Richard Berg
Veteran Member
I don't know anyone on this board terribly well so I'll spare you the personal details of the trip. Suffice to say it was long long way, and the 2nd half saw the wagon packed to the gills with furniture & such (including a bike mounted onto the rear hatch). In general the car handled all the terrain I encountered with aplomb; I bought the vehicle for its unparalleled combination of cargo space and efficiency, but it turned out to be comfortable & fun too.
A few issues cropped up, though. Wouldn't be here if I wasn't looking for feedback, so here goes:
1) As soon as I hit the first mountains I became utterly convinced GoFaster was right about limp mode. On my usual coastal interstates the supposed lack of top end was questionable (still able to reach 95mph+), but under heavy load the effect was not subte. I tested it by coasting until RPMs dropped to 1800 or so (5th gear of course) then flooring it: the car would pull very strong, then suddenly and obviously "quit." On flat roads it doesn't do this until 85+, but in the mountains I'd have trouble maintaining 65 until I was able to somehow "reset" the ECU.
I was all prepped to clean the intake manifold with the help of Rob, but as soon as we took it apart it was obvious it was extremely clean! I'd focused on this area having read so much about its tendency to clog & impede performance (hence the various EGR/CCV mods, etc...), but rereading GoFaster's post it's clear my problem is probably one of the ECU control/sensor hoses. Oh well, still worth it to meet Rob (nice guy), and nice to know I won't have to dig out EGR crud anytime soon.
Most of the pics online with labeled components are A3's and A4's, so I'll probably start a thread when it comes time to identify the right hose to replace.
2) At some point, I noticed the sound of the turbo for the first time. I can't for the life of me determine whether this is because I spent the first 7k miles of ownership perceptive only to the stupid muffler resonance (which was temporarily "cured" by all the junk loaded into the back), or if it's actually getting louder. szszszsz...
3) I figured out how to reproduce the very occasional shudder I've mentioned here a few times with more reliability. (It's always been at exactly the same RPM & gear (2100 / 5th) but in normal driving only happened every couple weeks.) If you run at high load/rpm for a long time (several hundred miles) then decelerate in gear, it'll do it as you cross 2100. Weird...according to the FAQ it's likely an N75 problem...wonder if it's related to the bad hose / limp mode thing...
4) Fuel consumption was never very good. 45mpg on the first two tanks going a constant 70mph (indicated), then 38-41mpg the rest of the time doing ~80mph as possible. I keep a more detailed log, but the interesting thing was that the factors I considered important (mountains, additional weight, bike that stuck out a bit beyond the left bumper) didn't seem to have much effect; the sole outlier in either direction was a tank of just under 35mpg during which I faced a really stiff desert headwind (and let my brother rev it up to 100mph a few times when it let up). FWIW, I was taking the opportunity to sample the quality stuff available in TX an CA, and adding a goodly amount of PS regardless.
It wasn't too long ago I did my 67mpg test run...we'll just see how things turn out once I return to "normal" conditions before I get worried...any comments?
5) No problems with starting, drained batteries, or anything of the sort since replacing the alternator, thank God. (Not reported in that thread, BTW, is the fact that the final "episode" took the stereo with it; oh well, braving the first 1.5k miles in silence wasn't fun, but it gave an excuse to buy a nice CD head-unit that made the remainder of the trip downright enjoyable).
I did blow the damn #21 fuse twice more, but both times it was related to the cig lighter plug being too loose -- if there's something drawing current when it gets jiggled, sparks can fly. Thinking back, I'm certain this was the cause of all the previous fuse outages. A bit annoying when you have to cannabilize power windows to keep your cell phone charging, but having been relieved that it's not related to the major electrical issues I used to encounter, I can live with that.
6) Crossing the Appalachians eastward, I'm in the home stretch, less than 300 miles to go. The intake system is behaving itself for once -- I'm holding a solid 80mph up swerving 6% grades and having a lot of fun. When making hard right corners, though, the oil pressure gauge starts to beep at me. I ignore it for a few times, thinking it's a dumb gauge idiotically located on the far right-hand side of the pan or something, then decide engine oil isn't something to **** around with and reluctantly pull over.
Check the dipstick: no oil registered. Um, ok...I'm a newbie to working on cars, certainly I'm just doing something stupidly wrong. And yet, despite the warnings against overfilling, I decide it's better to kill a catalyst than an engine. A couple impulse purchases of Rotella T later my fears are confirmed: I'd burned off two quarts of oil! Once I get back online I discover this is perfectly normal, but at the time I'd totally overlooked the possibility. (When you're an average know-nothing American who visits Jiffy Lube every 3k miles, you never get in the habit of checking the dipstick when you fill up.)
