Road Trip From Hell (long)

[TM]

Hey all-
I'm finally back from Florida! What was supposed to be a weekend
blitz from Ft. Lauderdale to Philadelphia turned into a 5-day ordeal.

Here's what happened:

[Saturday]

We fly down to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up a VW Quantum Syncro Wagon
that my friend wanted to buy- '86, 211k+ miles, silver (Maaco-quality
repaint). Total POS car! The shocks were pretty good, although the
rears need replacement. The interior was in fair condition- door panels
were missing some trim, the window switches were loose, pass. front
window
regulator broken, console window switches inoperational. Body was pretty
much rust-free, couple small dents and dings, nothing major, no signs of
a major accident, paint was solid (although the repaint was shoddy).

The bad part- the car would not idle or run smoothly, died on I-595 on
an uphill on-ramp, we nearly get killed by a big Chevy pickup that
swerves
at the last instant (with the hazards flashing and the brake lights on).

We get the car to a shop known by the PO of the car, this guy leans out
the mixture using the 3mm allen screw on the metering head, car runs
better
but still not good. Having no choice, we call it a day, get a hotel room
for the night.

[Sunday]

After breakfast, we locate some local auto parts stores, purchase some
tools
and go about diagnosing the problems. Thanks to some calls from James
Marriott
and Larry Leung, we have some starting points to look at. Vacuum hoses
in the
intake path, crankcase breather, plugs, rotor, temp. sender, plug wires,
etc.

We pull the intake boot, the ISV, the J-shaped hose running along the
valve cover,
the 3-way hose under the ISV and the crankcase breather pipe. Lots of
crud in the
breather pipe and the two hoses. We clean out the crud, inspect the
hoses- no
visible cracks, even with squeezing and careful inspection. There is a
small crack
in the intake boot, but right at the hose clamp- we seal it w/ silicone
as a temporary
fix.

Without a multimeter and the spec for the sender, we are unable to check
on the temp.
sender.

I check the ignition components- the plug wires are brand new Bosch 7mm
with shiny clean
boots, the dist. cap is brand new, firing order appears correct, plugs
are Champion, but
the correct spec, it seems. Unable to source the Bosch Super
tri-electrodes, we replace
the plugs with Bosch Platinum WR-7DP (IIRC). No real change in the
running, the old plugs
seem to be in good condition, electrodes are clean, gap appears uniform.

We then address the fuel filter- man, what a PITA and messy at that.
Upon removing the
fuel filter, tons of black crud comes out of the old filter. Not good.
We are able to
replace the filter, but manage to get a small drip on the fitting
unfortunately. Worst of
all, now the car refuses to start.

Calling the auto club, we get the car towed to the local VW dealer-
Vista VW in Pompano
Beach. Then we call it a night.

[Monday]

We go visit Vista VW first thing in the AM, and they promise to get the
car diagnosed that
day. Good news. Later in the day, the car is done- they diagnose a bad
fuel pump and a
bad fuel pump relay. They also mention that the plastic housing for the
fuel sender on
top of the tank is damaged and requires replacement (it's cracked), but
as that part will
not be available for a week and not critical, we're all set- or so we
think. The tech
mentions that the hesitation we experienced under more than
part-throttle may be caused by
a damaged cat substrate moving around in the cat and causing excess
backpressure under high
load. Sounds plausible to me- they seemed very nice and straightforward.
$577 later, we're on
the road, running much better and able to start the car again, but still
with hesitation under
more than part throttle.

We then resort to more drastic measures, finding a rather shady muffler
shop and doing some
modifications to the exhaust system. Much, much better- the car
accelerates much better, does
not hesitate nearly as much under load. Time to go north on I-95.

We notice that the fuel gauge has stopped working- it reads full
whenever the car is on, but
goes to empty with the car off- obviously, the fuel sender is not
working correctly now.
Having to estimate our fuel capacity w/ mile markers and trying to
figure out fuel consumption
in a car w/o a working speedometer, odometer or fuel gauge is not fun.
We call it a night at
Daytona Beach.

[Tuesday]

Now the car runs much better- why, we have no idea. No problems with
hesitation, mileage rises
from an initial 15mpg to 20mpg and then 25mpg. Pulling into Richmond, VA
for dinner, we are nearly
killed by massive quantities of noxious fumes- not good. We call it a
night after getting
fumigated by this POS.

[Wednesday]
On the final leg of our trip, we are able to drive the car w/o any more
hesitation, except under
full throttle at over 4800rpm- it still manages to increase revs past
5k, much, much better than
before. There is no better feeling than getting home after all of that.


Highlights of the trip:
Pure Platinum in Ft. Lauderdale (wow- you guys in FL have it good)
South Beach- nice area, we saw it during the day, gotta come back and
visit
Sunrise from the balcony on the waterfront in Daytona- absolutely
beautiful
Avus Blue M5 Touring (don't know if it was real or a replica) on Rt. 1
in Ft. Lauderdale
Seeing a F355 Spider, 550 Maranello and a 512TR in one day
No cops in GA, SC or NC in our direction, none in GA at all
Finding out that laser detection works on a V1 (MD trooper- got about
10s warning, not much)
Having the car get progressively better every day, except in Richmond.

Thanks to Jerry Beer, David Head, James Marriott and Larry Leung for the
on-road diagnostic
assistance. Sorry we couldn't meet up with some listers in Florida-
maybe next time I'm down
there.

EF- it looks like your comment was spot-on- the tons of black crud
coming from the fuel
filter may have come from that filter you spoke of. I'll pass that along
to my friend- thanks,
it is appreciated.

Taka
thankfully not the owner of a POS VW QSW