New member with bad problem

[Tigran Varosyan]

Hi all. I am sorry to stumble in like this but I stranded for the first time
by my Audi. I blew a motor on my primary car (Mitsu 3000GT) replacing that
now and using the Audi as a runabout. It has 192k miles on it and has never
had any major issues so this came as shock at the worst possible time!

I am a pretty mechanical guy and had this happened on the Mitsu I am sure I
would have it diagnosed within a few hours. The 3000GT International club is
awesome and very active with many guys who know those cars. I also have a
5000-page manual on the car... With the Audi I’m lost. I only learned today
that it has no ECU and that Air/Fuel ratios are controlled by a mechanical
plunger in the fuel distributor... Never even heard of that! I know
carbureted cars pretty well, and I know my 3kgt like the back of my hand.
This Audi seems to be an in-between technology which is alien to me. I am
willing to learn and I still like my 4k so I hope that someone could help me
make heads or tails of my problem....


Car:
‘85 Audi 4000CS Quattro.
5 Cyl 2.2L
Fuel Injected.

Problem: Car starts up, runs for about 10-30 sec in idle or 2-5 sec under
load and dies. When not moving I can rev the car, the engine sounds fine
everything is great and then suddenly it sputters and dies. When I try to
move it, it will run for a very short time. The car needs to sit for 2-4
minutes before running again. If left to sit longer the engine seems to work
a bit longer too.

I have a book (Hayes Manual) for it but its horrible! Its made for EVERY
model Audi 80-87, so finding stuff for my car is impossible. I spent an hour
in the cold rain today looking for the “warm-up regulator” in the picture of
the book. It finally dawned on me that the pictures in the book are for CIS
and I have CIS-E which is NOT in the manual!!

Ether way, gas engines are not rocket science. Give it air, fuel,
compression and a spark at the right times and everything should function...
Obviously timing, spark, compression are all there. That leaves us with air
and fuel and this is where I'm going nuts....

Air filter is ok.

I just got a fuel pressure gauge and connecting it to the fuel distributor
feed line I get over 110PSI pressure...

The fuel pump is working. It is SUPER loud and I pulled the hose coming out
of it and it squorted fuel. I also bypassed the fuel pump relay (turned the
fuel pump on manually) and I get good pressure. I read a lot about if the
pump makes noise, replace it, but it has been doing that for like 2 years
now and until few days ago had no problems. It has good pressure and I do
not want to spend $100-300 on something that is not going to fix my problem.

Now I am thinking that it may be a malfunctioning "cold start" system of
some sort. Ether flooding or starving the engine of fuel. I think its fuel
because even with the throttle plate open and the air box propped open to
bypass the filter the same thing happens. I found a little 2 paragraph thing
on the cold start system in the book for my car and I cannot make heads or
tails of it. I cannot find the part in the picture under my hood (again CIS
pic, my CIS-E). The cold start system is made of 3 components. The “sixth
injector” in the manifold, an air valve that works like a modern IAC and
some sort of “warm-up bimetal spring on the fuel distributor” which moves
the plunger in the air sensor up further than it should be thus making the
mixture richer.

Do I even have the bimetal thing on my car?? I am going nuts here and this
has come at a VERY bad time. I have spent every waking hour since Wednesday
at 3pm working on this and I got work tomorrow. This list has also not been
cooperating since I have been trying to post since Wednesday night and
cannot get through!

Anyway, I'm pissed, I'm without a car, I'm completely soaked with gasoline
and I'm absolutely stuck. HELP!!!

Tyson