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

[Robert Houk - SMCC WorkGroup Server Firmware <Robert.Houk@East.Sun.COM>]

   My UrQ used to cut out violently at high boost. Cause -
   ...
   Then the UrQ would cut out on the highway on long trips for no
   ..
   Then the car would occasionally refuse to start. That was a
   ...
   Now the car cuts out at various inconvenient times, like when
   ...
   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"

Boy do you have my sympathies.

To your above, add

a)	Using an intake air temp thermistor yielding meaningful reading
	varying from 70mv cold to around 150mv hot -- sitting a few
	inches from spark plug wires running many Kv! Not to mention,
	through the usual assortment of corrodable connectors (ever
	wonder why the wires are *soldered* to the sensor???)

b)	having all those important grounds subsequently depend on the
	block grounding to the body via a ground strap around on of
	the engine mounts.

c)	And, of course, the circuitous path the current from the battery
	has to follow to find the starter (and back again...) [for those
	of us with batteries under the rear seat].

d)	Oh yeah, don't forget the actual battery ground point under the
	rear seat -- my car started working so much better when I scraped
	the body paint/primer/crud/whatever off, and made a nice metal-
	to-metal connection between the battery "-" and the car body!

Deep Heavy Sigh.

I can guess at the following reasoning:

1)	They're a bunch of ****ing idiots, where electrics are concerned
	(my personal choice, based on my experiences, number of melted
	fuse blocks, terminals, relays, and other connectors...)

2)	They might have been trying to avoid pernicious ground loops.
	(Personally, I don't think they're smart enough to even under-
	stand ground loops, let alone try to address them; but that's
	just my personal [and embittered] opinion.)


   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.

I've done a fair amount of rewiring and up-gauging of the wiring, but
I left that particular can of worms (that massive star-ground on the
intake manifold) alone...

					-RDH