catch a little sleep. This is in backwoods Connecticut. About 30-45 minutes later two cop cars with blue lights flashing came to get me out of there...with questions like, "Have you been drinking?" "Yes I had a ginger ale." "You sure you haven't been drinking anything else, you look kind of out of it?" "No-I'm kind of out of it because you just woke me up, and I've been going since 6 this morning" I finished getting home around 4am. I didn't make it to Hershey, but I did meet a great guy who love VW's. I will be back down to visit him. Now I have two years toget ready for the next one. Sorry to go on so long...anyone have any ideas on solving the surging or know the answer to my 'side question'. Thanks for listening... -kevin '65 kombi '71 FI man sqbk somerville, ma ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Shameless link for search engines: http://listarchive.type3.org ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~