Cold has reared it's ugly head

[l.leung at juno.com]

Paul,

Me thinks, the tiny little turbo coolant hose has burst. 
Runs from the head coolant flange, across the 
front of the head and down to the turbo. It 
consists of a short approximately 1/4 ID pipe
with a banjo fitting that bends 90 degrees 
around the front of the head, then a short section
of hose, which is the weak link and has probably
blown. Hope you didn't do any damage in the
last ~1 mile to the station. This isn't a fun
replacement job in this weather. 

LL - NY

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Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 15:00:08 +0000
From: teamdaemon at comcast.net
Subject: Cold has reared it's ugly head
To: 200q20v at audifans.com, quattro at audifans.com
Message-ID: <011420041500.12325.e59 at comcast.net>

Hello all-

I am afraid that the cold in the northeast this morning (-8F when I left the 
house) has identified a weak link in the 200 20V.  I let the car idle for about
 
10 minutes to warm up before leaving the house.  When I got in, still cold, no 
heat.  Hmmm.

Started my drive to the subway. Still no heat.  This is not a new thing, and I 
try exercising the climate control, going from full cold to full hot, but still
 
nothing.  As I was almost there, I noticed a lot of
 "smoke/steam/something" from 
behind me.  I shut the engine down and coasted to the side of the road.  Pop the
 
hood.  There is fluid and steam on the passager side of the engine, behind the 
turbo.  I *think* it was coolant.  Coolant resevior was empty.  Radiator was 
cool, engine was cool.  There is fluid all over.

Stuck with the possibility of sitting by the side of the road in -3F temps, I 
fired up the car.  Started right up.  I drove it the ~1 mile to the parking 
garage.  For a while, the car would not drop below 3K rmp.  Check engin light is
 
on.  The idle finally dropped.

It is now parked at the Alewife garage on the roof.  Any thoughts?  With these 
temps, I am just tempted to get it towed to a mechanic and call it a day, but 
wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts.

Thanks much,

PS - Brett, if you are around this eve and and are willing to poke around tha 
car with me, BEvERages on me.  :)
--
Paul Luevano
paul at clarity dot net