85 UR quattro

This is my new to me 85 URQ I recently purchased from a friend. He was very kind to store the car over the winter at his facility till the weather was more conducive for driving it the 90 minutes to my shop. Great guy, thanks again for a great car.

[Edit] SORRY some of the early pictures have been moved so the links are broken but go to the latest pages for current pictures and activity.

So here is what I know about the car according to the previous owner:

"One of the best examples of the classic ur quattro available. Very rare Canadian car. Original Tornado Red paint with black leather interior. 1 of only 17 quattros imported to Canada in 1985! Desirable and rare non-sunroof version. 167,000 KM. Clear Michigan title. Retains original metric instruments - I did not convert anything when I imported this car to the USA.

Over the course of the past 3 years, this car has been totally sorted out by Phil at Auto Europe in Birmingham. Phil was an Audi mechanic back when these cars were brand new. I basically gave him permission to check and correct anything that needed attention. The car was great when I bought it, but it's even better now! New hard fuel lines, clutch and slave cylinders, hydraulic bomb, alternator, starter, water pump, timing belt. tires, battery, master cylinder, rear differential bushing, center driveshaft bearing, etc., etc. The car has a modified head and a modified ECU to allow use of the Euro wastegate spring. A joy to drive. This must be what it was like to drive one of these cars brand new. No rattles or squeaks. Strong performer."

Certainly couldn't take issue with any of that and I've known the PO for a few years as a customer at my shop and when I worked at Auto Europe. I was just starting to think about buying a classic when this showed up. I thought I might import an Opel Manta from Europe. That's the car I had when I moved to the US around 20 years ago. I thought it was time to get one back. But then I saw this and it was obvious this was the car I should have. I grew up watching Group B rally in the forests in England and the quattro has always been my favorite Group B monster. Just the noise alone is enough to get my heart racing. Indeed, as I like to tell people, this car is why I now own a motorsports business and race RallyCross, autocross etc. Plus, it would be good that the car stay in Michigan where Curt could keep an eye on it.

I’ve had the car here for a couple of months now and driven it a number of times. My goals for the car are to keep it in its original condition while fixing some of its issues and not-quite-original features. My list is already long but does not reflect the condition of the car but my mental condition of list making and nit-picking. Here are the highlights of what needs attention IMHO:

Oil change Passenger door lock inoperative Driver’s window seal loose Handbrake boot fits poorly Fuel leak smell Passenger window sticks at 2” drop Pass seat adjuster loose Vent broken center dash Passenger door pocket coming away Rear diff damp-reseal Right rear wheel creaks Wipers slow Gearbox play, mounts? Rust spots, leading edge of hood, and fender in engine bay Wrong headlights A/C removed, engine bay, replace Trunk carpet screws missing Engine under tray missing right side Radio too new and blingy Upper front strut mounts loose Rear brake lines rusty Front ball joints Lower control arm bushings iffy Left front cv boot getting brittle Volts-volt and oil temp meters behave oddly Door carpet coming away Non-original steering wheel Trunk strut inoperative. Key fob light Exhaust crooked Jack missing Speaker cover loose Non-original speakers

I might need help with some of these. Prepare yourselves for many questions. Obviously some of these are urgent and necessary, others trivial nit-picking but you can’t beat having a list. I’m sure it will grow rather than shrink even if I do check some off.

I still find it immensely ironic that, considering that I’m so into rally, have a rally related business and love to drive sideways that I bought a car that I can neither drive in the snow or on the dirt. I guess I’ll have to limit my fun to wet roundabouts, the three or four that exist in SE Michigan. I may do the odd autocross in it or maybe a track day. Do they have track days for classics? I already took it round Waterford Hills track at the recent track day but only during the parade laps at lunchtime. Twas quite fun. Probably, this is what I’ll do most with the car. Just take it to local motorsport events and shows so people can enjoy seeing it. I am going to slap some BRAID wheels on it and a discreet windshield banner in white “BRAIDUSA.com” though as it has to earn it’s keep somehow.

These are the wheels that are on the boat right now. What do you think?

I chose them because they are very reminiscent of the works wheels used on the S1, at least in my opinion. I ordered them in the same specs as the originals. I’ll use the Kumho 225/50-15 tires that came on the OE Ronals. Curt also gave me a set of BFG 215/50-15 which was the OE size but I’m not sure what to do with those yet.

