karn (05/14/82)
I had the oil burning recall work done on my '78 rabbit a month ago, and the results have been excellent. Not only has the oil consumption stopped, but engine performance seems much improved. Previously, engine timing had always been a compromise between lugging under load and racing at idle. Idle speed now is quite stable, and performance under acceleration is "like new". There was a change made to the vacuum system: a valve of some kind was attached to the front of the vacuum advance mechanism on the distributor. Does anybody know what this is and how it works? Phil Karn Bell Labs Murray Hill, NJ
vhm55611 (05/14/82)
I, too, had the work done on my 79 rabbit, and the oil-consumption problem has improved tremendously. However, I have aother (another, soory...whhoops again--typing isn't too good this afternoon)... I have another problem now, which may or not###may not be related- when I come down to normalstreet driving sppeed after being on the expressway for a while (or just plain driving fast), the idle speed seems to think I'm still going fast. It takes quite some time to come back down to normal. Has anyone esl###else ever had a problem like this? It's not major enough at this point for me to have taken it to the VW dealer, and I haven't gotten a chance to really look at it closely, but if anyone has any insight on the problem, I'd appreciate your coments. -vic
wagner (05/18/82)
I would appreciate if someone could give me the details of this oil burning recall. I have heard nothing about this, have a 78 wabbit that seems to need seal work too often for my liking. The only similar thing is a recall for diesels that sucked lubricating oil back through the seals and burned that instead of diesel oil when they were shut off. (sorry, rings, not seals). It was a bitch of a problem...my parents had it. Perhaps the recall is only for US built wabbits? As for the guy with the idle speed problem after running on the highway, I always have problems with that, but assume it is just an engine block temperature problem. When I pull off the highway, the temperature needle climbs (understandably) up to but not into the red. At that point, it idles very roughly, and wont start again smoothly if I stop it. I always assumed that the injector didnt know how to deal with the temperature, but it was not enough of a problem to worry about. Another rabbit owner suggested thhat similar racing in start+stop traffic was due to a pollution control device malfunction that any dealer should know how to deal with. Sorry, cant offer more than that. Michael Wagner (dexvax!utzoo!utcsstat!wagner)