she starts, she won't run - 1990 200QA (very long) - update 4 or 5

[David Michael]

Well, the saga continues.

I spend many hours running various diagnostics on the car to figure out what
the mechanic did to it it make it run so badly. Many thanks to Ben Swann
with whom I exchanged many PM regarding the various tests. He has been very
helpful and very patient.

But it is all somewhat for naught. The car has either  a blown head gasket
or blown turbo bearings. While running, it blows great clouds of bluish
white (mostly white)  smoke out the tailpipe. It also has a coating
of  "foamy whitish milk chocolate" oil film on the inside of the tailpipe. I
would conclude it's a blown head gasket EXCEPT that I just pressure tested
the cooling system  and it held 15psi pressure for over two hours with no
decrease in pressure. The smoke starts immediately  - the  cooling system
need not build pressure.

I took some video of the smoke and goo - is there  a good Audi site where I
could post them?

No matter what is wrong, I will need to decide if I am going to fix it, or
sell the car as is. Of course fixing would require finding a competent
mechanic, since do not have the time to either the HG OR turbo....I am very
bummed - Its been my wifes daily driver for over 10 years, and we've put
100k miles on it....

But, it looks like its time to move on.......

Dave
90 200A 220K Badly mistreaded
98 M3/4 92K
02 MCS 32K
07 EXL 4WD 0.227 K