More fun at an area meeting ...

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

Some listers might remember the recent story of the idle stabiliser
valve that was thrown over its owner's head into the bin at the far
end of the workshop.

I went one better this week.  I was doing the rounds - a bit like a
consultant at a hospital - around the open bonnets of around ten
ur-quattros at the Area G meeting at the Arrow Mill Hotel.  I came
across an old 'friend' - an MB that used to belong to John Scott.

This was the first car that I worked on as a 'guru', and I've learnt
a lot since then.  I did all the basic checks, then started the
ECU diagnostic sequence.  Nothing happened.  I started retracing, and
then realised the damn car had suckered me again, like it did once
over two years ago.  The fuse holder contacts in the fuel pump relay
aren't wired to the pins in the base.  The top of the relay is marked
"211" instead of "215", and it's shorter than a standard relay.

Anyway, I decided this thing wasn't going to sucker me again.  The
Arrow Mill Hotel is surrounded by a lake ...

So - quick as a flash - I pulled out the relay and arched it around 80
feet into the middle of the lake.  Took the owner a little by surprise -
John Coughtrie almost dropped his beer, and the incident will be
faithfully reported in the next newsletter.  I had a spare handy, of
course ...

I seem to remember John Scott's original (dead) WOT switch following a
similar trajectory into the underbrush around the Robin Hood Hotel at
Buckingham.  This car will get paranoid - every time I meet it some
part of it goes flying into the distance.

--
 Phil Payne
 UK Audi quattro Owners Club
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 0870 0883933