[V8] why I love Audi

[Dave Saad]

Really - what other car on the planet can be made into an un-driveable firebomb simply by changing gas stations?

Yep - that seems to be what happened. I usually gas up my 2002 allroad at a station that supplies 10% ethanol fuel - nearly all gas stations here do. Recently (as in 1 and 1/2 tanks ago, I put in fuel with no ethanol. Then I had to leave the car outside for the night (garage door was broken) where it got down to the low 30's. Started it up the next morning, went back inside to get my coffee and by the time I got back, I could smell raw gas from 10 feet away.
I could see fuel all over two injectors, so assuming it was injector o-rings, I got new ones for all injectors and installed them Then ALL the injectors were leaking. At first I thought it was the new o-rings - but no. They are all leaking from the body of the injector. I put in a set of junk yard injectors from a 2.8L just to get back on the road while I sorted this problem out. All was well for the test drive. later that night we went out to a dinner party, and smelled raw gas again. This time the fuel line (rubber hose) is leaking at the fuel rail fitting. It is leaking out of the crimp. The hose is bad.
All I can figure is the alcohol from the normal gas I use has swelled all the rubber bits, and switching to the non-ethanol fuel caused all the rubber bits to shrink. It is simply not possible that 6 injectors and a fuel line all failed within 24 hours.

Now for the obligatory V8 content - why do these cars have such trouble with fuel lines and o-rings? The same type of problems happened on my V8. The two fuel lines from the firewall to the engine failed, every coolant hose failed, various o-rings failed, power steering hosed failed, brake lines failed. Meanwhile my old 1983 Ranger still has some original stuff on it. My 2003 Explorer, which has more miles than the allroad, has never had a problem like this. I have never heard of anyone having problems like this unless they drive an Audi. This is potentially going to be a huge PITA as well as expense if everything from the tank to the engine has been ruined by switching gas stations. I am not happy right now...



Dave