200 TQ Hissssssssss....

[mark schofield]

I also had the black smoke on a 200 Quattro and, convinced that it was the
fuel ignition and unable to locate the fault, dismantled the fuel
distributor despite all warnings. It was belching black smoke and doing 10
mpg. The guy who came to my rescue and sold me a replacement metering head
diagnosed it as a split intercooler / manifold hose (over the phone). He was
right - you couldn't see the (quite small) split until you took the
supporting spring off. Apparently the system takes so much boost before the
split lets go whence the collapse in pressure causes the air metering flap
to whizz open to the stop giving a massively rich mixture. He reckoned that
checking for air leaks was the first thing to do under such situations.
Regards
Mark



Kurt wrote:

>So what do you think--small hole in the intercooler?  The ends don't appear
to be loose.  Perforated WG diaphragm? Some gasket I don't know about?

>Opinions very welcome!