4000CS Quattro issues
 

UPDATEDness
k so I got the brake lights working. Turned out I had the wrong bulbs? stupid sylvania catalogue at kragen is dumb and told me the wrong bulbs.

I still have heater troubles. I figured out how it works though. the whole intake for the interior fan. with the flap down it pulls outside air and blocks off the heater core. with the flap up it pulls air from the heater core. well with the flap down it still puts hot air out of the side vents. still no idea why. ill be getting a bunch of vacuum line soon and just replace everything.

Im guesing its also related to a ground or corrosion problem. the 2 front corner turn signals dont work. but go solid when I hit the brakes. they didn't use to do that. so im guessing a ground got screwed up or corrosion. ill be checking both of those.

The Oil temperature gauge thing never works. always stays at 60 degrees. but the battery voltage gauge works.

No lights on the differential lock thing. is there supposed to be? I saw a picture of a new 4000cs AD and it was all lit up. so dont know.

The fan for the radiator turns on at random wierd times. like it will turn on for about 2 minutes when the car is almost at full hot. then turn off. then wont turn back on for a long while. but then it will turn on after I turn the car off and take the key out of the ignition. fan switch? more ground problems?

I also have a random vacuum line that goes nowhere. its near the air intake boot. any clue what its to? Ill get a picture real soon.

And does anybody have a picture or diagram of EVERY vaccuum line under the hood? including the interior fan lines? cause the one under the hood only shows the stuff in the engine bay. not the fan stuff... mainly because alot of the A/C and heater stuff is run off vacuum


yeah.. my post probably didnt make sense but im tired. so yeah.


thanks so far for the help!

any help at all?
cause winter is coming up and i'm really going to want the heating issue fixed....

When it comes to the dash lights that is a touchy issue. The thing about it is they used plastic with copper inserts which transfer the electricity. These tend to wear out. You can either try to fabricate the same copper connector or better yet just get a new console from the junk yard.

For the brake lights I would have to say check the terminal connector of wires that plugs into the pin out on the plastic bulb holder. These tend to get wet and corrode. Mine was doing something similar. It would freeze the turn signal and turn out the light all together on one side. After scraping all the corrosion away and bending the pins slightly to get a better connection the problems went away.

For any window issues once again corrosion is your enemy. If your window regulator fails the window tends to drop in the door. The wiring will likely be fine as I've never seen wiring issues with the windows in these cars. The actual window switch itself is what you want to look at. Most people say you cannot get into these which is incorrect. I would recommend carefully prying the unit apart as well you will see little lock pins of plastic. Once inside you'll likely see a bunch of corrosion. Scrape away or try some CLR. Anything that will eat corrosion.

If you're stuck with the vents in a certain manner it's likely the heater switch. Also be aware the cars naturally pump outside air through the middle and heated or cooled air out the sides. Two places to look for this. One is under the hood. Look bad just behind and below the distributor. You should find a plastic device with a metal lever. This should have a sleeve/wire connected to it. If that is all intact then move on to step to unless you want to manually switch the heat from there for the time being. The other is a bit more tricky. The second portion of the switch is behind the levers in the console. I know the levers pull out but I don't entirely recall how to get back in there. You should be able to pull the plastic piece out. With narrow hands you should see the other switch. It should look just about the same. If the wire is disconnected or MIA then there is your issue. That is the common place for this issue to occur. The parts you should be able to find at a junk yard.

For the steering knock it's likely to be either a tie rod end or the ball joint pin on the end of the a-arm. Also know when you do a full turn on the steering it tends to put a lot of stress on the steering column. I would also check your steering rack.

That's the best advice I can give you without being there looking at the car. Hope this helps.

oh wow. thanks for the help man. Ill be trying all of this stuff.

Nice tips I might need to replace my whole dash because my instruments and the lighting sucks..

For the brake lights, it helps to run an alternate ground from the light cluster to the body.

got the brake lights fixed. switched to some different bulbs and bent the pins back so they werent so smashed in.
gonna buy a new dash soon.
im thining that the problem with the fan inside is due to a vacuum leak. cause the whole heating and A/C system works alot on vacuum and what not.
so yeah.
gonna need to get some more vacuum line.
thanks so far!

your window
 

so when i first got my 86 quattro about two years ago the front window didnt work at all, the window was tightly up in possition but it didnt work. which from what it sounds like is what your having problems with... take a look at the wiring on the regulator harness; mine had rubbed the wires through on the positive side and was shorting out, this might be the same problem your having.

updated....