New member: Help! 88 Audi 80

[Megan Bigelow]

>  I purchased an 88 Audi 80 and am trying to revive it.  I am not much
> of a mechanic, so hard to diagnose.  Here is the deal.  The car blows
> black smoke and stalls constantly when cold.  It will discontinue
> running after a bit of time.  I had an Audi dealer check it out and
> they got it running, and said it ran quite nicely.  My wife drove it
> from Harrisburg, PA to Washington DC, but it conked out just short of
> home (after blowing black smoke).  She said the speedometer and most
> electrical items were not working. Here are the details: Previous
> owner had the distributor replaced, new fuel injection pump, coolant
> temp sensor.  The invoice says that it still needed repairs to fuel
> trim and pressure wires. I purchased it and sent it to the dealer.
> They replaced the battery, installed fuel injection fuses, replaced
> plug wires.  They said it was running great at the shop but stalled.
> They wanted to replace o2 sensor and do this cold start kit thing...I
> rejected this. My wife said the car ran a bit rough enroute home and
> **Important** it used a whole tank of gas to go 150 miles...more than
> our follow on vehicle-a jeep grand Cherokee.

this sounds like *exactly* what happened when the fuel dist. seized on
my 87 4kq. the arm that regulates the amount of air going in seized and
the car ran like crap. it happened gradually and then fianlly refused to
start most of the time. when it did start, it ran horrifically
super-rich, stalled (then refused to start again), getting about the
same gas mileage as you listed, spewing out black smoke, and never going
above 45 on the interstate. good lord it was awful. my mechanic replaced
the fuel distributor with a used one and some used injectors, since they
broke upon removal the checl fuel spray pattern, and the car runs great
now, and is faster than before. hth.

Megan