Coolant Leakage Solved- BUT now BOOST

[Kerry Griffith]

Thanks Dan. My boost ain't bad, especially since it's actually higher 
than indicated since I've got relatively early Hoppen/MTM software and 
RS2 ex manifold and I live at 7000' and the car is so old. The actual 
boost is something like 2.1 when the guage reads 1.8- I forget the 
exact ratio. OTOH, it has 117k careful miles, Mobil 1 since new, and 
very regular maintenance. I suspect it's still tight enough that the 
missing boost pressure is a function of leaking rubber hose as yet 
undiscovered, so one of my tasks today is making one of Brett's slick 
units and seeing what I can find. Hope that between the Brett tool and 
someone who can actually retrieve fault codes I'll find any remaining 
boost/vacuum leaks.

Sure wish I was closer to a shop that cared about these cars. My plan 
since I bought the car was to maintain it well and drive it to 150k or 
more; thus I've spent like a drunken sailor with an eye toward 
longevity, replacing things like seat heaters that most folks have 
decided to live with as not being cost effective. I'd like to take 
advantage of all the $ invested by driving this for at least a few more 
years, but I fear I'm becoming a caricature of my wife's uncle who  was 
known in Denver for driving a ca. '71 Benz for 20 years and spending 
several times the purchase price keeping it as new as possible. He did 
so by choice; I'm driven more by a very large discrepancy in our 
incomes. But there still comes a point at which one must run up the 
white flag. Here's hoping these current mystery symptoms can be 
repaired easily and cheaply, and that the audi gods will let me drive 
in peace for a bit.

Kerry

BTW, Uncle Howard replaced the Benz with a new A6 4.2.


On Wednesday, August 3, 2005, at 08:58 AM, SuffolkD at aol.com wrote:

> Kerry:  1.6/7 bar isn't 1.8/9 but its damn good for the age of these 
> vehicles.
> A mechanical gauge will show spikes better as the dash gauge (which I 
> like) has a slow sample rate.  Now I oscillate betweeen 1.4 and 1.6, 
> so there is more to chase down.  Also use 91/93 Octane.  When I had no 
> boost I use 87 octane and just stay off the boost.
> Either pressurize (10lbs) the IM air intake tract or scope out all 
> those vacuum lines for trying to get higher, boost performance.  Brett 
> has posted the pressurizing items before from Home Depot and the 
> like...........Search the archives.  Its easy a rubber pipe plug 
> drilled with an air hose fitting in it.
> HTH  - Scott by BOSTON
>
> At this
> point I know that the occasional
> refusal-to-start-without-depressing-the-gas-pedal symptom is still
> here, as is the low (1.6-1.7) boost.
>
>
>