FW: ignition coil ? was fuel pump?

[Livolsi, Stephane]

And therein lies one of the most valuable lessons of older Audi
ownership....for me anyway....
wiggle the wires before calling the tow truck....
AND
diagnose! diagnose! diagnose!

A friend recently had his relatively new Mazda die on him while running
300kms from home.  Had it towed to a shop and they quickly (too quickly, I
might add) told him he needed a new fuel pump and he OK'd the work. Went to
pick up his car and was told the new pump is in but "Gee, it still won't
run" and we're still looking for the problem.
Turns out that a spring on the timing belt tensioner let go and the timing
belt had slipped. Apparently non-interference engine.  Relatively easy fix,
hell of a lot easier and less costly than dropping the gas tank (unlike our
Audi's, the Mazda did not have an access hatch in the trunk)

The stupidest thing, is that when they finally got around to a compression
test, readings were way low in all cylinders.  If they had done this
earlier.....

Car stops
Do you have fuel? No?- Why not?
Do you have spark? No? - Why not?
Got compression? No? - Why not?
Etc, etc....

Stephane


> ----------
> From: 	Torbjorn Bergstrom[SMTP:torbjorn at WPI.EDU]
> Sent: 	July 8, 2002 5:40 AM
> To: 	quattro at audifans.com
> Cc: 	mrproton at hotmail.com
> Subject: 	Re: ignition coil ? was fuel pump?
>
> Sound's like something that happened to me with my '85 GTi.
>
> Parked  at a parking meter in Boston then realized that the next one still
> had time on it.  The car wouldn't start...
>
> Was towed to a garage and I took the bus home.  They got ~$300 for
> installing a new fuel pump and it worked fine for a couple of months.
>
> The next time it died at a stop light close enough to home to for AAA to
> tow it there.  I pulled the fuel pump and got a replacement under
> warranty.
>
> The 3rd time it died about 2 months later AAA again towed it home but it
> started right up the next morning.  A little investigation showed that one
> of the wires was bad and jiggling the harness would make it work or
> not.  replaced the wires and it worked again for years....
>
> I figure I could have saved the $300 plus bus fare if I jiggled the wires
> the first time...
>
> Toby
>
> '90 90 (I call it a 180...)
>
>
>
>
> From: "wa b" <mrproton at hotmail.com>
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Cc: bswann at worldnet.att.net
> Subject: ignition coil ? was fuel pump?
> Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 17:16:34 -0500
>
> hey,
> well, I thought it might be the fuel pump, prolly not. Car has an
> intermittent problem. I got 5 miles from home and it died, had it towed
> home. Car was running fine then nothing, of course the next morning it
> started right up. Now checking out the ignition system(thanks Ben) I find
> that the ignition coil might be the problem. The primary resistance
> measures within spec. The secondary measures wide open, or infinity,
> between terminals 1 and 4 on the coil. Could that cause an intermittant
> problem? Seems like it wouldnt run at all but I`ve been wrong before. I
> didnt order a fuel pump but I did order a new coil. Am I on the right
> track?, Thanks in Advance, tring to make a 550 mile trip to Louisiana
> tomorrow.
> Andrew `88 80q
>