No Subject

[gaborno@solaria.hac.com (Neal Gaborno)]

Subject: RE: RE: strange electrical problem, revisited

Dave Lawson wrote:
// I am not familiar with the electrical system on the early coupes, but I had 
// a similar type of problem on/off over the first couple of years I had my 
// TQC. At first the car wouldn't die, but the engine woud turn off for an 
// instant and then resume running. It finally degraded to the point where the 
// engine whould shut down and you would coast to the side of the road. A big 
// inconvenience in traffic. Sometimes it would re-start, sometimes it didn't.

My TQC started exhibiting such behavior this past summer. I posted the 
following on rec.autos.tech about a month ago for someone that had a
starting problem with their '87 4000CS quattro. In my case, it first happened
while the engine was turned off after being driven around enough to reach
normal operating temperature. A couple of weeks later, the engine would cut
off intermittently, as Dave described above. Anyway, here's what I posted
a month ago.  The problem hasn't reared its ugly face since. 

  I've got an '83 quattro turbo coupe with an intermittent starting
  problem. On the first occurrence, we deduced that it was an ignition
  problem since we could smell tons of unburned fuel coming out of the
  tailpipe. We checked the coil, plugs, wires, cam timing, computer, ignition
  module (have spares of those puppies), and fuses. Naturally, everything
  looked okay.. As a last resort, a mechanic friend of mine started rapping
  on anything under the dash that looked like a relay. and the car started 
  without hesitation!. To this day, I haven't figured out which relay is 
  sticking once in a while... I think the last time I took the butt end
  of a screwdriver to the array of relays under the dash (about three months
  ago, on a very dark night), I finally beat the rebellious beast down there
  into submission. 

  You may want to try this... good luck... If i ever figure out which relay
  is the problem, I'll post it.

Neal Gaborno
gaborno@solaria.hac.com