Ok so about a month ago I bought a mechanics lien 1998 Audi A4 Quattro 2.8 for my 17 year old son. Nice car, bought it from Roseville Towing, guy said no problems with it he new of (Caveat Emptor), and they had just got it smogged. I checked it out, looked OK kind of dirty no dripping oil, gas guage was at 1/4, test drove it up and down the street seemed to drive good. shifted through most of the gears smoothly.

If this gets to long jump to the bottom that's where I need the help.

Half way home the car hard shifts from 2-3 and then 3-4. I look down and the gas guage is on empty (WTF), pull into a station put 20 bucks in and it's reading 1/2, drive off it's at 1/4 then empty then half etc..

I get it home and start really looking, the engine breather hoses are cracked and broken spitting oil on the engine compartment, I know I think I missed this because the engine covers were still on the car and I didn't/should have taken them off.

So as some of you know and have been very helpful with I have fixed the following
1. New engine breather hoses
2. New valve cover gaskets, cam shaft plugs and seals (the ones not locked in buy the timing belt. Had to do this two and 1/2 times to get them sealed right.
3. Son decided to go all streets of SF and bashed a hole in the oil pan so it got replaced as well.
4. fixed the fuel sending unit. (wire was broke, soldered on a new one G2G)

Now for the problems,
when I step on the brakes I get a sound like slowly letting air of out a baloon (Squeeeeeeeeeek) this stays on until I let off the brake. (If I'm coming off the freeway though I don't get the sound the first couple of times I stop. Sounds like a vacuum leak probably from the brake booster?????? but I can't find the vac hoses for the brake booster.

While digging around the car I notice the black electrical component that sits between the ABS system and the windshield fluid reservoir is not and will not connect it's been unplugged I think, like someone disconnected the ABS cuircuit I don't know what this is so if someone can advise I would appreciate it. The CEL light is on but I'm thinking this may be from the valve cover, fuel sending unit, oil pan issues/replacements. It did not come on during the first 3-4 days of driving, only after I started replacing things. The brakes work great (except for the noise) they stop the car perfectly. I did a simple test, push on brakes twice with engine off, hold pressure on pedal start car, pedal goes down a little things are fine, and everything was fine.

When I was working on the valve covers the vacuum line that's about 1/4 inch around goes from the top of the engine near the air intake (throttle body) down to and under the ABS system came off when putting it back on I realized the plastic tip that is part of a check type valve the hose hooked to broke off, so i've got the hose on the best I can, does anyone know what this vacuum hose goes to and how important is it.

I haven't gotten the VAGCOM yet partially out of fear of what it will tell me. I know I need to if I want any real hope of correcting everything that's wrong though. OBTW, since replacing the oil pan and valve covers the car has not shifted hard once. I drove it stop and go yesterday a total of about 25 miles and not a hard shift once. ????????

All help is appreciated.

 

Getting the codes read will help you out a lot. You can go to Autozone or pep boys and they will scan it for codes for you for free-just get a copy of all of them. Don't be scared, you seem very adept and this forum is great.

You didn't mention if your fuel gauge stopped working erratically?

The 1/4 inch tube you are talking about goes to your smog pump, commonly known as the Secondary air injection pump (SAI), it can cause erratic idling, idling jump and loss of power, also will fail emissions (if that's an issue).

The plug by the ABS and fluid reservoir - what shape is it? If you're standing in front of the car, the ABS is to the left of the WINDSHIELD washer fluid, it has a plug on the right that's about 1.5 inches long with a metal clip on it. If your ABS light isn't on, it's working fine. Again, what shape is it? If it's roundish, could be the plug from under the coolant reservoir tank, or one of the plugs off the power steering fluid reservoir...I'm guessing your ps works fine though. I'm also assuming though, that your windshield washers spray? It could be that plug too.

As to your oil pan...my son has cracked 3 of them in the last 2 years...thank god I put MOA in my oil...haven't blown an engine yet....LOL

 

Yea we have RR tracks that are pretty old here which makes from some good up and down hills over them (I can actually jump them on my DS motorcycle if I'm not careful.) and these cars do not have much clearence and his does not have the under skirt not that it would provide much protection but...

Now if I can just figure out the squeal noise and how to fix that.

 

The break 'noise', is it from inside the car, or outside? Can you tell if it's on one side or the other? front or rear?

 

Sounds like left front, engine compartment but from low like under or even with the brake pedal.

 

There are vacuum hoses under the dash above the brake pedal (knee bolster)....if one of those is loose or has a hole in it, you would hear air coming from there....I think you can google it, I read something about this issue once somewhere a long time ago.

 

Thanks Markymarc, I'll have a look at that. I'll check all the vacuum hoses for the brake system as a matter of fact. Much appreciated.