MISC. HELPFUL HINTS

[Porsray@aol.com]

A couple of items that might help you (from the "School of Hard Knocks":

1) Wheel installation helper

I'm sure that many of you have cursed the 4-bolt Audis whenever you
tried to remove or (worse) reinstall a wheel.  Holding a wheel up
against the hub while trying to thread in a bolt into a
non-aligning wheel/hub/brake disc combination will start anybody
cursing.  Well, in my Coupe toolbag there is a very handy tool. It
looks like a piece of plastic pipe with threads cut in one end -
remove the top-most wheel bolt first, thread in the tool, and then
proceed with removing the remaining bolts.  Voila - with all bolts
removed, the wheel stays mounted to the hub until you are ready
to slide it off the tool.  Better, on installation, the hub/disc unit
stays in alignment.  Tool is part number 893 012 223, and the parts
list calls it a "Tommy bar".

2) Brake bleeding

I highly recommend a pressure bleed, where you attach an air source to
the master cylinder and force the brake fluid throught the cylinder,
lines, and caliper with air pressure.  This is what you need:

        - Air tank (small portable one)
        - Emergency style air compressor
        - Extra brake reservoir cap (friendly local dealer or junkie)
        - Cap seal (same source as cap)
        - Metal screw-on tire valve

Drill a hole in the cap the size of the tire valve threads, then
install the valve so that it is sticking up out of the cap (RTV
sealant is handy to ensure good seal).  Unscrew the core out of the
valve.  With epoxy, seal the vent port in the cap.  Now, unscrew the
normal brake reservoir cap, fill the reservior to the top with fresh
fluid (I like to siphon out the old fluid with a turkey baster or
large anti-freeze tester and then fill the reservoir with fresh fluid
to speed up the bleeding) and replace with your "modified" cap.

You can fill the air tank with approx. 25-30 psi of air, and connect
it to the valve on the reservior cap.  Audi recommends the following
bleed port sequence: 1) Master cylinder (cars with ABS) 2) Right rear
3) Left rear 4) Right front 5) Left front.  If you have problems with
ABS cars, recommend to turn on ignition and turn off ABS switch.
WARNING: Be careful of the reservior level - vheck it after doing each
wheel, and top up after each one.

3) RADAR DETECTOR WIRING

I too have connected a wire lead for my radar detector to the sunroof
switch in the roof.  A little checking of the power leads will
tell you which one is hot.  Only problem I have is when using the
tilt feature of the switch it momentarily kills the detector while
the sunroof is moving.

4) DIRTY CONTACTS

I have had intermittent problems with two electrical items on my
Coupe; the temperature gauge (occasionally would stop working) and the
high coolant temperature electric radiator fan actuation (when
temperature gauge indicated that fan should have come on, would open
hood and touch connector to fan - fan would invariably instantly
start).  Both items were apparently caused by dirty connectors - a
good zap with WD-40 got them working normally again.

Now, my sacrifice to the Audi gods - My Coupe Quattro has 103,000
miles on it, and I still love it!  I see no other vehicle out there
with it's combination of luxury, winter go-anywhere capabilities,
summer back road enjoyment, AWD, ABS, 4-wheel discs and (of course)
5-speed manual tranny.  Best of all - as the Beach boys said, I've got the
pink slip, Daddy!


Ray Calvo (porsray@aol.com)
1990 Coupe Quattro