[s-cars] Car conks out, won't restart...was: Removing Instrument Cluster

[Mark Strangways]

Load reduction relay smoked ??
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc Gorelick" <marc at frogville.net>
To: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 9:13 PM
Subject: [s-cars] Car conks out,won't restart...was: Removing Instrument 
Cluster


> Hi again, sorry to be a pest...
>
> So here's a little background, sorry in advance for the longish post but I 
> want to provide details.
>
> My '93 //S4 (153k miles) was running great until it conked out at a light 
> a few days ago. I tried to restart it but to no avail. I pushed the car to 
> the shoulder of the road and cursed the Audi Gods.
>
> My wife came and rescued me while I called a tow truck. I drove her car to 
> where my car was sitting to await the truck. On a whim, I tried starting 
> it, and it ran for about 5 seconds and conked out again, behaving as 
> though it were running out of gas. From this I strongly suspected a fuel 
> problem...fuel pump, relay, filter, etc. Since I have no place to work on 
> this type of problem,  I had it towed to my favorite, much-trusted 
> independent Audi shop. They determined that the pump was bad and further, 
> that the relay seemed to have problems too since the fuel pump wasn't 
> always getting power. Both were replaced.
>
> On the way home from the shop, the car died at a light again and wouldn't 
> restart immediately. Once again I pushed it off the road and called my 
> mechanic. I gave it about 2 minutes and this time it started right up and 
> ran for a couple of minutes, enough for me to decide to try to get it the 
> rest of the way home. It ran another 10 minutes before it died again, and 
> once again a couple of minutes later I could restart it. It started to 
> hiccup once more and this time I jiggled the key in the ignition and it 
> straightened out and we made it home.
>
> Now, for a few months I have been dealing with a dead return spring on my 
> ignition switch. I've been manually turning the key back to the "run" 
> position and all has been well. This in fact was what gave me the idea to 
> try jiggling the switch when it started to falter. Based on this, I 
> replaced the ignition switch today.
>
> I took the car out for a short test drive and sure enough, after I got 
> back the car died. This time, it was in the driveway...Strangely, death 
> occured the instant I closed the driver's door. Loose connection 
> someplace? Now the car won't restart at all, but who knows? Maybe it will 
> tomorrow morning, or not at all.
>
> I am getting no CEL, and nothing comes up when I try to pull codes.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas what to try next? I am at a loss.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions,
>
> Marc
>
> p.s. The trick to removing that wiring harness was to pull the pink 
> plastic clip up with a flat blade screwdriver. Once I did this it came 
> right off and I could the IC out of the way.
>
>>>>>
>>>>> Okay, so this wasn't the best description. To be more specific, I am 
>>>>> talking about the leftmost connector on the back of the IC. I can 
>>>>> barely see it with the IC flipped upward, and there must be SOME kind 
>>>>> of trick to get this thing to release without just yanking 
>>>>> harder...right?
>>>>>
>>>>> Until I get this connector off, I can't get the IC out of the way to 
>>>>> reach the ignition switch.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Marc Gorelick wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi folks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Trying to replace my dying ignition switch.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Can someone who BTDT please let me know how to release the green 
>>>>>> wiring harness with the pink clip off the back of the IC in a '93 
>>>>>> //S4? More force is rarely the answer...but I am getting there. ;-)
>>>>>>
>
>
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