Survey: type 44 break down frequency

[Eyvind Spangen]

Four times, I've owned type 44 cars from May '99:

November '99 with an '87 5kTD (Turbodiesel). The wiring to the reverse
switch is the same as the injection pump shutoff solenoid. I put the
car in reverse and it died. The fuse blew. After a few minutes, I
found the short, unplugged the wire, used some duct tape and could
continue the trip..

June '00 with the same 5kTD. The small rod from the transmission to
the shift linkage popped of and disappeared.. I was 5 minutes from
home and called my father, he towed me home with his Camry..

February '01 with the '89 200TQ. It was -32 (C) outside, I had just
finished some repair work on a tank (Army stuff), it was 9.30 PM. The
car cranked and cranked, but wouldn't start. After I realized it
wouldn't start at all, I found another car and we towed it into the
tank maintenance hall, which is heated to normal room temperature. It
sat there over the night, and fired right up. I found lots of bad
vacuum hoses and a disconnected cold start valve, fixed this and the
problem disappeared for good.

March '02 with the '90 200TQ20v. I was driving, just heard a *pop* and
the engine died, woldn't restart. I was thinking fuel pump, timing
belt and other expensive stuff, but it turned out to the the ignition
wire from the coil to the distributor that arced to the body. Duct
tape fixed it so I made it home. Ordered a new wire the following
day..

--
E. Spangen
'89 Audi 80 2.0E quattro
('90 Audi 200TQ20v - garasjedronning)