Re: ur-q build date identification.

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <Pine.GHP.4.05.9906042240410.22148-100000@raven.csrv.uidaho.edu> Todd Phenneger writes:

> But this one was WAY off.  For the US models at least it pretty
> much follows it.  My 02/82 is #76.  A friends 01/82 is like #45.  This car
> is actually 12/81 I guess (small mistake in original post) and is #00554.
> That a BIG difference.  It should be like #10 (+- 20)

Yes, they sometimes seem to have pulled a chassis or engine out of the
line for quite a while.

Don't forget that these cars were literally hand-built in bays.  If they
ran out of some critical component (e.g., on one occasion steering pumps,
on another occasion engines) they would carry on doing what they could
and store the half-built cars.  If they shoved them into a hall, they
might well finish them off in reverse order - last in, first out because
they couldn't get to the ones they pushed in first without clearing the
others.

We have detailed records in the Club database for around 1,000 cars -
VIN and engine number, especially.  You can see the correlations (and
otherwise) and that there are several sequences where engine numbers
run backwards for a dozen or more cars.  It doesn't affect you guys,
but in the 1988 model year there is a group of fifty cars fitted with
engines you'd expect to have seen nine months earlier - a major issue
because the timing belt changed from 120 teeth to 147 teeth and Audi
calls the spares by chassis number.  Wrong for these engines.

We've also had several instances of, e.g., a December VIN with every
part fitted marked 'Nov' or 'Oct' and a 'Jan' steering pump.

--
 Phil Payne
 UK Audi quattro Owners Club