mountainGoat

Hi All,
Needed a winter ride, Found this 1988 audi 5000 cs quattro turbo avant (wagon)
I just had to learn about pentosyn - what my 1988 audi likes for coolant. Runs on 20w50 vr1 oil . and mobil 1 20w50 in winter (according to previous owner - I haven't changed oil yet) What type of oil do you use? what weight?

SO I am new to Audi in all ways really. What kind of stuff do i need to know, and i know thats a broad question but... well somethings gonna break ..
what can I do to modify and continue this goat's quest to becoming a real snow machine? What are preventative maintenance steps to do? this car has close to 300,000 miles Good upgrades - like the headlights have already been done with increased gauge wires.

Previous owner did this:
within the past 10k miles or so:
-Timing Belt, idler and water pump (Contitech/Graf)
-Valve cover gasket replaced
-Silicone Vac lines
-quad headlights with upgraded wiring and relays
-Custom front bumper with d-rings, built in snub mount, skidplate
-VDO boost gauge
-Oil pressure gauge

And in the past 2k miles or so:
-Full tune up with Bosch plugs, cap, and rotor
-Mann oil filter and Valvoline VR-1 20w-50
-Alignment at Tom's Alignment

The car has also been modded :
-QLCC (quattro list chip club) 2bar chip, providing 14.5psi of 80's turbo goodness; about 230hp
-Upgraded wastegate spring
-Strapped Intercooler (protect from hoses blowing off? reinforced)
-Bosch BPV (Bypass Valve)
-UrS6 springs, providing an increase in spring rate and a slight lift (.75-1")
-Bilstein HD rear shocks
-Boge Turbo front shocks
-New passenger wheel bearing
-7" LED fog lights on front bumper activated with foot switch just left of the clutch pedal. (keeps both hands on the wheel!)

Thanks guys n gals, Im open to all feedback, teach me what you know of the audi as I can't really forsee giving it up - its ridiculous fun

-andrew



-mountainGoat

GroupBquattro

Welcome to the world of quattro, seems like the previous owner put some work into this car.
First of all, once chipped, never ever use anything lower than supreme gas. You put cheap gas, even midgrade, and at higher rpm you can get detonation and destroy the engine.
The pentosin, that's for the power steering pump. This pump is probably one part that breaks more often on these cars, they leak a lot first. As far as oil goes, I used 20w50 for a while, but now I am back to 5W30. Did not notice any differences, and I do have stage II on my car as well. During the warmer months, I would remove the projector that blocks the intercooler. These cars don't like the heat and can overheat really fast. The auxiliary water cooling pump is one that lets go fairly often; it cracks, don't bother trying to fix it, I tried several times, and it doesn't hold-so get a new one. So you won't get stranded, go to Home Depot and get a few assorted hose connectors. I always keep a box of connectors in the trunk in case a hose breaks. If the auxiliary pump goes, you can bypass it and make it home safely. Except hoses, I can't think of anything major that could leave you stranded you with these cars. NGK plugs, good wires and new distributor cap/ rotor, all fluids to the correct levels and you should be in good shape. Of course, window regulators and switches, door handles that break, this will happen, old cars. Make sure you have good license plate bulbs, if they go off, you will have dashboard lights issues ( strange, but they are connected)

mountainGoat

All good stuff I'll look into ..pentosyn is Coolant tho.. Not power steering i believe.. Unless they make both

GroupBquattro

Yes, they make coolant as well, although I never used it.

Pushbutton_auto

In general, Pento in Audis is for PS fluid, use it if you have no leaks.

There are a few on here that like to use other products, but Pento is best.

I use Mobil oil down here (NZ), but we don't have the extremes u guys have, generally colder is lower weight.

and yeah 98 for gas, or whatever your equivalent is, higher az.

Enjoy because they are workhorses, snow ploughs, loose metal and dirt beasts, have heaps of grunt but will still go great mileage on the freeway.

toml99

They make Pentofrost in blue(OEM replacement for my 90 and 91 V8), and the red(pink) for the later models. The Napa by my house has both, which is awesome for someone who's got either color in their car and need to top off as you shouldn't mix coolants as there are so many out there that can be very different chemically(don't ever put green in anything that doesn't have green in it). The Pentosin 11s is the hydraulic fluid for the steering, and since it's so expensive, and many have leaks, people have used lots of different fluids. I run Mobil DTE 10 excel 32(used to be DTE 13M), and physically is almost identical to 11s, with a higher flash point(good for big leakers), and is just slightly thicker(also good for leakers). Didn't cause me any cold issues in Driggs,ID when I lived there. $80 for 5 gallons which makes flushing the system affordable. Lots of guys run Mobil 1 ATF and have seen it slow rack leaks/available. I recently gambled and bought a quart of Lucas PS stop leak, and it's completely stopped the leak out of my Lago V8's rack(been weeping for years). Side benefit is that the Mobil DTE is clear, and the Lucas is red, so now can see the level in the reservoir. Anyone needing to fix a rack leak must try this stuff. I was totally doubtful, but was changing the oil, and saw it with it's "guaranteed to stop steering rack oring leaks").....Ha. Good luck with that car....looks like a snow eating beast.....Tom