Wife's car won't start!!

[Joe Garibaldi <joegari@cdc.hp.com>]

Hello fellow Audi fanatics,

I'm teetering on the brink of disaster again!

You see what makes it so critical is the fact that it's
the wife's car that's afflicted.  Yesterday, my wife calls
me at work and informs me that after taking our daughter to
school and running a couple of other errands, the car (a 1987
5000S) WON'T start.

I questioned her as to whether there were any indications that
an electrical charging problem might exist, such as an alternator
warning light.  She said no.  Lights, windows, radio, etc. all
seemed to function normally.

I told her to sit tight and I would be there as soon as I could.
Naturally, after driving over 10 mi. to reach her, she tells me
that the car had just as mysteriously decided to start.  I cycled
the ignition on/off several times but couldn't duplicate the
problem.

This happened yesterday (Monday) and again this morning I get a
call from my now increasingly irritated wife that the #$%^@$ car
won't start.  Symptoms are the same as yesterday, i.e., car started
fine first thing in the morning at home, drove daughter to school
and then nada.  When I was talking to her on the phone, I asked
her to shift the transmission lever out of park and into neutral
and then try starting the car.  Voila!  It started.  Could there
be something amiss with the interlock system that Audi so thoughtfully
provided for us so that we wouldn't continue to suffer from this
Unintended Acceleration problem?  Ha ha.

Anybody out there have any similar experiences.  If so, please
help.  I feel like I'm treading on very thin ice here.

TIA,


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Joe A. Garibaldi                    Phone:  (415) 857-5124
Hewlett Packard Co.                   Fax:  (415) 852-3744
ICBD/California Design Center
MS 6L-D
1501 Page Mill Rd.                  Email:  joegari@cdc.hp.com
Palo Alto, CA  94304-1126

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