5ks Engine Died

[Nate Stuart]

Plugged cat?

Maybe a slowly seizing water pump causing the timing belt to skip one tooth
at a time??? A long shot, but easy enough to check...

Or maybe a loose dizzy clamp, allowing the dist to slowly rotate out of a
usable timing range.

Ooh, here's a good one! Perhaps the valve cover gasket was breaking down to
the point where air was starting to get past allowing unmetered air in (I
know my 90 will sputter and nearly stall with the filler cap loosened (could
be that too!), not sure if it would affect the '86 as much though). This
could attribute to the puff-o-smoke at the back of the engine too!

Good luck!
-Nate
'89 90q

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexander van Gerbig"

>     Oh the curse of being a van Gerbig and owning an Audi strikes again.
My
> sister came up to ski in VT this weekend and her '86 5ks was running fine
> and dandy.  We used it this weekend to get around and I noticed no running
> issues at all, even today.  Though on her way home to Cambridge the car
> slowly died.  The engine started sputtering and she slowed, then realizing
a
> problem she turned off all electricals to see if that would remedy or
change
> the situation.  That changed nothing and the car progressively slowed even
> more.  She shifted the autobox into neutral and coasted.  According to her
> the idle was horrifically bad, very sputtery and like it was missing
badly.
> When she popped the hood and looked under the hood there was a little puff
> of bluish black smoke from the rear of the engine bay area.  At that
moment
> she decided it was best to turn the poor guy off and get to a phone to
call
> AAA.
>     Anyone have a clue what this could be?  She saw no warning lights, no
> smoke out the tailpipe, no overheating problem, had oil changed 2 weeks
ago
> with a new Mann filter, and she treats the car very gently, not a loose
nut
> like me.
>
> TIA,
>
> Alexander van Gerbig -- '88 80
>
> The Audi  80 Pages-----------------
> http://surf.to/the80pages.com
>
> North Ferrisburg, VT 05473
>
>