[V8] New V8 owner

[Tony and Lillie]

When you get a chance, pull the trunk liner in the front of it (the raised 
part of the trunk floor) and pull the cover (three phillups screws). When it 
comes up, there is a four pin connector on the fuel pump/sender. Pull it and 
ground the purple wire. If the guage goes to full (with the key on, of 
course) the problem is in the sender area (possibly bad ground reference 
signal to the sender. If it stays dead, the issue is either wiring or in the 
cluster itself. Plenty of issues there. Just fixed my Sony home reciever 
with the same connection issues. They use pins to interconnect the boards, 
and the solder connections eventually break. Resoldered them all in my V8 
years ago, never had another issue.

The blower, turn the climate control on and tap (or hit) the top of the 
blower housing under the hood. If the fan starts, you know it's time to 
clean/lube or replace. Buy an OEM quality one if you can, or replace the 
brushes in yours.

Headliner is simple enough, though the later model Audi's with folding rear 
seats make removing the cardboard easier.

As you mentioned, the PS hoses are suspect, definately a good idea to have 
them rebuilt. I did mine all at the same time I replaced all the o-rings in 
my hydraulic pump. It had started to leak from under the X-caps.

BTW, a simple trick for finding dificult leaks. Clean the area well, get 
some foot power (talc powder) and put in on the engine in the areas you 
suspect. Start the engine, watch, with a mirror if necessary. Works very 
well at showing leaks, and takes a lot of mystery out of it.

Of course, on the V8, there is little mystery. They leak from everywhere!! 
Never did fix them all on mine, just quit caring after a while. Fixed all 
the big ones, though. 250+k when I bought it, BTW.

If the leaks are from the rear of the engine, look closely at the 
distributor mounting areas as well.

HTH,
Tony

Oh, and yes, it's a disease. I have several as well.........

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Wahaus" <kwahaus at mac.com>
Subject: [V8] New V8 owner


Greetings,

New V8 owner, but not new to Audi.

Overall, the car seems to be in good condition, but laking recent 
maintenance — been sitting in a garage for the last five years. I'm guessing 
it will likely need another $1500 (in parts) to get it into decent daily 
driver status. Although I believe it was regularly dealer-serviced when in 
use, I don't have a bunch on records to prove it. So I'm assume the worse 
and let the evidence prove me wrong. The local Audi dealer doesn't keep 
records that far back.

First up, I need to track down all of the leaks, specifically whatever is 
dripping on the exhaust causing it smoke. Since gravity is the law, I'm 
starting at the top. I can tell that the DS valve cover is leaking so those 
are the first to replace. I started that this weekend and in the process, 
discovered the breather hose that goes between the two covers was oil-soaked 
and came apart getting it off. Is that a dealer only part?

I did buy new tires, and while it was on the lift got a chance to look 
around. That confirmed that the brakes are new. Pads weren't even dirty. It 
also showed a lot of leaks. I had my mechanic look over the car after I 
bought it a diagnosed a leaking steering rack. I'm not sure it's the rack 
and am hoping it's just the hoses, which I hear are the usual suspects. I'll 
get those off and have them rebuilt at a local hydraulics company.

Other issues are a non-working blower motor, non-working fuel gauge, bad 
front Bose speakers and a falling headliner — all pretty typical from what I 
gather.

This list seems to be the best source of info, although I also frequent 
QuattroWorld. Thanks in advance for all of the help. I've already been 
emailing Tom Laplante (thanks) who has been a big help.

Kevin