The new "Unintended Acceleration"....?

[Ben Swann]

Yep - fuse those fans folks.  I just sold the '88 pearl avant that replaced my '87.  One of the things I did was to fuse the fan.  I extensivly test drove the car through the summer prior to selling, especially the cooling system and fan operation - no problems.  

Well only a few days after, the new owner contacts me to tell me the bad news.  Thank goodness it could have been worse.  The car started to overheat as the fan started to seize, but at least there was no wiring harness meltdown.  Although I sold the car with no warrenties expressed or implied, I would feel pretty bad if he bought the car and after all the work I did - many months, the car would have been pretty well wasted had I not fused the fan.

The new owner will get a replacement working fan and some other parts from me.

With regard to the seat, I always get a tad nervous when putting these back.  You can bet all my type 44/avants have layers of red duct tape covering  the plastic shield over the positive terminals under  the seat.

Ben

[Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 16:36:28 -0600
From: "Kunz, Bob" <bob.kunz at hp.com>
Subject: RE: The new "Unintended Acceleration"....?
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Message-ID:
<347F0EE2DB29484092B27DF737737AC20158F4F4 at idbexc01.americas.cpqcorp.net>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The battery has a plastic shield on the positive terminal and certainly
if this is missing the result as described in the link could happen. I
can't imagine how one could install the rear seat so that it is lower.
But, the springs could sag to the point of contact. Hard to believe that
no one could break out a window and get the person out of the car. That
part of the claim (that he couldn't get out) seems out of line.

The only fire I know of was a total loss result of the fan seizing and
lighting up. This was my friend's '85 5K wagon. I've kept an
extinguisher in my '86 5Ks wagon since. I still have to put the fusible
link in there.

--bob

'86 5Ks Avant
'02 TTQR]