Troubleshooting

[Vincent Gelinas]

Okay to recap I have replaced - battery, coil, cap, rotor, plugs, wires,
fuel filter, and fuel pump.  I drove it around for a while just waiting for
it to cool down so I could restart when it stalled (under any sort of
moderate load, even while revving hard in neutral).  My water temp gauge
never worked but my oil temp will go up to the first hash mark above the
bottom number (60c?).  Now when I go to start, it will crank and then sound
like a cold diesel.  Tick.  Tick.  Tick. Firing but slowly and not on all
cylinders.  Are our cars particularly sensitive to low/bad fuel?  I can take
vids and post them on youtube or something. Would that help?
On Jan 8, 2011 4:36 PM, "Ben Swann" <benswann at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Vincent,
>
> You might want to recap what you have done and what overall symptoms you
are having.
>
> Some things to try/confirm..sometimes a little starting fluid directed
into the intake
> manifold can reveal if there is or not spark. You might need to remove a
vaccume cap to
> spray in there, and I think there is a vaccuum port on the side of the
throttle body -
> use the one inside the throttle - closer to the cylinders.
>
> Remember the fuel pump is ignition primary triggered. You can try to
jumper fuel pump
> hot and prime the injectors by lifting the air fuel plate up - either with
3mm allen
> wrench inserted in the adjustment hole, or remove filterbox and lift plate
up by hand.
> When pump is running, you should hear a sqeal as fuel goes through
injectors. Don't
> overdo it as you will flood the engine. If there is resistance on lifting
the plate,
> then you may have clogged differential pressure regulator.
>
> You should be able to verify spark - crank with primary coil lead
connected to plug and
> ground metal casing - I use a large alligator clip, but somehow connect
the spark plug
> to ground. You should see good healthy spark. If so then see if spark is
making it
> through wires to the plugs - could just be a bad cap or rotor.
>
> Compression would need to be very bad or almost non-existant if there is
no running at
> all. That would be a broken timing belt or slipped crank pully - not
usual.
>
> You can revise what you said to be - air, fuel, spark, compression -all in
the correct
> amount at the proper time. Then the engine will run correctly.
>
> This engine is picky about having intake fully sealed in order to draw in
air and lift
> the plate while cranking.
>
> Comp. test is easy - as a precaution, ground out plug as above using
center coil wire.
> Cylinder by cylinder, screw in guage in place of plug. Crank engine using
strong battery
> - I usually have on charge while doing this. Record and measure each
cylinder reading -
> twice for good measure. Any low or incaonsistant readings may want to use
some oil to
> see if it is rings. A little oil in the cyinder will seal rings and raise
comp. for
> that cyl. If the engine has not been run in awhile, that may be all that
is needed, as
> a heat cycling of the engine may get things to seal up again.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Ben
>
> Some troubleshooting tips here: http://www.gtquattro.com/FAQ.html
>
>
> [Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 13:07:28 -0500
> From: Vincent Gelinas <vrgelinas at gmail.com>
> Subject: Troubleshooting
> To: "quattro at audifans.com" <quattro at audifans.com>
> Message-ID:
> <AANLkTimk8Y3iKs7jvVVgc4ULD4EtAkNnyRqQbnZ53DgM at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Okay so I know the four things that an engine needs are fuel, air, spark,
> and compression. Engine is NG in 1989 90q. I know I am getting fuel and
> air.
>
> I am going to be picking up a compression tester from Autozone in a few
> days. The correct technique for using it that I have read is to pull my
> ignition and fuel fuse, then crank engine over six times at wot with the
> compression tester screwed into the spark plug hole. Does this sound about
> right?
>
> Also, what is the best way to test my ignition system and what are other
> things to look for? Any way to test hall sensors etc to see if I need a
new
> dizzy? That's the only part of the system I haven't replaced, besides the
> possibility of the diode(?) on the coil mount bracket.
>
> In good news, I will finally have a nice warm place to work on my car
soon.
> One of my friends has a horse barn that will be empty in a month or so and
> said I can store and work on my car in there!
>
> Thanks in advance everyone!
>
> Vincent
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 10:44:38 -0800 (PST)
> From: Dan DiBiase <d_dibiase at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Troubleshooting
> To: Vincent Gelinas <vrgelinas at gmail.com>, "quattro at audifans.com"
> <quattro at audifans.com>
> Message-ID: <282017.10744.qm at web39408.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Vincent, you should do both dry and wet compression tests. Take a look at
this
> write-up -
>
> http://www.custompistols.com/cars/articles/compression.htm
>
> I don't recall the exact issue you were having, but typically, loss of
> compression is evidenced by burning something that should
> not be burned - oil or coolant. If you have blue or white/grey smoke
coming out
> of the exhaust, you may have a compression issue.
> I seem to recall that you've had trouble getting the car to actually run,
so
> it's probably not a compression issue. But it's not a bad idea
>
> to check it out and compression gauges aren't expensive.
>
> Glad you have an indoor place to work now too!
>
> Dan D
> '04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6
> Central NJ USA
> ]