audi repairs, da bronx style

[Dan Simoes <dans@ans.net>]

I should have known.

Driving down into NYC with my wife, mother, sister and her
boyfriend, the car seemed sluggish and I made a mental note
to check it when I got home.  I had just finished doing the
front bushings, put on the street tires and MSW rims, and
the car was looking and running great.

Almost to the 3rd Ave/Willis Ave bridge, in a not so nice
neighborhood, my sister's boyfriend asks "what's that loud 
noise?"  Minutes later we were on the side of the road,
courtesy of a dead fuel pump.

To make a long story short, hopped a cab and went to a parts
place, bought a pump for $179, got back to the car and it
was wrong, which was OK cause no way I was going to get those
rusted fittings off anyway.  By then 2 hours had passed
and the the car had cooled down, so I decided to take a
chance and try driving back home.  We made it OK.

Today drove into Danbury CT and bought the right pump 
for $200 (ouch) [wrong bronx pump will be MAILED back
because I'm not driving there].  Interstingly, Pep Boys
wants $270 for the pump, and Parts America wanted to sell
me a Mitsubishi pump for $106 that sounded nothing like
the right one.
 
Now that the pump is installed, it runs OK but it still
seems a bit loud, and the car pulls better but still
lacks top end.  I suspect a bad WOT switch there.

Two questions to end this rambling:

1) Is there any other reason I would have a noisy pump?
The relay just clicks on or off, it's not like there
is any other mode that could be damaging the pump (I 
didn't check voltage though).  Any other ideas?  I
don't want to turn my wife loose with it until I'm
sure, so she's got my brother in law's Mazda 626, which
was so easy to change a clutch slave cyl on, that Audi
engineers should hang their heads in shame...

2) This little problem has resparked the debate of "new car,
old car".  I have to admit, I'm tempted  - $495 down and
$195 a month will get me a 98 Golf or Jetta lease, for 2 years.
I won't have to do a single thing on it, leaving me plenty of
time to work on my CQ :)  Car show is coming up so we'll
see what she likes.

In case she talks me into it...
If you're particularly interested in an Oceanic Blue 85 4kq
with 113k and lots of new parts, shoot me an email.
Price will be around $3500 and I may throw in some snows.

| Dan | 
-- 
Dan Simoes                                dans@ans.net
ANS Communications 		http://coimbra.ans.net/dans.html
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