Re: starting problems

[rdh@sli.com (Robert D. Houk)]

   Two weeks ago I posted that my 87-5kq sputtered to a stop and wouldn't start   ..
   After tests etc. he determined that the cold start valve had what appeared 
   to be a corroded or bad electrical connection that caused it to stay open, 
   thus flooding the engine. He said there was a large amount of gas in the oil 
   and the plugs were all wet. Corrective action was cleaning the electric 
   contacts, covering them in electrolyte, changing oil and filter, and 
   cleaning the plugs. It seems to work OK now, although maybe it hesitates 
   around 2500rpm now (could just be imagination).

   My question to the quattrophiles (auddicts?) is .. DOes the above sound 
   reasonable? is it common, or has it happened to anyone on a 5000? Is there 
   likely to be other things this gu didn't find?

Well, I'm dubious, although I do *NOT* know how the '87 engine
management systems work...it certainly sounds like your engine was
running very very rich...

On my UrQ, the cold start injector is only powered by the "START"
circuit, so in normal operation, it couldn't run if it wanted
to. Further, since it requires power to open (and flood the engine),
corroded connectors could only *prevent* the cold start injector from
working...

The other day, I had a very similar problem -- my UrQ was running very
rough, engine "jerked" and "bucked" a lot, etc. and so forth. My handy
dandy little Sunpro guage showed the computer holding the FQ valve
duty cycle at rapidly varying 12% to 99.9% (when it didn't just lock
at 99.9%, which is grossly overrich). Then it suddenly refused to
exceed 4200 rpm.  I wasn't even sure I would get home...By the time I
had pulled the glove box to get at the computer, the problem suddenly
vanished, and no amount of pulling, prodding, and downright kicking of
components would cause it to misbehave. I guess it was just getting
lonely (it was getting to be many weeks since I had last spent money
on it...); maybe that was your car's, um, "problem" as well.

					-RDH