new 90 Quattro owner needs help

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Mar 11, 2004 | 06:36 PM

AutosportMan

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new 90 Quattro owner needs help

Hi everyone, I am the new owner of a 1988 Audi 90 Quattro. I have admired Audi's for quite some time now, and I am finally an owner of one. The problem I am having with it is after driving it for 10 minutes, it looses power and dies. It will restart, but will only idle. If revved up after restarting, it will retirn to idle and then die out. The previous owner replaced the fuel pump for this problem, but it didn't fix it, so he sold it to me. It acts like it's running out of fuel (how can i check fuel pressure?) When it starts to happen, it'll bog down above 1/2 throttle, if you drive easy it will keep going for awhile, and then finally die out. I have never driven one of these before, so I don't know how much power they have, but it seems doggy up to 1/2 throttle, above 1/2 throttle it picks up and goes good. This may be normal, I dont know. As a side note, about a minute after driving the vehicle, the temp warning light comes on, and the vehicle barely moves out of the cold, it may just need a thermostat, I haven't really looked at that problem yet. Also, I think the water pump is leaking, I see antifreeze at the front bottom of the oil pan, and can't really determine where it's coming from, so I assume its the water pump. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Mar 11, 2004 | 06:45 PM

YucatanAudi

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Re: Fuel pump (says he replaced it); Fuel Filter; Temp light - computer provides wrong mix; Fuel dis

fuel distributor; Fuel Mix (CO2 adj); vacuum leaks (not as likely at speed as at idle)...

You need to have a competent audi mechanic look at this car and tell you what all is wrong. If the water pump is bad, you could lose the timing belt soon and you'd really be in a world of hurt.

There are a whole list of things - search for "Fuel System" or "fuel components" - and you will find many posts. My pic poster has several drawings of the fuel components.

You also need to find out about the Temp Warning Light. Could be a bad sensor (low coolant sensor)at the bottom of the coolant tank or something else. The ECU will not feed the correct data if the coolant sensor is bad - these are cheap & easy to replace.

But you really need to get a good overall picture of what's going on. Sounds like several things are bad - including one that could be major if your timing belt breaks (it drives the water pump).

Mar 11, 2004 | 07:51 PM

Nkugs90

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I had a similar problem like that on my 1988 90 Q

The fuel pressure regulator was bad. Its up in the front left hand side of the engine compartment, if you are facing the front of the car. Its a black kind of rectangular unit which plugs into 2 wires. When mine went bad there was the slightest bit of gas leaking out of the top of the regulator. Let me know if you see anything like that on your car. If that doesn't fix it then it could be a leak in your fuel line or something like that.

Thanks
Nick