High miles? and another question

[Shea & Brigitte Rutstein <rutstein@erols.com>]

        Who can tell how many miles are on an Audi?  Don't all the odometer
gears break?  Mine did a 129k about 5 years ago on my '86 5k.  I guess it
has some what more miles on it than my '87 Aerostar van and that is at 194k
miles.

Another question:

Yesterday, I went to get a new wheel bearing for the van and just as I
pulled into the parking lot for the parts place in the Audi, it got very
sick.  It didn't die but wouldn't respond to the pedal at all.  I thought it
might be a broken throttle cable, but no it was ok but nothing almost
nothing would happen when I moved the thottle by hand.  Also it was idling
poorly, about 250 to 300 rpm.  I could get it to accelerate very slightly if
I moved the throttle a small amount, but it seemed to backfire into the
intake once or twice.  I shut it down and went into the parts place.  One of
the guys inside came out with me, saying that he thought that it might be a
restricted cat.  I started up again with no problem but also the same as
before.  Exhaust was coming out of the tail pipe so we concluded that the
cat wasn't blocked.  I opened the air cleaner box, thinking maybe it wasn't
getting enough air through the filter.  No difference.  The parts guy then
sprayed some carb cleaner into the air intake after the filter to test if
there was a fuel restriction.  The engine raced when he did that several
times, but died down afterward.  We figured that it either was the fuel
filter or pump and decided to go back in to get a filter (which as it turns
out he has to special order).  Just as I snapped the air filter cover back
together, the engine went up to its normal idling.  I tried the throttle and
it responded normally.  Somehow the problem had gone away!!  And has not
reocurred today (yet).

Has this happened to anyone?  Did I bump somthing like the wires on the
front of the fuel injection meter that set it back right when I snapped the
air filter cover back on?  (What are they anyways?)  Did the carb cleaner do
the trick?

Shea Rutstein
1986 5000s with 129K + ?? miles
1987 Ford Aerostar with 194K miles.