[s-cars] Starting woes solved -- idiot mechanic (me!)

[Timothy Lynch]

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NOTE TO SELF - Absolutely no performance gain by replacing Motronic
Relay with Adjustable Wiper Relay Unit!

Tim Lynch
1992 Audi S4

Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 17:24:11 -0800
From: Gary Erickson <gary.erickson at rainymountain.com>
Reply-To: Gary Erickson <gary.erickson at rainymountain.com>
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Starting woes solved -- idiot mechanic (me!)

And let me punctuate that with a big "Doh!" and a slap to the forehead.

Here's what I did do to troubleshoot:

* Swapping out the starter didn't make a difference.

* signal wire to start showed +12.5v when the ignition key was turned to
the 'start' position.  (In my mind, this ruled out a bad ignition
switch)

* resistance check on the positive cable running from the battery to the
starter showed no signs of issues.

* pulled the passenger footwell apart and triplechecked all the
connections to my newly modded ECU -- everything looked good

Then during my second cup of coffee this morning, I started running
through everything I had done to the car since it last started; I didn't
think I had touched anything that would keep the car from starting.
(Other than ECU and that checked out OK.)

Other installs were boost gauge, Samco hoses, bypass valve, wiper
blades, adjustable delay wiper relay.

Wait, what was that last one?

Yup, the adjustable wiper relay.

This bonehead mechanic can't count and pulled the wrong relay out of the
panel to replace with the adj wiper relay.

If you're not careful, you might accidentally grab a relay for the
motronic system (looks just like the little adj wiper relay) instead.

So, I was able to get the car to start twice with erratic results before
I fried that little wiper relay completely and caused my complete no
start condition.

Replace the proper motronic relay back in position and the car is again
a reliable starter.

Ahhhh, much better.

Now, off to play with my new boost!

later,

-Gary

'94 S4 happily starting and boosting to 20+ psi!

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