[V8] Re-birth of my '90 200 tq

[Brian K. Ullrich]

SO, for those who are interested, let me give you all a summary of the
project.

 

In short, she's on the road. Suspension-wise, she's a dream. Steering is
tight, no rattles, ride is firm. It really feels like a new car underneath.
That said, we did have some issues. Here's a quick rundown of what we
encountered thus far.

 

Front Suspension

The swaybar appears to be an aftermarket. Factory diameter is 21mm; this one
is more like a 26mm. So, the bushings didn't fit. Good thing the ones in it
aren't quite dead yet.  We'll be rectifying that this week.  

 

Lessons learned:

Interestingly, once we had all the parts in (lower control arms, struts,
strut mounts, tie-rod ends), and had re-assembled the car, the positive
camber was WAY out, and the negative camber was already adjusted as far out
as it could go. She looked like a bow-legged rodeo cowboy after a hard day.
We figured it was because we loaded the swaybar with the car on the lift.
The answer was to loosen it, drive it around and settle it, then reload it
on the alignment rack. As soon as we did, the alignment was out only by
5/32. Not bad.

 

Rear Suspension

We still need bushings in the traps. I figure I have 5000 miles max left in
them, but they are all intact and not rotted. That's the good news. When we
dis-assembled the left rear, we saw something I have never seen (nor has my
wrench, Carson, in all our days underneath cars); as soon as we removed the
lower retainer bolt, the entire assembly fell out. Scared the bejesus out of
us. Turns out the shock rod had snapped right at the lower threaded portion.
It had been driven like this for QUITE some time. While the upper mounting
plate was not damaged, the rubber spring damper was toast.  I am amazed that
the entire assembly wasn't destroyed by the complete lack of lateral
support. We replaced the spring damper, and bolted it all back up. Nice and
tight now.

 

Lessons learned

The Monroe Sensa-trac that we put in the rear appear to have slightly longer
shock rods than stock. This was apparent once we road tested her and we got
some rather loud knocks on both sides at the top on both sides. We shimmed
the upper washers and the noise disappeared.

 

Brakes

Overall, the brakes went in as designed. Calipers are in good shape, and
they pressure-bled just fine, but we had a problem when we put her on the
ground. Pedal pulsed, then went to the floor, and the calipers bound up. We
re-bled them, and the problem went away. Brakes work perfectly, ABS is
working, and on hard braking, the car tracks straight.

 

Engine

Most of what we did under the hood was relegated to fluids, filters, and
plugs (NGK BP6ET), as well putting back the parts that had been removed by
the PO (fabbed a bracket for the fresh-air pump), although we did encounter
one interesting issued with the fuel-pump banjo bolt crush ring. The
existing one seemed worn, and Audi had no part to replace it. We found some
other crush rings, but the metal area was too small, and we were worried
that with too much rubber in that pressure system, some might end up in the
CIS. Not good. The wrench's Certified Audi tech went back to his former
dealer shop and talked to some guys, searched through some toolboxes, and
found an all metal replacement that the general consensus found to be
acceptable. It is a soft metal, so they all thought it would seat. So far,
so good. No leaks.

 

Driveability

I do have a couple of issues with the driveability of the car. Two areas
concern me, and they are likely related. 

 

First, the idle is a little rough once the car is warm, and it is prone to
stalling at idle then. When it does stall at idle, it will not restart for a
few minutes unless pushed. The general thought here is that the engine is
getting too much fuel, and acts as though flooded. She failed a TX State
inspection today. The failure was for Hydro Carbons at idle (I had to
manually keep it idle RPM or it would eventually stall). The tech at the
inspection station said his experience was failures like that indicated that
the engine my be running too rich. One item; there is a K&N filter in it. I
wonder if that filter is causing air starvation at idle?

 

Second, there is a buck at 1.7 bar. Under that, she boosts well and pulls
hard, but once I hit 1.7, she bucks until the boost drops below 1.7. I can
reproduce it at will. This one stumps me.

 

Overall Thoughts

I'm pleased with the car. I think once we sort out these minor issues,
she'll be a reliable and good performing daily driver for many years to
come. I am grateful to all you guys and your experience and words of wisdom.
I'm sure I'd be in much worse shape with a community like this.

 

Brian