RE: "Out Of Fuel" warning lamp...progress, I think...

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>]

Looks like typical symptoms of a dead bomb. To test it:
1) Start the car and let it idle for 30 seconds.
2) Turn off the engine
3) Begin pumping the brake pedal. Count how many times can you depress
the pedal before you lose the assist (when you lose the assist, the
pedal travel will decrease and it will feel hard).
New bomb allows more than 30 times.
10-30 times means the bomb still works
Less than 10 times means it will fail soon
Pedal hard right after switching the engine off: bomb is dead.

Also with the engine running try depressing the pedal really hard. If
you get the warning signal and you feel the pedal pulsing, the bomb is
dead.
Could be a leaking servo, too.

Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Gerard [SMTP:gerard@poboxes.com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, November 18, 1997 8:36 AM
> To:	quattro list
> Subject:	Re: "Out Of Fuel" warning lamp...progress, I think...
> 
> [...]
> New problem. Last week when I flipped at the switches to the on
> position
> and put the cluster back. I started the car and immediately I started
> getting the "low pressure in hydraulic system symbol". This is related
> to my previous posts about "brake warning" signal which would come on
> at about 120-130km/h without me having to touch the brakes. The roads
> I would be travelling on would be fairly bumpy side-roads so the
> steering would be in motion a lot of the time. Now this signal started
> coming on when I started the car. Since last  week the signal has
> settled a bit and only comes on after I pulled off. After I reset
> those
> dip switches yesterday I was hoping the signal would go away and  I'd
> be back to my "out of fuel" signal. But the "out of fuel" signal seems
> to be fixed, I now get the symbol  associated with the "low hydraulic
> pressure". I took the vehicle to a local shop, they can only check
> the braking system, not the complete hydraulic system. No visual
> problems. We put the car on a brake tester. I got about 3.6KN of
> braking force which the guys told me was very good. My handbrake
> though
> failed the test at a mere 15% efficiency. :) This signal could
> either mean low hydraulic  pressure because of the brakes or because
> of the power steering. They run off the same reservoir. How do I
> determine which one is faulty?
> [...]
> G.
> -- 
> "a thousand miles from here, there is another person smiling"
> 1990 Turbo (200T)
> name   : gerard van vught
> tel    : +27-57-912 2658 (w) / 082 923 9609 (cell)
> url    : http://www.acenet.co.za/homepages/gerard/
> e-mail : gerard@poboxes.com  / han.solo@galaxycorp.com
>          gerard@acenet.co.za / van_vught@frg.issi.co.za
>