quattro Digest, Vol 8, Issue 37 - 1988 5000 cs start and run problem

[Larry C Leung]

Jim,

In addition to Pat Dooley's suggestion to go to www.sjmautotechnik.com
(the 1st place you should go) and his suggestion to check the Michelin
Man
hose (top intercooler hose), ALSO check the lower intercooler hose (the
car is old enough that it may have had it's eventual failure) which is
best
checked with the front bumper removed (easy job, just be careful of the 
chrome trim pieces) and the intercooler itself. Best to check it out of
the car,
by placing it under air pressure, BUT a telltale sign in oil or an oily
film along
the seams (common failure point) or even on the radiator core support.
Finally,
check the valve cover gasket, or the igloo (must check this throughly off
the car,
way too difficult to find leaks with it mounted). Your son's car sounds
like it has
a vacuum leak, not necessarily a big one, but bad enough to cause the
problem. 

Also, the 5K CS is old enough that it probably does NOT have a code
storing
ECU, it must have a MAC 14 or later for that. Thus, code pulling must be
done
with the engine on, post a problem and check engine light, or, if it
stalls, pull 
codes WITHOUT shutting the ignition off (I think, I know definitely,
don't allow
the power to the ECU to drop.) For details, see Scott Mockry's site
above. 
Finally, your ECU is located in the front passenger side kickpanel,
opposite
the console. When you are in there, check the manifold pressure line that
goes to the ECU for leaks (try using a MityVac and see if it holds
reasonable
vacuum, lacking a MityVac I suppose you could suck on it). BTW, the ECU
is unlikely to fail, unless it has been poorly modded.

Your German Auto tech is a dope, BTW. Don't go back to him. His quote,
"can't be fixed", really means, "can't be bothered". 

HTH,

LL - NY


> Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 17:46:51 -0500
> From: Jim & Michelle <jimhill at blomand.net>
> Subject: 1988 5000 cs start and run problem
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Message-ID: <000701c45198$5296a620$8d6e74cc at jim-s>
> Content-Type: text/plain;        charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> 
> Hey dudes
> My son recentley bought a 1988 5000 cs turbo.  It's been nothing but 
> trouble from day 1.  To date he has spent in excess of $1500.00 to 
> two different repair shops, the second shop being owned and operated 
> by a German Mechanic which replaced fuel pump, cleand fuel tank, 
> dist. cap amoung other things all of which I'm not sure.  Anyway the 
> car had to be hauled away from his shop on my trailer, the mechanic 
> basically saying the car can't be fixed.  I'll have to say I've 
> never heard of a non repairable mechanical problem.  I;m now 
> attempting to talk to some of you to see what your ideas might be.  
> Here's  the symtoms I'm aware of since I've got the car.  most of 
> the time the car starts and runs as long as I don't let the tach 
> fall below 1500 rpm,  occasionally the car will idle on it's own and 
> acually run good, and will start back when turned off, however you 
> may try the next day or that evening and it's the same old thing all 
> over.  I've tried to run the codes but it has no code 
>  in memory.  I really don't know where to look if the ECU  (which 
> was supposed to have been replaced) has no info for me.  Oh yeah the 
> coil was also replaced.  The German guy said the 5000 turbo was junk 
> basically, Am I fighting a lost cause you think?  If anyone has some 
> ideas please let me know.  Thanks Jim
> 
>