Re: RPM Limiter

[Bubmeister@aol.com]

>> On my 86 4000Q, At max RPM the car shakes and shutters like it running 
>> on three (out of five) cylinders. Shift to the next gear and everything 
>> is smooth again. Is it suppost to do that?

>Yep, that's what my '85 4000 does when it hits 67-6800 rpm...

My experience with Audi's has been that if you run the engine agressively on
a regular basis it has no shakes and shutters, the engine will cut out when
it hits the rev limit - it's supposed to do that.  If you are keeping on the
gas when the engine hits the limit, it will appear to shake and shutter
 because the engine is cutting out, reducing the RPMs back to below limit
momentarily until the engine comes back on. This process is repeated until
you shift to a higher gear or lighten the load on the accellerator...shutter,
shake, shutter....  When you are used to the sounds your engine make you can
usually figure out when you are about to hit the limiter and shift just as
you're hitting it.

If  your problem is not a result of  the engine turning off, my questions
are: "Are you the original owner of this car? Do you know how the car has been
 driven over the years?"  A friend of mine put 160k on his 5+5 (great plate
of "EQLS 10"), he regularly drove the car agressively.  It was always a sweet
winding engine, as is mine (4kcsq 75kmi).  On the other hand, my dad drove
his Coupe the way the EPA wanted him to drive it, shifting whenever that
stupid arrow appeared on his dash (about 1800 RPM).  This consistant lugging
of the engine over the years shortened its' life, it carboned up and ran like
cr*p when he got rid of it. Whenever I could get my hands on the car (not
often enough) I would warm the engine up and blow the carbon out by running
 the car in a low gear through the range of the RPMs until I could feel the
stuttering spots go away .  Before he got rid of it the car the engine shook
whenever you got above 4500 RPM, at that point this "Italian tune-up" didn't
work as well because the engine felt like it would have a heart attack if I
pushed it any further.

Manual transmission cars are the easiest to carbon up and should every so
often be driven in lower gears as well to clean out the cobwebs.  With proper
maintenance, German cars like to be driven agressively, the engine will be a
lot happier If You Drive The Snot Out Of It.

Kelly
86' 4kCSQ Comm. Ed.  (leaving a trail of kleenex behind most of the time)