RE: Quattro Coupe Questions

[dlawson@ball.com (Dave Lawson)]

Anton,

>I am in the process of buying an 83 with 77,000 miles on it. Four
>things I am concerned with.
>1. Rust on a seam where the side skirts join on both sides.
>   Do you know how this happens and is this a hidden problem or a
>   surface problem

Depends if it is surface rust or deeper. I assume you mean the seam
near the front edge on the doors. This is a real body seam, not
one from a cut-n-paste. I would do more probing.

>2. Locking differential. How common is it for this to fail and what
>   is the best way to tell if it has failed?

Depends which diff is not locking. The center uses a cable mechanism
which probably isn't properly adjusted. To trouble shoot the diff locks,
you should start at the lock knob and start tracing out the vacum lines
to the diff lock servos. See if the servos move. Is vacum present at
the servos? You just need to start trouble shooting the system. Not sure
how much a vac servo costs, but recently someone mentioned that
these are the same as the door lock vac servos, you could always
pull a good one out of a door in a wrecking yard.

>3. Not starting when hot.
>   My mechanic friend seams to think it is a booster relay problem
>   due to the poor electrical system and by upgrading/replacing this
>   relay you can fix the problem

This could be many things, the "hot start pulse relay" is missing, the fuel
accumulator is not holding system pressure, the injectors are old/dirty
and leak fuel when held at pressure, etc. Could be a combination
of any number of things. Hard to point 1 item out as causing the
hot start problems.

>4. Cracking cylinder head.
>   How common is this and is it detectable?

I have found this to be somewhat common and many 83 ur-quattros have
haad the head replaced between 70k and 90k miles. The records show
my car had this done and I personally know about others. You need
to pull the head to see the cracks which develop between the intake and
exhaust valves. There is a spec on the size of these cracks,  as in
cracks up to a certain size are ok. Don't know the actual value.

HTH
 -
Dave Lawson  71344.2441@compuserve.com