Small "banjo" fitting on sensor housing.

["Sheffield Corey" <SHEF@omdc.gso.uri.edu>]

								04 DEC 95
							      OMDC@GSO@URI
								10:47 EST

Hi Gang,

	Well, here's one I haven't seen written about yet, but something to
keep an eye on. This pertains to the turbo cars only and in particular the
5K's. I noticed friday afternoon on my return from lunch that steam was slowly
issuing forth from my grill; I immediately thought broken or cracked radiator
inlet. But it turned out to be the small "banjo" fitting that is joined by a
small 3/4" long rubber hose to the turbo water supply line. I'm in the process
of trying to locate the best price on a new one and I may as well replace the
multi-function sensor while I'm there; temp. gauge has been flakey for the
three years I've owned the car. The point of this is that I believe the
previous owner/maintainer of this car didn't use phosphate-free antifreeze in
it; I've also discovered a casting(freeze) plug on the back of the head just
above the line to the heater that weeps a little bit. The small "banjo" fitting
appears to have some corrosion looking crud built up around it's pressed on
rubber hose. When I bought it the car had a very rich antifreeze mixture, it
tested good to approx. -60F. and was very bright green. The new Prestone
phosphate free I put in two months ago is light orange. What color is the Audi
Autobahn? The heater core, radiator, etc. appear to be fine. Maybe the cooling
system flush I ran through it two months ago attacked this fitting, but I know
there was a lot of "crud" in the steel pipe that attaches the heater hose to
the head; this is where I drained the old coolant and flush. So make sure you
run the phosphate free antifreeze and keep an eye on this "weak link" in the
cooling system.

							Happy motoring,

									Shef

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