[s-cars] Dodging the bullet; a short story -

[calvinlc at earthlink.net]

I had a plug actually lose it's positive electrode and cause a short with
the negative electrode such that it caused the demise of the coil pack.  It
contorted to a wierd position but was never broken free into the engine.
Insulator was still intact.  I do not believe that the F5DP0R plugs are the
most reliable on the market.  As a matter of fact I think I have heard of
more problems with these damn things than I can shake a stick at.  Of
course, then again most of them are being run in engines with 20+ psi of
boost too.
--Calvin


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Mike Claire
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 5:20 PM
To: Djdawson2 at aol.com
Cc: i.rautenberg at waratap.com; s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Dodging the bullet; a short story -


Dave:  I just STFA and found your post.  Ever figure out what it was?  I'm
asking of course, because I had a similar experience today.  Engine has
always run smooth, but today developed what sounded like a lifter tap.
Figured I was a little low on oil since I've heard that noise only once
before when I was a little more than 1/2 qt down.  No big deal I though.
About 1/2 later it gets louder and now for the first time ever - the engine
begins to stumble.

Coincidence?  I figured maybe an ignition problem, but why the noise?
Broken valve spring?  I limped it home and pulled the cover and started
pulling plugs.  They were all tight.  But upon inspection the #4 plug was
missing the entire center electrode (all the porcelain was intact though).

Not too happy - this is a proper F5DPOR.  The insulator is completely loose
and slides back and forth about a full 1/8".  So what I thought was tappet
noise was really the insulator slamming up and down on every stroke.  Until
finally it lost the electrode.

How concerned should I be about internal damage?  I don't know how long that
electrode is, but I don't think the chances of it getting out of the engine
without wrecking a valve seat or scoring the cylinder wall can be very
good.  If it damaged anything, I hope it's the turbine blade since I'm
running the original K24.

I have never tracked the car, and although it sees high boost all the time
(Uncle Bob's 1+), I bet I baby this car compared to a lot of you guys.  What
bothers me is that I don't think I did anything wrong, and there's nothing
we can do differently to avoid this from happening again.



Mike

On 3/4/06, Djdawson2 at aol.com <Djdawson2 at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> In a message dated 3/4/2006 1:33:01 PM Mountain Standard Time,
> irautenberg at comcast.net writes:
>
> Any update, Dave?  Did you switch  injectors?  Still intrigued.
>
> Ingo
>
>
>
> Ingo (or, Out-Come),
>
> Update...
> Well, I left LA yesterday at noon mountain time.  Unfortunately,  I had to
> return to Boise.  The trip was fun, being predominantly back roads  in CA
> and
> NV... very empty... a "little" over the posted limit.
>
> I was driving up route 95 after a 50 miles stint on I-80.  No sooner  did
> I
> cross the OR state line, the WORST snow storm I have ever driven
> in  began.
> Thank goodness for my Audi.  This road is remote enough that  plow
> equipment was
> not seen anywhere that night... except as I neared  I-84.  Started as a
> heavy
> wet snow, and eventually turned into near white  out conditions, with very
> high winds.  As such, the tracks from previous  vehicles began to
> disappear, and
> soon, I was driving through nearly 1 foot of  snow, hoping I was going the
> right direction.  Sometimes it was deep enough  that the snow "plowed" by
> the
> front of my car started blowing up over the hood,  rather than passing
> underneath.
>
> Now to your question... during this storm, the intermittent miss started
> again.  I pressed on, knowing I shouldn't, but had no desire to get out
> of  the
> car and change a plug in that storm.  After about an hour, the miss  "went
> away."  I arrived in Boise at 3:30am, 15.5 hours after my  departure...
> probably a
> new record worst for me.
>
> Now that I'm here, I will be pulling the #4 plug to see if the post is
> beginning to drop out.  If it is, I am going to change the plug, and
> swap  the #4
> injector into a different cylinder.  I will be driving 830 miles  back to
> Denver on Monday... so I'll be able to see if the problem moves with
> the  injector.
>
> It would be nice if it did, as I'd like to narrow this down.  As a  side
> note, I'm going to be getting a couple of different flavors of NGK plugs
> to  try
> in this engine as well.
>
> Take care,
> Dave
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