Audi Cabriolet 2.3E 1992- issues with starting

[Bruno2]

Hi everybody,

I have just joined this forum. I bought my fantastic 1992 cabriolet a few weeks ago. When I bought it, it had been sitting for a year or so and after driving it back to London, the fuel pump started making lots of noise even when there was quite a bit of fuel in it. I had that changed along with the filter and now it seems fine.

Now, regardless of when I start the car, it takes far too many turns of the engine before it finally fires and it sometimes even needs a few flicks of the throttle to get it going. Sometimes it will start without any help at all, but it will then stall more or less instantly.

It drives fine, although I would say a little slow considering the size of the engine. It also guzzles fuel, i.e. £55 was put in it, I've done about 150 miles and already it's hovering above the red!!!! Any ideas?

[scotty33]

a few suggestions:

A Service, filters, plugs if not recently done.

check for HT leads arcing, pop the bonnet somewhere dark

Check all vacuum, intake and breather system for leaks, crankcase breather hose down below the dizzy is notorious for perishing/turning to 'mush'

You might benefit from a new battery if a bit tired, ie faster cranking

Check injectors for leakage, pull injectors from their sockets and place into eg jam jars overnight, see how much fuel dribbles out over time, should be very little. Not a bad idea to renew the injector seals anyway, these are a vacuum leak if deteriorated.
fuel leaking from he injectors causes loss of pressure in the system, so not enough initial pressure to start the car immediately. Also the fuel leaked drops into the bores, which causes spluttering etc when the engine fires, also not good for the oil condition
as some leaks through to the sump!

Lambda sensor or G62 temp sensor problems could cause high fuel use. Is it a j or K plate car? If decatted, they may have binned the lambda altogether? - it does happen! (though I'm not certain if it is on the cat or the manifold on a 10v?) Other possibility I suppose is if the mixture screw has been adjusted very rich? Should only be adjusted with use of an exhaust gas analyser

[Bruno2]

Thanks very much for that Scotty, I have a little look and can't see any arcing from the HTs. Pressure does seem to be a little low in the engine, i.e. when I remove the oil filler cap when engine is running it splutters. There appears to be condensation coming out the back, plus it does smell incredibly rich too. Could the cat have been removed? It is a K plate. The chap who owned the car before me said that the mix had been adjusted as it smelled like it was running really rich.

Another possibly unrelated issue is that it does run out of fuel incredibly easily, even when there is fuel in the tank if it's parked on the slightest of cambers the fuel pump will start shrieking and you can't start it until you put a can of fuel in it. I've worked it out and the current MPG is 17! I'll get the garage to see if it is the lamda sensor or temp sensor.

Thanks so much for your help!