[s-cars] new car - a few misc quesitons

[Charles Rose]

Thanks for all the help guys, I guess ill just put off changing the oil till
I get some filters from an online dealer, it doesn't really need to be
changed right away but I'm not sure what has been used before so I figured
I'd give it a fresh start with new oil and filter.

As for the keyless entry I opened up the key to discover there were no
batteries so that seems like a good place to start on that, haha.

Thanks again,
-Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Gorelick [mailto:marc at frogville.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 11:22 PM
To: Charles Rose
Subject: Re: [s-cars] new car - a few misc quesitons

Hi Chuck,

Boy have you come to the right place. This list is the best car list 
I've ever been on, with the Miata supercharger list being second.

FYI my UrS is a '93, Emerald Green with an ecru interior. I have 165k+ 
miles on the car.

I'll take a crack at a few of your questions, although I bet you get a 
ton of replies.

1. The oil filters (and other consumeables, like air filters and such) 
are quite hard to find at local auto parts stores. Although some of 
these are shared amongst various VW/Audi models, they are still unusual 
enough to not warrant inclusion in the stock of your favorite auto 
supply chain store.  I ended up buying filters at germanfilters.com. 
Bear in mind that the Mann and Mahle filters are effectively 
identical--I ordered Mann and they shipped me Mahle...but they are 
interchangeable and I think they're actually made by the same company.

2. Keyless entry is a PITA on these cars. Mine still works, although not 
well...it's infra-red after all, so the range is something like 6'. The 
collective wisdom on the list is to convert the IR system to RF, which 
has a lot longer range. Here's a an RF kit that is popular for this 
task. There are various sites relating to the UrS cars that describe how 
to patch this into our cars, but in general the guts you need are under 
the rear seat. I'll do this once mine stops working--already the 
passenger side IR receiver doesn't work, and I only have one key with 
the IR transmitter. It's totally not worth it to fix the IR system.    
http://www.commandocaralarms.com/itemdetails.asp?ProductID=1189

3. My oil pressure gauge does the same thing you are describing.

Here are some things that are going to break on your car:  This is my 
third Audi...believe me, I know what I am talking about...
 
1. Suspension bits, such as tie rod ends and bushings. These get sloppy 
at >100k miles.
2. Fuel pump.
3. The "Michelin Man" hose that runs from the intercooler to the 
throttle body. This is by far the most common source of hesitation or 
bucking under boost.
4. Your ignition coils, a.k.a. "POS." This is the second most common 
cause of missing/hesitation/bucking under boost/WOT.  Dave Forgie has 
developed a great system to use less expensive parts from more modern 
Audis to replace these components when the fail.
5. The vent fan and/or the "sampling fan" (under small vent in the 
dash...monitors internal temperature). The vent fan is a major pain to 
get out...do the heater core at the same time.
6. Your accelerator pedal. If you have a pedal that looks tiny compared 
to other cars you've seen...that's not the pedal, it's what's left of 
it. ;-)

Hope this gets you started...

Marc