Hola Amigos! Long Time No Talk

[Alex Kowalski]

Hello virtual tribe!  Like Jim Anchower, I know it's been a long time
since I rapped at ya, but I've been bailing out the boat and the water
keeps leaking in faster than I can haul the buckets.

Seriously, it's been almost a year -- too long.  But the '87 5KCSTQ is
still soldiering on bravely with ~63,000 miles on the clock, and
running better than most people would expect any 20 year old Audi to
run.  In a week or two I'll be starting the engine swap project on the
'86, and I'm also going to be making more of an effort to contribute
on the List.

I have a few score megabytes of archives to scan.  ;)

The good news is that the Enviro-safe recharge that I tried last year
around this time is still *holding strong* in the AC system.  I took
Ben Swann's advice and it was the best ~ $35 I've ever spent.  This
morning I saw center-vent temperatures of 33 degrees at about 80
degrees outside, with high humidity.  Thanks again, Ben.

I also have a couple of problems that have cropped up.

1) Starting.  When the temperature gets down into the 40s at night,
the car stumbles when you first try to start it.  It catches, but it
sputters and the idle is rough.  Within 10 seconds and with a little
fancy footwork on the pedal the stumble disappears and the idle is
just fine and stable at ~860 rpm.  Once the engine is warm, there are
no problems.

I know I need to do the plugs/cap/rotor/wires.  But it also seems like
maybe the cold start valve is malfunctioning or clogged.  What do you
think?  The car runs very well otherwise.

2) I took the car into a cheap car wash to get rid of some of the
winter grime (yes I know the Audi Gods are going to get me, and they
did) and the upper horizontal piece of chrome trim on the grille got
ripped off.  This is the piece that is bent into a slight "v" shape
and traverses the whole front of the car, about 1/2" wide.  The
problem is the little plastic anchors:  several of them are missing or
broken off.  Anybody ever remounted one of these chrome strips or have
a source for the little anchors?  Boneyard?

Anyway it's nice to be back and I intend to be posting here more often
in the coming months as the '86 project gets rolling.

TIA,
Alex Kowalski
'87 5KCSTQ  -- Still running after all these years
'86 5KCSTQ  -- Looking good.  Now to swap the motor.