[V8] Engine Temp shutdown?

[Ed Kellock]

If it is the reference sensor as Steve suggests, then yes there is a way to
get it going again which doubles as a troubleshooting technique as well,
since if it does work, you've pretty much identified the problem.

When the car won't start, pour some water just inboard of the driver's side
distributor, not behind it where the wires are, but next to it, basically
between it and the intake plenum.  Try not to get too much water on the
dist.  It will find it's way down to the sensors which are pretty much
directly below this area.  If you do get the dist a little wet, the worst
I've seen happen is that the car runs a bit rough for a while until it dries
out.

I've used this method for both sensors.  For the speed sensor it took a
couple stops/pours until I could get on the interstate to keep the underhood
temps cooler & constant.  Then it took a few miles before the distributor
dried out and the car ran smoothly again.

I learned this tidbit from Dave Head, credit where credit is due.

Ed




On 7/28/06, Buchholz, Steven <Steven.Buchholz at kla-tencor.com> wrote:
>
> ... good info overall, but in my quick read I see one error ... the
> "speed" sensor is the one looking at flywheel teeth.  It is the one that
> will cause the engine to stall when it fails.  The engine will not be able
> to start or run when the engine speed sensor fails.  The "reference" sensor
> is the one that looks at the flywheel pin.  Once the engine is started it
> will continue to run if the reference sensor fails due to getting hot, but
> the ECU will not allow the engine to start without this sensor
> working.  This is the one that strands you at the 7-11 (or in my case the
> day care center).  The TidBit was so nicely done I didn't want to go in and
> change it ...
>
> While I tend to agree with this recommendation, the *first* thing you
> should always do when troubleshooting is to read out the codes.  Since the
> ECU will create spurious codes when it is not starting, the time to look for
> codes is before the engine dies.  Before the sensor completely fails it will
> likely have an intermittent problem, which the ECU will log as a "sporadic"
> code.
>
> I think ED has a little trick he does with pouring cold water down the
> side of the engine to cool off the sensors to get them back to working ...
>
> Steve B
> San José, CA (USA)
>
> > > Hey gang - my old V8Q is having an issue... I had the computer
> replaced
> > > recently, only to have an engine shutdown upon reaching 100Deg C on
> the
> > > guage...  Once cooled back down to around 90C (10-20 minutes), it can
> be
> > > restarted, only to see another shutdown.  Any BTDT's??
> >
> > Maybe this?
> > http://www.audifans.com/twiki/bin/view/Audi/NoStartV8
>
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