So tonight my friend who has an 01 A4 1.8TQM (the blue a4 in the video I made if you saw it) and I got together to work on some little things on our cars. His car ran like crap and didn't have any power at all so we wanted to see why. My car had a lot of power but I was getting a bad hissing noise from the front end whenever I hit about 15-16 PSI or so. I was also leaking power steering fluid really bad and my idle was crap (RPM's bouncing all over the place when I let off the gas). So we decided to do something about it and ended up getting both cars running well again!

1. Joe's A4 had a HUGE boost leak somewhere so we made that tennis ball boost leak tester (works really well) and ended up finding out that the turbo out-let pipe had gotten disconnected from where it goes to the pipe under the radiator. What looked like he did was bottomed out the car and pushed the A/C lines up into the turbo outlet pipe and popped it off.

2. We ran the boost leak tester on my car as well and ended up finding that the check valve that sits on top of the air-box was pretty much destroyed on the bottom part (side that you can't see looking from the top). Here is a pic:

Should look like this:


Mine looked like this:


So we used OnePoint8Tee's temporary method of fixing it by wrapping it in electrical tape:


3. My power steering had been leaking since I installed my intercooler. I couldn't find out where it was coming from then I looked all around and saw that the line where it connects to the power steering cooler was a little out. I pulled on it a bit and it was SUPER loose!!! I could have pulled it apart with my hands. So I just got a pair of pliers and crimped the crap out of the clamp that was there and now it's all nice and tight and no longer leaking.

4. To fix my idle I pulled my throttle body off and what I saw was disgusting!!!! It was pitch black all around the throttle door thing (don't know the real name of it). It was all gunked up and whatnot so I spent 10 min and almost a full bottle of throttle body cleaner to clean it. Now it looks brand new and runs great to!!!

SO, now the only thing I really need to do is get a new valve cover gasket to fix that (leaks onto my cat and smells bad). So hopefully that will be done next weekend.

All in all it was a good night of wrenching and everything. I'm glad my car runs good again! So is my friend!

Josh

 

The throttle body valve is called a butter fly valve or throttle plate in case your wondering, but yeah the 1.8T engine always developes carbon build up on the valve which affects idle.

 

Ahh, thanks. No I learned a little more tonight as well! LOL

Josh

 

Every time you open the hood and work on something you should learn something new, and if your smart you will write it down.

 

LOL, I do pretty much learn something new every time but i don't write it down. I have a really good memory with stuff like this and can remember it well. If it's something super complicated I might write it down but for the most part I don't.

Josh

 

Ok you should know this answer then.
If you losing coolant in the resivior but you can smell a sugary burning smell andthere is no coolant dropping onto the ground what is the problem?
A) The CTS sensor o-ring
B) The coolant expansion tank is leaking
C) The coolant flange is leaking
D) The heater core is leaking
E) Further diagnosis is needed

 

love nights like those. always feels good to get your car running right again

 

It would most likely be the coolant flange leaking. It leaks down onto the transmission and or the cat which will cause it to burn and smell.

But please I don't want to have this thread turned around. LOL. If you want to ask questions like this please feel free to PM me.

Josh

 

Oh im not trying to get you all flustered or anything, im just trying to get you to think a little harder about things. As well as other members that may be reading this thread.
The answer is simple all of the answers that i listed with the exception of the heater core is a possiblity because it could run down the cylinder head on on the exhaust. So the answer is cannot be determined because you haven't diagnosed the actual cause yet, guessing is a bad way of finding out what your problem is and that is exactly what im getting at. No matter how much knowledge you think you may have gained means nothing un-less you have a written path/diagnosis refference to fall back on that you have already created, if you get what im telling you? Im very stubborn myself and it took me several years and hundreds of cars to learn this lesson so im trying to pass it on where it is needed.

 

LOL, I was not frustrated at all. And I see what you are talking about now. I thought you ment write down what I learn every time I learn something, not when you diagnose things. If it's something like that then yes I might start doing that. I appreciate it that you are trying to pass on your knowledge. I am sure others will to.

NOW, back on topic...

Josh