[V6-12v] all quiet on the AUDI Front

[Tom Christiansen]

James,

>when I unplugged the connector to the throttle valve unit, I was 
>surprised, in that on the throttle pot connector itself (the one actually 
>on the throttle pot) is a six-pin connector. All well and good. However, 
>on the connector to the engine control unit, contact 5 is missing.

I just installed Windoze XP and now Bentley requires some code to be 
punched in. Obviously, in their infinite wisdom, Bentley needs to issue the 
code manually so I need to call them up before I can use the manual again. 
Thus, I can't check the schematic for you at this point...

Anyway. In the good ol' days, there used to be an idle switch and a wide 
open throttle switch. Then a pot was added. I don't know if audi maintained 
the old switches (I'm fairly sure there is one for WOT). So you'll need 
three pins for the pot and three pins for the two switches. But if one end 
of the pot is grounded and the common contact on the two switches is 
grounded, you could conceivably do away with one ground pin, thus, leaving 
five pins in the mating connector.

>I just need to ask whether this is normal, or whether one of my contacts 
>has pushed itself back into the holder! I do find it odd that you'd have a 
>six pin connector and then just not have one pin in the middle of the 
>corresponding connector... I mean since it was designed for that ignition 
>system, why not just have a 5 pin connector and be done with it?!

Maybe something was updated at some point. Just like the thermo switch for 
the temp gauge. It was originally a 4-pin device, but was updated to a 3-pin.

>Could anyone tell me, fairly urgently whether this is normal or not? The 
>connector is fairly innacessable, so I'd rather not try to pull back the 
>rubber grommet unless I have to, to check whether there's a stray contact 
>inside!

Once I get Bentley up and running again, I'll check the schematic for you.

>a) I can't see a vaccuum connection to the brake servo (in fact, now I'm 
>looking for it, I can't see anything resembling a brake servo on this car 
>(yet the brakes work fine).

It's there!! The first thing I noticed when I popped the hood open on mine 
was "oh, good! they replaced the hydraulic assist with vacuum!" Pleasant 
surprise as I then didn't have to deal with a worn out 'bomb' as would be 
the case on one of the older audis. On my car, the vacuum line runs from 
the side of the brake booster facing the engine up past the butterfly 
change-over valve and hooks up with some connection on the port side of the 
engine. Dunno how it would look on your 'southpaw cruiser' ;-) But the 
vacuum brake assist is difficult to miss. It's a 8" diameter black can 
right up against the firewall behind the abs unit.

>d) On the intake manifold changeover solenoid valve (electric, not the 
>vaccuum operated valve) there are two plastic vaccum hose connections and 
>then a metal 'connection' coming out of the front. This metal connector is 
>'plugged' by a plastic plug, but when I blow into the valve from one of 
>the other connectors, this plug doesn't seal the connector. I pulled it 
>off and it's designed with slits cut down the inside so that it 
>delibarately doesn't seal this connector, but is this an original plug 
>designed this way, or should this connector be sealed tight?

I don't recall any metal connections on mine. I'll double check tomorrow.

Tom