successful journey

[George Selby]

I just drove my newly rehabilitated Audi 80 on it's first long road trip, 
thanks in part to Ben Swann, who supplied a tranny earlier this year.  I 
just drove from Greenville, NC to Winter Haven and back: 1400 miles.  I 
averaged 68 mph while moving (mainly on I-95,) and got 29 mpg (2.0, 5 spd) 
with the A/C on the entire time. It used 2 quarts of oil, mainly leaking 
out the oil cap which I screwed up while changing the valve cover gasket.

I just fixed the A/C which hasn't worked in two years.  I just decided to 
pull vacuum to see if it would hold a charge last week (it was getting 
ungodly hot here, 95 degrees and 50%+ humidity for 2 weeks now) and it did, 
so I charged it with my personal supply of Freon.  It blew 40 degree vent 
temps the entire trip, and it was the same temp outside the entire trip 
(92+ midday,) except the humidity went up from 50% here to 75% in Florida.

The PO had obviously changed either the head/intake or the engine, as the 
throttle body didn't have the lever for cruise control, but the car is 
equipped with cruise on the column.  I bought a throttle body for a 4k 4cyl 
at the salvage yard mentioned in my previous post, and tried the 
cruise.  It didn't work, but the car had better throttle response!   I 
found some cut wires under the dash and they seemed to be the cruise 
wires.  At first I thought the PO cut the cruise module out, but I 
eventually found the cruise module above the glove box and there was one 
wire disconnected (the power wire to the vacuum module) and once I plugged 
it in the cruise worked great (very stable, within +- 1/2 mph according to 
my GPS.)

I did have to change the front brake pads while in Florida, I turned off 
I-4 onto US 27 and the front brakes started squealing badly, I know I 
wouldn't be able to take the hideous noise the entire drive back.  None of 
the local chain stores stocked the part (and it was Saturday when I was 
looking for the pads, unlikely anything would be shipped in Sunday.)  I 
looked in the phone book, and there was an import parts store in the next 
town, and it was open on Saturday (Import Auto Parts of Lakeland, FL. 
www.importap.com)   I called them up, and sure enough they had them in 
stock.  I quickly drove over there, and (after spending more in tolls than 
in gasoline) picked up the pads, which were of a similar price and superior 
quality to what I would have gotten either in my home town or from one of 
the national parts houses previously mentioned that didn't stock the part 
anyway, so that part of the deal ended up being not so bad.  I then drove 
back to the hotel, where I made short work of the brake job (I had thought 
to bring some basic tools.)  A maid walked by and asked if I needed a jack 
just as I was letting the car down.  I told her I was done.  New pads are 
good, my old pads used to squeal when stopping, the new pads are silent.

George Selby