Club 80-90 Forums

I own a 2.1i Vanagon Syncro and I'm having a running problem with it on motorway drives. It cruises nicely at 70mph but recently it judders and then I loose power and can barely get it back up to 50mph foot to the floor. After a while it clears but on Sunday it continued for 25 miles and black smoke was coming from the exhaust if I pushed it over 50mph or when going up hills. I rested and then kept it below 50 and it drove 'OK' all the way home (65 miles). It cleared fully around 10 miles from home - acceleration was back to normal, no juddering. Any thoughts on the problem much appreciated. Thanks.

Please try to search the Wiki or Tech Archive first.

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Pe ... ittent_2.1

Ah yes... sorry about that, very lazy of me! Vanagon syndrome... sounds very likely. The engine starts well and idles fine but hiccups during a good run but then clears. My van is 23 years old now and I would say that it's been doing it for 2-3 years but very occasionally. Last Sunday was the worst it's been and now I have black smoke - which worries me. Should I take it off the road or is it OK to continue driving until I can afford to get it fixed? Cheers.

if it is a vanagon then it probably has an MV 2.1 engine, digifant with Lambda, classic lambda failure mode, they need replacing every 60k miles usually, more often on neglected vehicles

Thanks - that's interesting... I replaced the Lambda a few years back but it's possible I've done 60k since then. I'll check.

Just been reading a post by Post by nickthefish » Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:30 pm (sorry don't know how to link the thread) and I noticed the last comment by HarryMann says:

"If it stops up the road randomly (between 1 and 50 miles), it might be (Vanagon Syndrome), just misfiring is not, use traditional diagnosis"

My van doesn't just stop randomly - but it does 'hiccup' and lose power.

After reading the wiki on Vanagon syndrome my problem seemed to fit the description perfectly but I'm a bit confused now!