No Start - 1987 5000CD Quattro Avant

[Dave Marshall]

1987 Audi 5000CD Quattro Avant - 326,000 km
Ontario, Canada

I have searched through the archives and some excellent websites, but I
cannot find any talk of my symptoms.

A few weeks back, I started having syptoms of trouble on it's way.

Before the car was fully warmed up, it would stall at the first stop sign.
Initially it would start right up again and be OK for the day.

Then the next step was that when it did this stalling it would not start
right up.  It seemed like I was getting a bit of fuel, enough to make the
engine fire a bit, but would just quit on me when I touched the gas pedal.
I would have to sit there, in traffic, wait a few minutes, try to start, no
go, wait, try again and eventually the engine would fire and run perfectly
all day.  It gave me the impression that a "sensor" of some kind was not
getting the input it wanted and was not doing it's job.  Suddenly it would
see what it wanted and way we go.  Pulling codes gave me no faults.

This was intermittent.  I could go for days with no problems.

Then one inconvenient Noon hour, I just couldn't get it to fire.  Same old
story of the engine wanting to fire, but there must be this daxx sensor not
getting it's information.  Left the car in the snow storm and came back next
day.  Hard to start, but once again, suddenly she fired and ran like there
had never been any problem.  No fault codes.

Ran good for a couple of days.  Then suddenly no go.

The last time I had trouble, I did the sit, wait, try again thing and
finally got it to run, but this time I had to keep the RPM's over 2000 (3000
was better) or it would quit on me.  I tried this while running down the
road so I could bump start it when it quit.  Lots of fun driving through the
City this way.  :>)

Now I can't get it to start at all.  I am sure that if I could try bump
starting, it would run, but only at high RPM's.

I tried pulling codes.  OK - 4444 every time.

I can hear the fuel pump running, building pressure and shut off.  I have
tried the fuse in the top of the fuel pump relay to make the pump stay on.
I have checked the fuel filter and can blow through it easily.

The spark plugs are bone dry.  If I drop some fuel in the intake, the engine
will fire and run this fuel through before quitting.

I don't know where to go next.  I mentioned reading the archives.  Lots of
talk about the engine misfiring at high RPM's and that most likely being a
fuel pump problem, but high RPM is when my engine works best.

Anybody been down this road before me?  I would appreciate your help.

Thanks

Dave Marshall