Hi all. Just brought my 90 Q home. 102k miles. I'm pretty excited it about it. It's pretty nice. But it's got a few issues.

1. Rear light issue: Car on with lights on and rear fog on. License plate lights on when trunk open. As I close trunk they go off, rear fog turns on, rear fog turns off, backup lights turn on. Backup lights are controllable by rear fog lamp while trunk is closed. License lamps not lit while trunk closed. All other lamps seem normal (save for missing front fogs - anybody got some?)
2. Alternator output seems to trail off after idling for 5 or 10 minutes (shumacher battery charger says so). Just an alternator?
3. It smokes. Smoke is white, dissipates as it rises away (like steam), but doesn't smell sweet. Goes away after 10 minutes of cruising, but for small puffs when shifting.
4. Someone removed the rad fan max fuse, relay and delay relay. Why?
5. Where can I buy a service manual?

That's all I found tonight. Any help would be greatly appreciated - especially with the trunk closing mystery.

Thanks,
Matt

 

1.Common B4 90 problem search trunk hinge wiring repair.
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...+wiring+repair
2. Could just be the voltage regulator(brushes)cheaper the replacing the whole alt.
3.Could be head gasket related or could just be cold weather. Blueish smoke would indicate oil burning valve seals or pistons rings the latter being a common problem on the 12v V6
4.No Idea but that can't be good if the fans are not working.
5.The bentley manual is available on DVD/rom only about $100 or less try amazon
www.12v.org is a good start.

 

+1 on trunk wiring. If the ignition switch hasn't been changed lately, I would do that too. A $26 part--get the dealer part not the chinese meyle jobs on Ebay.
Make sure your alt/ac/ps tensioner is good and tight. Make sure your battery ground is good and tight and clean. If both are good, slip the belt off and try spinning the alt pulley. If it makes bearing noise you are due for an alt. If not, make sure the wiring to the alt is good and tight and clean.
I have found that low coolant/bad T-stat makes for white smoke too. If your temp gage is working and it goes up to normal operating temp! and you still get the white smoke, check the black hoses going from the rear of the valve covers to the TB. If they are broken, or full of brown goo, and the oil cap has goo on it, clean (or replace) them and give it a 1 hour run on a highway to get it good and hot.
If you dont have water on the dipstick it may be that the car has been taken on a lot of short trips. These tend to build up a lot of water in the exhaust etc. Thus the steam. Cold running cars--i.e. not getting to operating temp makes lots of steam too.
Make sure the car has NGK plugs in it. Lot of people put Bosch platinums in these cars and they run for **** with those plugs in it.

 

On the trunk wiring... I just fixed mine yesterday due to the doors all locking every time I closed the trunk.
I was able to lock or unlock the doors by touching the wire harness at the bend
Every time the trunk lid closes, this wire bends...


I was lucky enough to find a whole harness at a junkyard local to me and just replacing the whole think from these connectors up...


Otherwise you can splice the 7 or 8 wires individually.

 

I'll report back.

Thanks,
Matt

 

I was at home depot today and they have 18gauge 7 wire sprinkler wire by the spool. That might work for splicing. It was like 59 cents a foot. Not sure how long it would last but certainly a better option than the harness new from Audi at a couple hundred bucks.

 

Great tip. Thanks.

Although it seems a bit kludgy, I think the cat-5 fix is the one that wins today, as I have a big box of that I can use.

Also replacing rear brakes. eBrake cable is broken on one side. Try to fix?

I'll repost when I get something done (besides fixing the door switch ground).

Thanks,
Matt

 

How do you close the trunk with all those wire nuts?

Just kidding.

Love the rear fog light. I had one of these in 2000 and wrecked it 23 days after I got it (should say that someone wrecked me). It was a great car. Crashes like a dream.

I bought the service manual, fixed a few things, found a few more things to fix. Seat heater, moon roof, radio startup buzz, ebrake, misc. cracked vacuum hoses. If I had to guess, I would say the owner paid the dealer to keep it up for some time, then just gave up and tried to fix it themselves. The missing relays are signs of electrical gremlins that were not chased down, I believe. Connector for moonroof was pulled. Have to buy the right relays for the max rad fan circuit to see what's up with that, but both fans turn on with A/C, so that system is working.

I bought this car at a charity auction. The car came with a goodie box that included brake parts. On the right rear, they replaced one pad. Apparently they didn't appreciate that when the pins are seized, one need a new carrier. Never saw that before.

The goodie box included two brake pads with sensors, which means the two without sensors are on the car. I'm afraid to look up front - but I will when I can get the front end up (parts on order for the rear).

When I jacked up the rear, gas started to leak out (tank is full). Looks like there are cracks in the catch. I put some gasket sealant on it. Hope that helps.

12v.org is amazing. Speedline made the wheels. That's cool.

Tomorrow I'll call the dealer and see when the water pump was done.

Thanks.

Matt