[s-cars] My Ailing 94 S4 Saga Goes On

[Taka Mizutani]

Greg- it's an old car with a ton of heat cycles- nothing out of the
ordinary.  Be thankful that it lasted that long.
I would see how much a replacement fan would cost-effective- if it's not too
expensive I would go with new plastic parts rather than used when they are
that old.
 On Sep 25, 2010 6:08 PM, "Gregory Wolters" <gjwarch at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> What a day,
>
> So I gather together all the information from the list and start to try to

> figure out what's wrong with my car. The first thing I do is what Scott
Mockery
> suggested... accessing the ECU and checking the fuses and circuit breakers
as
> per his site. I have never accessed my ECU before so off I went pulling
trim
> and cutting carpet... it was a hot day today and it seemed to take forever
to
> get the carpet pulled back. Then the plastic cover... just take off 2
screws.
> There is a trick to taking that thing out and I finally did it.
>
> There it was... my ECU! All the fuses on top were fine and the fuse in the
door
> kick panel was fine. I had pulled the 5 amp one and probably cleared the
stored
> codes. I didn't quite know what to do next and decided to try to start it
up.
> After a couple of tries, it started. It was stumbling, but the check
engine
> light wasn't on. The RPMs went up and down and then stabilized. It was
idling
> perfect with no stumble.
>
> Off I went on a test drive. I got on the freeway and all was fine. When I
got
> off on the next off ramp it was back to stumbling. I got on the freeway
and
> headed home. I wanted to get home and pull the codes before it quit.
>
> I hopped out of the car and noticed my just changed pentosin coolant
draining
> onto the road and the engine died. The water hose from the reservoir to
the
> radiator was leaking at the radiator. Then I noticed the plastic radiator
> shroud was damaged... then I noticed that the radiator fan had broken
apart!
>
> Now I figure I'll have to pull the bumper, the radiator, put a new fan and

> shroud on, put it together and see what happens. Then I'll be back to
where I
> was this morning.
>
> I guess my question to the group is do 16 year old plastic fans with
180,000
> miles on them come apart? Or might there have been something related to my

> other problems? It seems possible the fan could become brittle and come
apart
> in that high heat situation.
>
> Oh yea, after I fix that and my starting/running/idling problem I will
need to
> work on getting the windows and sunroof to work, fix the sunroof control
panel
> that dropped out and I lost the clip (tore my car apart looking for it, I
figure
> it's in the body of the car roof somewhere), get the turbo running and get
both
> passenger side doors to work from the inside. I'm sure there's more but I
don't
> want to think about it.
>
> Meanwhile my wife's 95.5 S6 keeps hummin' along. Even without Samco hoses!

> She's at 115,000 miles.
>
> Greg
> 94 S4
> 95.5 S6
> 97 A8
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