87 Audi 5000 won't run :'-(

[Bernard Littau]

Hi Cat,

Ouch, three days in the cold.  I must say, you need to encourage hubby 
to ask the list before he goes that far.  It is kind of unfortunate that 
lots of hoses and perhaps the air-flow sensor and fuel distributor have 
been replaced.  There is just so much opportunity to make things worse 
by doing these things.

Hubby says it has spark and fuel, so it must be air, right?  That's the 
rule: air-fuel-spark, you need all three.

I would make damn sure it really has spark.  Check the coil spark, then 
check each cylinder individually by pulling out the spark plug, 
grounding it, and cranking the engine with someone looking at the plug 
for spark.  Make sure the distributor (rotor, cap and alignment) and 
wires are is good shape.

Check the big hoses between the air-flow sensor and the intake 
manifold.  A leak via a split or poor mount will cause much grief.

Not sure what kind of engine management the 5k has, but the 5ktq can 
throw codes without running if you crank the car and read the codes.  If 
you can read the codes, then read the codes.

Just to rule out something dreadful, I would charge the battery, 
disconnect the coil input, then do a compression test on all five 
cylinders.  Pull out all the plugs and make sure the throttle is wide 
open, crank the car for at least five compression strokes on each cylinder.

Just FYI, it's not the O2 sensor that's the problem.  That might make it 
run poorly when warm, or kill your gas mileage, but the O2 sensor is not 
used when the car is cold.

Do a fuel flow test.  Do you have the Bentley manual?   If you have a 
way to do a fuel pressure test, you may want to make sure the system is 
in spec.  Might be a fuel filter problem, or it might be a bad fuel 
pump.  If you have a spare fuel pump relay, swap it in.

Good luck!

Best,

Bernard Littau
Woodinville, WA
'88 5ktq

Cat wrote:

>My hubby has been trying to get the 02 sensor out of the 87 Audi 5000 Automatic, Non-Q, Non-Turbo.
>It finally just started to die on Friday.   He could drive it home with almost no power and it now won't run at all.
>
>Tough to do the diagnostics without the engine running eh?
>
>He says it has spark and says it has fuel.   He says it turns over (he did put the 02 sensor in), and he even tried moving the entire air flow sensor and fuel distributor from the 88 Audi 5000.
>
>He missed two days of work working on it, and we hate to tow it somewhere, (like the stealership) if we have no clue at all what might be wrong.    We had started to strip the 88 before to junk it so that won't run now.....
>
>He checked the coil, he didn't find any vacuum leaks, but I don't know one could find them without the car running.
>He replaced some hoses just to be sure.  
>
>He swapped the electronic control and the ignition control units.   
>
>He checked fuel potentiameter.
>
>Poor guy has been laying on the cold cement for three days and it still won't start.    It took a huge amount of time to drill and tap the exhaust manifold because the bolts broke off and found broken motor mounts in the rear and had to replace those.      We are down to one car apiece with little funds, so this is getting serious.
>
>Any suggestions would be much appreciated.  Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!
>
>^. .^  ~
>
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