1983 audi 5000 turbo gas help

[Ameer Antar]

I have an '84 5kT, and have done a turbo rebuild before. Smoke is not a 
reason to do a rebuild. You should rebuild the turbo if it is seized or 
hard to turn by hand, or you know you have oil leaking from it. To see the 
condition of the turbo, remove the ~2" rubber hose on the front of the 
turbo. You should be able to feel the compressor blades in there and it 
should turn as freely as a bearing. Any problems are caused by oil burning 
and coking up in there after the car shuts down. Turbos are supposed to be 
shut down only if you've been light on the throttle for a while and even 
then you should idle it for a couple minutes, more if you've driven hard. 
This circulates oil thru the turbo and cools it. Another good turbo 
protectant is using a FULL synthetic oil like Mobil1. It's expensive, but 
worth it's weight in gold, esp. for turbos since synthetic doesn't burn 
nearly as much.

About the hose, where is it coming from? It might be a metal pipe, coming 
from the exhaust pipe near the o2 sensor. This pipe is the CO measuring 
tube and is only for measuring CO for emissions. Normally it's s'posed to 
be capped off, but after many years and much caustic exhaust fumes, it 
disintegrates. Mine came apart last spring. You should buy a cap and clamp 
to cover the hose, so no exhaust gets into the engine bay. This is all if 
we're talking about the same hose.  Try to pinpoint where the hose goes or 
relate it to something, and a better description.

BTW, the intercooler is in the front of the car [center] and looks like a 
very small radiator w/ 2" hoses connected to it. It is usually painted black.

-ameer


At 10:08 PM 11/27/2000 , you wrote:
>In the few messages I have received trying to help me sort out my problem,
>I noticed that apparently I am way less knowledgeable than ya'll.  Even
>though I first owned a 1975 Audi 100LS automatic fuel injected and now own
>a 1983 5000 turbo gas fuel injected, I have been able to take care of small
>maintenance and electrical problems.  I have never owned a turbo before,
>and do not really understand the operation of the turbo  with the engine.
>I have been told that this year model had an oil seal type and not a hard
>seal type.  As one of the listers asked me to check for a hose by the
>intercooler, I had to tell him I do not know what or where the intercooler
>is.  I do not know what a michelin man hose is.  Please answer my pleas for
>help in the most basic way as I am still learning about this car, even
>though I have owned it since 1989.  It has been parked because I do not
>want to have to do an engine rebuild by running it in the wrong condition.
>Thanks, Tex.