80 Quattro Starting Problem

[Al S]

Did anyone clean the battery posts and cables or check the cable to the
starter?
Al Streicher
'90 80 Non-Q

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of sembai at verizon.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 1:19 PM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: 80 Quattro Starting Problem


My husband's 1990 80 Quattro has developed a strange starting problem.  One
evening a couple of weeks ago he went to start the car as usual.  It turned
over and ran roughly for maybe two seconds, then died.  He tried a second
time, it did the same thing, but for a slightly shorter period.  On the
third try, the car didn't turn over at all.  He waited an hour and tried
again, and it started right up.  The next day he left the car home.  I went
out and started it a couple of different times without any problem.  I also
put a battery charger on to make sure a low battery wouldn't be a problem.

Concerned about possible looming trouble, my husband sent the car over to
his Audi mechanic.  The shop checked out the cold start valve, replaced a
fuel injector sensor, and checked out the battery.  They may have done a few
other things as well, but that's as much as I know was done.  While there,
the problem never reappeared.  A relative picked up the car without any
trouble.  When my husband picked up the car from the relative later that
night, the starting problem of course appeared.  The relative returned the
car to the shop, which checked out the car and couldn't replicate the
problem.  My husband picked up the car after hours last Friday and drove it
home, since the shop couldn't find the cause.  Saturday afternoon he tried
to start the car, and the starting issue reappeared.  We left the car until
Monday afternoon, when I tried to start it and encountered the same problem.
Today I went out late in the afternoon and couldn't get the car to turn over
at all.

At no time in the past couple of weeks did any dash warning indicators come
up.  The only other thing I can add is that the car is 15-years-old w/
170,000 miles on it, so it doesn't make sense to perform an expensive fix.
The shop was very good about not charging for the diagnostic work, just for
the sensor replacement (which it apparently did need).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.  I'm not a mechanic or an engineer, so
please keep that in mind if responding.  Thanks!

Holly
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