Re: High Idle

[Michael Spiers <mikes@specnet.com>]

> I have a problem with my '88 80q - it idles at 2200rpm.  This just started a
few
> days ago.  I looked in the archives and found a message that someone posted
> about a 5K with a high idle ~2200rpm.  When he disconnected the idle
stabilizer
> it dropped to back to normal.  (Sorry I didn't save the text or author).
 This
> is what is happening with mine.

Heh, that would have been me!  I'm assuming you live in DC too, because of your
comment on the MB vanity plate...  Follow along the set of instructions
provided below, and you too can solve the problem of the high idle!

With the car in DC (and in the summer,) pull the plug from the idle stabilizer
and just let it hang 'cuz you're sick of scrwein' with it.  Manually set the
idle to 950RPM's using the screw on the throttle body.  Buy a TQ and give the
old car to your girlfriend.  Have your girlfriend find a job in Denver, an
apartment in Boulder, and have her move out in July.  When winter comes to
Colorado, and you're still sittin' on your duff in DC, she'll call ya up to
tell you the car simply will not run untill it gets warm.  So, you have her
grab her portable phone, go out into the parking lot, and talk her through how
to plug the thing back in again.  Voila, problem solved.  Car now idles at a
nice, smooth 950RPM's from stone cold to running temperature, no problems the
30 miles from Boulder to Denver (she tells me!)  Apparently it likes her better
than me...

By the way, in the '84 5000 (the above mentioned vehicle), the cause of the
high idle problem is the idle computer.  Looks like a relay, goes under the
steering column on the 5000, no idea where on an 80 though.  This computer
thingy went out once before on the car, but much worse.  This is the cause of
the "Unintended acceleration" that everyone was screaming about I think.  You'd
just be sitting in traffic, windows down, Rayban's on, lookin' cool, when all
of a sudden the thing would jump to 4,500RPM's and stay there, making you roll
up your windows, take off your Rayban's, and sink down in the seat, hoping
everyone would assume the car has been abandoned.  Luckily, the thing was a 5
speed.  Replacing that idle computer solved the problem, and lasted about four
years, and now it's doing it again, but not as drastically.  The car ain't
worth the money the new relay would cost, so that's why I just pulled the
plug...
>
> I still haven't found a bentley manual for my car so I don't know where to
look
> next.
>
Call Linda at 800-523-2408, and mention you're from the Internet Quattro list.
 I believe I paid $60 or $70 for the manual for the '88 - '91 80, 90 and Coupe
Quattro Bentley.  Oh yeah, YMMV!

-- 
-Mike
mikes@specnet.com
mks107@psuvm.psu.edu
87 5000CS TQ
84 5000S (2,000 miles away and a mile high)
90 80 (sibling's mode of transportation I get lynched into working on)