bladernr

How is everyone today?? I have some fresh questions about my 88 90 Quattro that I hope someone can give me some advice on.

1: What causes the check engine light to come on? Mine flashes on every so often then immediately back off. It almost seems as though there is a loose connection or a dirty sensor or something, but I dont know what various things will trigger the light to come on. Any suggestions on what to look at to fix this annoyance?

2: I just put 4 new tires on the car and got an alignment. Now I am noticing that when I brake (especially at higher speeds (>50mph) when I hit it a little hard) the car suddenly pulls left then immediately right. Its as though the brakes are being applied unevenly, first to the front left, then front right, then evenly. Any ideas or thoughts on this? For the record, the ABS does not work, and I think this is because of the wheel sensors being a little out of whack. I have a good idea that this is the case, but I wanted to check here for some validation and maybe suggestions for fixing/diagnosing this.

3: Finally... I need to replace the right front outer CV boot. I have never done one myself before, but it is FAR cheaper to do it myself this weekend than pay someone to do it, and I AM quite mechanically inclined, I just never had the need to replace a boot before.

So what I wanted to know about this is, how difficult is it to replace the outer boot? What do I need to do? I have the Bently manual to go by, but I wanted to ask those of you who have done this before to get a realistic idea of what I should expect when I replace it this weekend.

Thanks a lot for the help! I am so very glad there is a place like Audiworld to get some help from time to time keeping my older Audi's on the road!

Jeff

SCarGo02

2.) What shape is the suspension in? When was the last time the brakes were bled? How old is the fluid?

3.) Never done a boot, but it's been discussed many times, perhaps a search will yield how hard it is.

bladernr

Yeah... I still need to pull the codes. I have not done that yet, mainly because I have been rather lazy and the CEL hasn't been that big of an issue... it just annoys me ;-)

As for 2. The suspension is worn, but still seems in good shape. No creaks or groans. I'll have to replace struts some time as it is starting to lean out of the curves, but the car has about 220K on it so that really isn't too surprising.

The brakes are still good padwise, but I am sure the system has not been flushed for some time. Didn't think about bleeding them though. Maybe this weekend when I have the car apart, I'll flush and bleed them to be sure. I am sure the fluid is quite old, and may well be the original fluid, for all I know.

I bought the car as a replacement for my ailing 5KCSTQ Wagon and only paid about 800 bucks for it...

SCarGo02

...I blame the soft suspension...

Pulling codes is pretty easy on an '88...procedure is in the Bentley (specific for '88s).

bladernr

That's interesting... I had never noticed it before though, which is why it is worrying me. Then again, it could be that before, the car was already out of alignment (the pothole just made it worse) and that offset any movement braking created.

I don't really want to put a lot of money into the car, but if I get everything else taken care of, I may invest in some stiffer components. But first I need to replace the front boot, and MAYBE the CV joint, the AC Condensor, recharge the AC, put new lifters in (or are they valve guides?)... We shall see, I suppose...