Dog Days and Catching Rays

I'll admit that late July / early August isn't exactly the Dog Days of Summer, but it's pretty darn close. After that last posting, my family and I focused on a camping trip into Central Oregon, and didn't really think about the bus. I'll talk about our camping trip some and then touch on some recent discoveries that I think will be useful as I push through the VAG-COM codes.

East Lake
Since the bus isn't running, we drove my wife's Subaru on a 3 night trip to East Lake, in Central Oregon towing an open-top trailer full of stuff for 2 families. I wasn't familiar with the location, but it is 6400' above sea-level in a dormant volcano crater. This crater is so large, there are 2 lakes within it as well as a large central peak (Paulina Peak) that reaches over 6800' above sea level. if you live in the Rocky Mountains, you may remember what those first few days or weeks were like after moving there - every breath counts. I couldn't believe how quickly I'd get a head-rush, or run out of breath just walking at a NYC pace. the Lake was beautiful, and the kids loved swimming in the clear cool water. The camp sites are large (though without hookups, if you're into that) and clean. While we were there, we visited the Big Obsidian Flow, Paulina Peak and the East Lake Resort as well as tooled about on Ed's electric-motored 10' inflate-a-raft.
On a vehicular note, we got over 25 miles per gallon hauling that trailer. 2 weeks earlier, we took a 2 night trip our to the coast with one of those soft-shell things on the roof and only got 22mpg. I thought it was interesting that we could bring twice as much stuff and get better mileage just by changing the way we transported it. The trailer was a 7' x 4' U-Haul costing us $15 a day. Considering we don't have much use for a trailer, nor a place to store it, renting one was a great solution for us. We'll be doing that again, I'm sure.

VAG-COM Discoveries
If you read my last posting, you'll remember that I was able to get the main electrical systems to power up. Unfortunately, I received 6 different codes that need to be resolved for reliable running. After investigating these codes through the internets, I think I have been able to determine a pattern for 2/3 of them:

00765 - Modulating Piston Movement Sensor (G149) Intermittent

01268 - Quantity Adjuster Upper Limit (N146)

01268 - Quantity Adjuster Lower Limit (N146)
00626 - Glow Plug Indicator Open or Short to Ground Intermittent
All of these codes could be caused by a short in the harness dealing with the injection pump. When next I get a few hours, I'll start working that harness with the multi-meter and find the bad ground / short to the engine.

00522 - Engine Coolant Temp Sensor Open or Short to +
This could be a simple case of an air bubble around the sensor. Since the coolant pump hasn't actually tried to work the fluid around, there are probably lots of air pockets that need to be flushed out. Once the 4 codes above are dealt with, I think starting the engine and getting the air out will be next, and this code should disappear through that process.

00626 - Glow Plug Indicator Open or Short to Ground Intermittent
This could be one or more bad glow plugs. I remembered that I used this engine as a glow plug donor when I was trying to clear this (or a similar) code on my 2000 Jetta so it could clear DEQ. I probably took one or more of the good ones and left one or more bad ones in this engine. I'll deal with this last, after the other codes are gone. It could require a new glow plug harness, but I thought I already did that on this engine. I'll have to check my old posts :)

That's it for now. Work has been very hectic, trying to get up to speed while juggling a "red ball" project. Hopefully, things will settle a little bit now that the red-ball is over, but to that respondent's point, corporate America is always hungry for your time.