Euro lights / ign. prob. SOLVED

[afinney@tamsconsultants.com]

Before I go on, Steve Buchholz is a god. The guy went out of
his way to help me solve this problem. He checked my ECU
in his car, gave me tips, and sent me a copy of the intro
service documents.  Thanks Steve.

The UrQ month-long saga came to an end. Last night I drove
1 hour to my future inlaws house with a new ignition module
(ICU) in hand. The UrQ introductory service documents Steve
B. sent me are an excellent troubleshooting reference. They
pointed me to the ICU after having checked the ECU, all the
fuses, fuse box, wiring, grounds, and a million other little
things. I passed all the tests except the one where you send
a 1.5V signal to the ICU to signal it to fire the coil. I didn't
have the engine at TDC when I did the test, so later, when I
was nowhere near the car, I started to worry that the ICU
wouldn't fire the coil even if it was good. Someone pointed
out that the 1.5V signal is to "fake" the signal that the ECU
would send to the ICU to fire the coil. 

The result. Car started right up (after having to jump it). I got
out of the car, and in a defiant move directed at the Audi
Gods (TM), I hugged my girlfriend and said "After all that it
was only a $40 part". And with that, it stalled. Couldn't
restart it. Now it was getting spark at the plugs. What could
it be? Excellent spark at the coil. Poor spark at the plugs.
Turned out that the Distributor cap had suddenly become
more corroded than the last time I looked at it. Filed the
contacts and it started right up. Yeaaaahhhh. Drove it 1 hour
home, ran flawlessly. Boost up to 13psi, seat kickin' fun.

Notes: While rewiring all the bad wiring and checking
grounds I managed to wire in the relays for the Euro/Aero
H4/H1 lights. Other things you'll need: Lots of good heavy
gauge wire. I used 4 gauge wire to a Street Wires fuse box /
Splitter. I got the factory wiring harness ($6) for the H1 bulbs
from Carlsen. Spade terminals, best source, Carlsen or
Digikey. Linda helped me out big time. Digikey doesn't carry
the AMP 0.310" terminals needed for the headlight
connections. (I managed to easily modify Audi crimpless
connectors to fit the larger size, no big deal.)  AMP direct
has the larger ones but would want a major bulk purchase.
Check out AMP on-line (ampincorporated.com) for an
excellent catalog with pictures. Fax the pictures to Linda for
best results. Headlights are amazing with only the 55/60W
bulbs. Best source for the streetwires connector blocks,
heavy gauge wire, large crimp terminals, Bosch 30amp
relays, large diam. fuses is a local place Compuaid (610)
286-9664, ask for Anthony, tell him you're a Quattro-list
member. 

Tailights. Someone pointed me to the ground in the trunk for
turn signals that didn't blink very brightly. Turned out not to
be the ground itself, but the connection to ground in the left
light mas connector. Two little back dots of what seemd to
be corrosion were actually carbon traces burned all the way
through the spade terminal. Drilled very small holes through
them and filled the holes w/ solder. Filed the thing smooth.
Bingo.

Cruise control. Someone pointed me to the cruise control
actuator rods, the thing that pulls and pushes the throttle, as
the source of my surging. There was tons of play in the rod
at the end near the vacuum bulb. Tightened that up. Much
less surging. The reason the cruise didn't work at all I found
out was that whoever replaced the clutch must have removed
the vacuum hose connectors at the vacuum pump. When
they put them back they hooked them up to the pump outlet.
I was pumping up my cruise system, not giving it vacuum.

Grounds. Check the grounds at the throttle position
switched. These two switches are grounded on the intake
manifold along with the ground to the ECU. When these are
bad grounds then intermittant problems arise. Maybe idle
problems, maybe full throttle problems?