UrQ FTCU ground on the intake - What the #@$%.

[Andrew Finney <afinney@tamsconsultants.com>]

My UrQ used to cut out violently at high boost. Cause -
Previous owner had shimmed the wastegate spring resulting in
overboost. Solution, bought the TAP chip and spring. Note that
the discovery of the shims was made while installing the TAP
spring.

Then the UrQ would cut out on the highway on long trips for no
apparent reason. Cause - Overheating fuel pump relay. Same
thing happened to my 1982 coupe. Solution - Wire in a
separately fused relay under the back seat that delivers the
fuel pump clean power, switched by the original FP relay.

Then the car would occasionally refuse to start. That was a
bad FTCU ground on the intake manifold. Solution - Clean it up
and use a new ring terminal for the WOT/idle and FTCU ground
connection.

Now the car cuts out at various inconvenient times, like when
merging onto the highway, and occasionally backfires if it
recovers quickly. Cause - It seems that the bolt that holds the
FTCU ground the intake manifold has spontaneously stripped
itself. Solution - Clean all engine grounds w/ wire brush and
Deoxit D5, and attach ground ring terminal to another manifold
bolt.

Question: WHY THE $%&* DID AUDI GROUND THE FTCU
ON THE MANIFOLD? Did they think "Lets run the most
important ground wire on the car through a small gauge wire,
through the firewall to a very hot and hostile environment where
it's bound to fail and cause the owner much inconvenience and
potentially kill him/her"

Solution - Can we just create a new power source and ground
using audio quality distribution blocks and connectors and
ground the whole mess to the body? Is there a reason for
grounding on the engine? Is it safer? Is it less susceptible to
reverse voltage spikes (did I make that up?) I am tired of
ground problems on this car. I think of these issues as clouds
of evil that move from one system to another as the problems
are one by one addressed by me at considerable time and
expense. Any thoughts, sorry for the ramblings.

Andrew Finney
1983 UrQ.