By naive calculation there was still 3 quarts of Delvac in there that was "only" 12k (highway) miles old. Is that enough to have dodged a bullet here? When I flush the current blend out in a couple days, would an oil analysis be worthwhile?
This is really long, after claiming I'd leave out unimportant details. Oops.
A few issues cropped up, though. Wouldn't be here if I wasn't looking for feedback, so here goes:
1) As soon as I hit the first mountains I became utterly convinced GoFaster was right about limp mode. On my usual coastal interstates the supposed lack of top end was questionable (still able to reach 95mph+), but under heavy load the effect was not subte. I tested it by coasting until RPMs dropped to 1800 or so (5th gear of course) then flooring it: the car would pull very strong, then suddenly and obviously "quit." On flat roads it doesn't do this until 85+, but in the mountains I'd have trouble maintaining 65 until I was able to somehow "reset" the ECU.
I was all prepped to clean the intake manifold with the help of Rob, but as soon as we took it apart it was obvious it was extremely clean! I'd focused on this area having read so much about its tendency to clog & impede performance (hence the various EGR/CCV mods, etc...), but rereading GoFaster's post it's clear my problem is probably one of the ECU control/sensor hoses. Oh well, still worth it to meet Rob (nice guy), and nice to know I won't have to dig out EGR crud anytime soon.
Most of the pics online with labeled components are A3's and A4's, so I'll probably start a thread when it comes time to identify the right hose to replace.
2) At some point, I noticed the sound of the turbo for the first time. I can't for the life of me determine whether this is because I spent the first 7k miles of ownership perceptive only to the stupid muffler resonance (which was temporarily "cured" by all the junk loaded into the back), or if it's actually getting louder. szszszsz...
3) I figured out how to reproduce the very occasional shudder I've mentioned here a few times with more reliability. (It's always been at exactly the same RPM & gear (2100 / 5th) but in normal driving only happened every couple weeks.) If you run at high load/rpm for a long time (several hundred miles) then decelerate in gear, it'll do it as you cross 2100. Weird...according to the FAQ it's likely an N75 problem...wonder if it's related to the bad hose / limp mode thing...
4) Fuel consumption was never very good. 45mpg on the first two tanks going a constant 70mph (indicated), then 38-41mpg the rest of the time doing ~80mph as possible. I keep a more detailed log, but the interesting thing was that the factors I considered important (mountains, additional weight, bike that stuck out a bit beyond the left bumper) didn't seem to have much effect; the sole outlier in either direction was a tank of just under 35mpg during which I faced a really stiff desert headwind (and let my brother rev it up to 100mph a few times when it let up). FWIW, I was taking the opportunity to sample the quality stuff available in TX an CA, and adding a goodly amount of PS regardless.
It wasn't too long ago I did my 67mpg test run...we'll just see how things turn out once I return to "normal" conditions before I get worried...any comments?
5) No problems with starting, drained batteries, or anything of the sort since replacing the alternator, thank God. (Not reported in that thread, BTW, is the fact that the final "episode" took the stereo with it; oh well, braving the first 1.5k miles in silence wasn't fun, but it gave an excuse to buy a nice CD head-unit that made the remainder of the trip downright enjoyable).
I did blow the damn #21 fuse twice more, but both times it was related to the cig lighter plug being too loose -- if there's something drawing current when it gets jiggled, sparks can fly. Thinking back, I'm certain this was the cause of all the previous fuse outages. A bit annoying when you have to cannabilize power windows to keep your cell phone charging, but having been relieved that it's not related to the major electrical issues I used to encounter, I can live with that.
6) Crossing the Appalachians eastward, I'm in the home stretch, less than 300 miles to go. The intake system is behaving itself for once -- I'm holding a solid 80mph up swerving 6% grades and having a lot of fun. When making hard right corners, though, the oil pressure gauge starts to beep at me. I ignore it for a few times, thinking it's a dumb gauge idiotically located on the far right-hand side of the pan or something, then decide engine oil isn't something to **** around with and reluctantly pull over.
Check the dipstick: no oil registered. Um, ok...I'm a newbie to working on cars, certainly I'm just doing something stupidly wrong. And yet, despite the warnings against overfilling, I decide it's better to kill a catalyst than an engine. A couple impulse purchases of Rotella T later my fears are confirmed: I'd burned off two quarts of oil! Once I get back online I discover this is perfectly normal, but at the time I'd totally overlooked the possibility. (When you're an average know-nothing American who visits Jiffy Lube every 3k miles, you never get in the habit of checking the dipstick when you fill up.)
By naive calculation there was still 3 quarts of Delvac in there that was "only" 12k (highway) miles old. Is that enough to have dodged a bullet here? When I flush the current blend out in a couple days, would an oil analysis be worthwhile?
This is really long, after claiming I'd leave out unimportant details. Oops.
