1 Stupid quick question, and a slightly harder one about 5000tq... (now cars back to no start)

[John Forbes]

Lol, everybody always asks the Cody vs. John question when they first meeet me. Long story, but bottom line Cody is my middle name which my friends all call me, I use John for business and such. Any friend of a Quattro is a friend of mine so you guys just call me Cody ;-)


Today I found the boost control section of the SJM site and looked at the pic of WG solenoid valve and said "HEY my hoses don't look like that!". Sure enough, the top wastegate hose was swapped with the top hose farthest from the elect. plug. I'm starting to think that was on pupose. With that config, and with the fuse inserted into the fuel pump relay as it was when I got the car it would cause boost to go as far as it wanted because the fuse in the relay holds the pump on no matter what (or seems to at least). Sounds to me like somebody figured that thta would be cheap horepower.

So after fixing the lines on the WG soleniod I go to take a ride down the street, 1st gear up to redline, 1.3 on readout, second gear when its starting to come on boost where I can see if it actually fixed the overboost problem all of the sudden I lose power. Now the cars back to no start with no spark, showing code 2113 which I am all to familiar with. I checked the connections first thing, all of them good. Setup my little (and VERY useful, everybody should hvae one!) low voltage LED test light on the hall sensor plug, flashes under crank as it should. I'm now thinking the wires must be just old and dryrotted, maybe a slight break somewhere, but I dunno, really thats just a guess and I'm lost. Unfortunately tonight I am actually stuck at the shop, the 914 that I left here is dead (figured it would be a good time for a rebuild now that the Audi runs - oops) and by the time I gave up on fixing the Audi it was too late to call somebody for a ride home. The Audi is outside and!
 it got too cold to continue on her, so I started dissasembly on the motor out of my parts car.

While I'm here I've got a couple other questions about the car. On my sunroof there is no covering on the inside, I look directly at the indards of the unit. What type of covering goes here, just glued cloth or is there a metal panel or something? If its not just glued cloth can anybody tell me where I could find the proper piece? Also are there any differances between the head off of an '88 5000T automatic vs my '86 5000TQ 5spd? My car is smoking a bit and has good copmression (180psi across all 5) so I'm figuring I hve some leaky valve seals. That copmbined with a few broken exaust studs makes me think I should swap the head, but I'm not sure if they are the same part. Also how long should that job take? I'm thinking about trying to do it today on the holiday so I can drive smoke free to work and school tomorrow.

-Cody



---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Bernard Littau" <bernardl at acumenassociates.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 21:28:38 -0800

>Hi Cody,
>
>Is it Cody, or is it John?  Color me confused :-)  That's close to my
>natural state, being confused, so I'll roll with it...
>
>> After just cruising arround for the first few runs after I fixed
>> my ignition problem I decided to see just how quick my car is
>> today. The cars quick, but it now isn't opening the wastegate I
>> think. Having never dealt with a car with overboost protectin
>> before, my simple and stupid question is : When I'm hard on the
>> throttle in any gear except first the car arround 1.6bar on the
>> factory boost gauge the car trys to throw me through the
>> windshield with the motor shutting down for a second or two.
>> Would that be the fuel pump cutout on overboost?
>
>Yay!  Always nice when they run.
>
>The stock ECU will cut out the fuel above 1.5 bar, so your supposition about
>fuel pump cutout is correct.
>
>The wastegate has two chambers, the top and the bottom.  Manifold pressure
>goes to the bottom fairly directly.  The top chamber also gets manifold
>pressure, but it is routed through some solenoids and is under the control
>of the ECU.
>
>A stock wastegate spring will allow no more then 1.3 bar of boost before it
>regulates.
>
>A possibility is that you have a non stock wastegate spring with a stock
>ECU.  Also a possibility is that the wastegate is not functioning: it is
>either stuck, or the diaphragm is torn.
>
>There are two other possible reasons you are seeing more than 1.3 bar boost:
>1) The lower chamber is not getting manifold pressure when it should, or 2)
>The upper chamber is getting pressure when it should not.
>
>Scott's site has something to say on this topic of overboost.  See:
>http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/boost.html#chklist
>then:
>http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/10vwaste.html
>
>(Have you noticed yet that all I ever do is refer people to Scott's site :-)
>
>#1) Inspect the hoses to the lower wastegate chamber.  If these are not
>intact, the wastegate will not regulate boost correctly.  For instance, if
>the lower hose is disconnected and plugged, this would cause the behavior
>you are experiencing.
>
>#2) pull a vacuum on the upper wastegate nipple.  Break the vacuum suddenly,
>and you should hear a clunk as the wastegate closes.  No clunk means you
>likely have a torn diaphragm.  Again, a torn diaphragm will cause the
>behavior you are experiencing.
>
>#3) assuming the results of #1 and #2 are good, remove and plug the upper
>wastegate hose and run the car again, see if it still cuts out.  This is
>testing the "signal" from the upper wastegate hose.  Sometimes the hoses to
>the solenoid get hooked up wrong.  If the car gets 1.3 bar with the upper
>hose off, and does the >1.5 bar thing with the hose on, you likely have
>incorrect routing of the hoses.
>
>> And for the slightly hard question: I'm getting a huge (~11.5
>> amp) draw on the battery now with everything shut off. I did have
>> an interior light in the front passengers footwell sticking on so
>> I removed the bulb, but today I came outside to find a very dead
>> battery, and upon recharging an ~11.5 amp draw. I had a friend
>> sit in the back seat with a multimeter while I pulled fuses, but
>> not a single fuse stopped the draw. Any hints on where to start tomorrow?
>
>11.5 amps is indeed a huge draw.  It should make some serious heat
>somewhere.  That is 140 watts -- imagine a 100 watt light bulb somewhere
>heating up stuff.  Feel around for some heat on the alternator and the
>starter motor.  Also check your headlamp switch and your ignition switch.
>That much draw would melt the switches, so I am guessing your alternator has
>some bad diodes.  I would disconnect the big red and small blue wires from
>the alternator (with the battery disconnected), and then test to see if the
>draw is gone.
>
>Best,
>
>Bernard Littau
>Woodinville, WA
>'88 5ktq
>
>
>
>