[200q20v] -- Pentosin No More --

Fri Dec 14 19:12:31 EST 2001

An interesting story, no, a book, Brett.

Did you remove and clean the filter when you did your flush?

> should assure clean fluid...hopefully a good long life on the seals
> of the rack and the pump o-rings will result.
IMO, fluid condition has absolutely no affect on static seal nor even on the
rack dynamic rod seal life.

If one religiously controls system leaks, fluid top offs and flushing are
unnecessary.

Bernie

> From: Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net>
> Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 19:12:42 -0500
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Cc: 200q20v at audifans.com
> Subject: [200q20v] -- Pentosin No More --
>
> The Big Baby is now officially Pentosin Free.  Let's put the term
> "liquid gold" into retirement, shall we?   Read on.
>
> I just completed a flush of the system...using something that(gasp!)
> wasn't Pentosin.
>
> Instead, following recommendations from Cobram and a few others, I
> called up a local lubrication oil supplier and asked for Mobil
> DTE-13M.  Swung by and picked it up.  Took note of the very new A6
> sitting in an unmarked, but clearly, "owner of the place" position.
> I like these folks already.
>
> With MA sales tax(5%), I paid about $45.  Or, roughly, what 2.8
> quarts of Pentosin would run you.  Here's the thing...I had bought
> FIVE GALLONS.
>
>
> Total price, per quart(liter and a quart are very close in volume),
> of this 5 gallon bucket of DTE-13M, which is identical in all
> numbers+specs to Pentosin, at $16/liter?
>
> $2.25.
>
> Or, roughly half what people pay for a quart of Mobil 1 engine oil!
>
> The guy in shipping and receiving pointed towards the bucket the
> second I stepped inside; they had pulled it from stock while I moved
> my car to the loading dock.  Excellent service.  He noticed I was
> practically bursting at the seams with giddiness.
>
> "I'd say have a good weekend, but looks like you're already doin'
> pretty good.  What's the deal?"  I explained that if the bucket I was
> taking from him was full of the "required" "official" fluid for my
> hydraulic system, it would be worth more than $300, and the DTE-13M
> was a drop-in replacement.  He was blown away.
>
> "What's they do ya for on this, $20-30?"  "Little more, $45."
> "Hah.  No wonder you look happy.  How much did you need...what's it
> used for?"  "Power steering and brake assist, its a turbo, so they do
> brake assist hydraulically.  Whole system is I think around 4-6
> quarts total, very roughly."  "Well, you're set for a couple of
> years."
>
> Upon getting it home, I popped the pour spout out and noticed, with a
> pleasant surprise, that this fluid is almost completely clear.  Which
> means that figuring out when it's in need of changing is a -total-
> snap, among other things; if it's brown/black, its time to go.  Yep,
> its still quite visible in the tank so checking levels isn't a
> problem.
>
> After FINALLY(one hour) getting the front lower hose connection off
> the tank(and knocking the distributor in the process, son of a @#$%#
> !) I  snuck a piece of dishwasher drain hose down under the car to a
> oil pan;  a small bowl underneath the connection caught the splashes
> of fluid from both the tank and the line from the pump(only a small
> amount of fluid comes out of the hose, and I capped the tank fitting
> with my finger but you spill some; this is certainly a glove job,
> very messy), then drained the tank into the dishwasher hose.  Pumped
> the brake pedal -many- times(you know you have a good bomb when your
> foot's getting tired before the pedal gets hard), reconnected the
> line to the pump slightly(its either a suction of return line, eithe
> case, -very- low pressure) and filled up the tank to the tippy top.
> Started the car, turned the wheel stop-to-stop several times after
> watching the fluid get sucked into the bomb(you can watch the fluid
> level jump down as the bomb charges up; raise the idle for a good 30
> seconds to fully charge the bomb, this is -important-!)  If you fill
> the tank almost to the tippy top, you'll end up with a perfect level
> if the bomb has been emptied.
>
> Repeated this process a few times(4 I think total) and went through 4
> quarts of fluid total or less.  By the end, I had hydraulic fluid
> with a very slight green tinge to it, so I had pretty well diluted
> the original fluid.
>
> From the first flush, looks like there was some sediment etc.  The
> old fluid clearly had something bouncing around in it.
>
> Some side notes.
>
> -only time will tell how the rack+pump like it, but other listers
> report running the stuff for years; similarly, only time will tell
> how this stuff cleans up, if it dries up like pentosin, etc.  While I
> was under there, I was able to do a decent amount of cleanup, so in a
> few months, I'll know
> -I have no idea if rack+pump rebuilders will consider this fluid
> acceptable. Considering Mobil and others list it as a
> drop-in-replacement, they'd be hard pressed to argue...
> -with the stuff this cheap, frequent flushings are possible, and
> should assure clean fluid...hopefully a good long life on the seals
> of the rack and the pump o-rings will result.
> -I have no idea if the stuff is harmful to painted surfaces.  I doubt
> it, but keep things clean around the car.
> -has a flammability rating of 1, other areas in the hazard sign are 0
> or not even listed, so its pretty harmless.  Still, since pretty much
> all petrochemicals are hazardous long-term, wear gloves and wash your
> hands etc...as you should when working with motor oil(esp used, which
> contains even more nasties than fresh stuff!), don't let rags soaked
> in the stuff hang around, etc.
>
> I'm currently working on the problem of "manageability."  Until I had
> used 2 quarts, even with the pour spout on the container, I ended up
> making a pretty big mess transferring the stuff to a smaller
> container to pour into the tank on the car.  It's also not practical
> to ship a 5 gallon container, nor does everyone want/need that much
> or have the luxury of storage space to tuck such a large container
> somewhere.  I suspect one of the lube oil suppliers could be
> convinced to have one of their guys spend an hour divvying up part of
> a 55 gallon drum into, say, 1 gallon containers that can be boxed or
> shipped.  They can tack on a profit for themselves and still beat
> Pentosin by a landslide...
>
> I've heard rumors of another NE tech session this spring, and I'm
> planning on going to the winter driving school; as a heads up to
> people that might be interested, I'd be happy to pick up several
> buckets of DTE-13M and bring them with me(at most 15gal, I'd say,
> maybe a little more.)  We could introduce a small per-gallon "list
> funding tax" and help the list out at the same time we save money.
> I'm sure a few others in various parts of the country could be
> convinced to do the same when they attend big qlist shindigs.  All
> you'd have to do is bring with you a nice sturdy container with a
> good cap on it...and all the "distributor" would have to do is find a
> good self-venting pour-spout attachment...
>
> I shall report back more later.  If you're planning on being at
> either of the above events and you're interested, drop me a line and
> let me know how much you'd like.  You will be paying for a
> contribution to the list and a -very- small contribution to me for my
> trouble, so expect a little more than $2.25/qt.  You will need to
> supply your OWN container, I'm not going to handle that part.
>
> B
> --
> ----
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/bdikeman.asc    (PGP Public Key)
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