VW Eurovan '02, engine light on, sputters, feels like vapor lock when rainy

Glacier
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 21:21:05 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

I have a 2002 VW Eurovan, 2.8L V6 Winnebago Vista 21B, 130k miles, my check engine light is on but having a hard time trying to figure out what’s causing it and what direction to head without spending a fortune. It started while traveling across country two years ago, several days into the trip, after driving several hours at freeway speeds on a cool rainy day, I stopped for gas and when I turned it back on it sputtered and coughed and ran REALLY rough, I slowly moved the vehicle out of the way, about 50 ft, turned it off and when I turned it back on it was fine, except the check engine light came on. I took it into VW and they ran the test… the codes were:
P0118 Coolant Temperature Sensor 1
3 Cylinder Misfires P0305, P0300, P0303
P1151 Bank 1, mixture adaptation, range 1, Lean limit not reached, static

They said it wasn’t going to destroy the vehicle, to continue on my trip and I’d need to do some sleuthing to find the culprit. The light came on and off throughout the trip but didn’t have the sputtering again ( although I didn’t push it as hard when driving it either, kept it around 65 - 70).
Got back to Montana and a local shop replaced the ignition coil.
That didn’t fix the check engine light, which is on continuously now (that’s been 2 years with mild use of about 8k miles). Until now, it hasn’t sputtered again so I didn’t really worry about it, but it happened in Oregon last week when it was again cool and rainy, I’d been driving hwy speeds for a few hours, I stopped for gas and when I restarted it sputtered, coughed and rumbled like it did 2 years ago. I turned it off for 30 secs, restarted and it was fine.
In talking this over with a variety of folk, we’re thinking the issue could be a fuel filter, fuel pump, coolant sensor or catalytic converter sensor… I have a fuel pressure test scheduled in a couple of weeks. Has anyone had this issue before? Thanks for your help and have a great day!

8 posts - 5 participants