Hopefully I’ll remember to update this page with news of the cars development and outings. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or suggestions let me know. I’m all ears.

Well the wheels finally came in and I immediately slapped some tires on them and bolted them on the car. What do you think?

Then I took it out to the lake for Memorial Day.

In case you're curious the wheels are BRAID Serie 6 R 3 piece, 15x8 with 225/50-15 Kumho tires.

I love these cars. A definite future collectible. Prices are already on the rise.

Congrats! Super cool cars that launched Audi as a maker of serious machinery. The LeMans winning R8-R10 prototype cars owe a lot to your quattro. Great find!

Very nice. We always drool over these when we're at Carlisle. Close as I've gotten was a GT Coupe for $500 I looked at.

I owned a Coupe GT for 12 years. While hardly the same car, there are a lot of similarities in some of the issues you want to address.

Those headlights...they are WAY better than the stock ones in both appearance and performance. I spent far too much importing a set from Germany for mine but was never sorry I did. Going back to the old lighting will require wiring changes back to stock. Those don't hurt the value; they increase it. The trunk struts are easy to replace and should still be available new. Common failure item. Problems with the windows not going up the whole way or smoothly are usually the window guide felts going bad. I wrote a how-to on replacement: Coupe window tracks and regulators The oem strips may be discontinued and hard to get now, but if you don't do something with them you'll ruin the window regulators; the cables will break, and the only way to fix those is buy a complete, expensive assembly. The broken center dash vent is also common. They are a PITA to get out. They have a foam seal around them that warrants considering a new replacement vs used. Engine under tray right side...not sure they had one. CGT's didn't. Sloppy shifters are usually worn out bushings. They CAN be bought separately but the dealer will tell you they only have assemblies. If you can read the part numbers on the old ones you can order them. Door pockets: always break. They are plastic junk and I elected to just take them off instead of constantly fighting with them and epoxy trying to keep them from getting worse. The a/c system used a crappy old York piston compressor that was heavy and inefficient. I replaced my system with a radial setup from an Audi 90. Had to have some hoses custom fabbed but it worked great. Originality on these cars doesn't really matter that much provided the changes are an improvement over a design or age shortcoming. People buy these for the performance more than to just stare at. Loved my CGT but ultimately it didn't have enough power nor the potential to make more without a turbo swap, and there's no sense swapping in a turbo to a fwd open diff car. If I had it to do again, I'd buy a Ur-q with a 5000 engine swap (for reliability and cheaper parts) and run the snot out of it.

That looks very nice.

Nice car, don't risk getting hit at a track day by some yahoo in a Matia. Autocross it instead, I'll bet it's great off the line.

mike

OFracing wrote: Nice car, don't risk getting hit at a track day by some yahoo in a Matia. Autocross it instead, I'll bet it's great off the line. mike

Yes Mike, that's what I thought too.

AWESOME find! I've owned, daily driven, ice raced, ralleyed, and tracked a couple of UrQ's and my rare (1 of 73) tastefully modified '85 was easily twice as desirable as my mostly stock '83.

I'd gladly buy my '85 back now for a significant increase over what I sold it for a decade ago... in a fit of frustration.

But to get a Euro spec car (especially one massged by Phil... a top talent!) is a treat indeed.

I wish you well with the car!!!

Bill

So you know Phil Lacasse then?

wcelliot wrote: AWESOME find! I've owned, daily driven, ice raced, ralleyed, and tracked a couple of UrQ's and my rare (1 of 73) tastefully modified '85 was easily twice as desirable as my mostly stock '83. I'd gladly buy my '85 back now for a significant increase over what I sold it for a decade ago... in a fit of frustration. But to get a Euro spec car (especially one massged by Phil... a top talent!) is a treat indeed. I wish you well with the car!!! Bill

Only by reputation as the UrQ group I belonged to had a high contingent of UK members.

Bill

Sorry chaps, it's been a while since I have had chance to update this thread. I'd like to think that since putting the BRAID wheels on the car our sales have gone through the roof and I have just been too busy fulfilling orders to post. Well, that's only half the case, I've also been kept busy keeping cars on the road. None of my four cars, including this one, have been behaving themselves so far this summer but at least it gives me plenty to write about here. So what's been going on? Well:

The first hiccup of the season became apparant when the car became hard to start. I'd noticed lately I'd had to turn the key a little more "aggresively" sometimes but then it became impossible to get the car to turn over at all. Thankfully it did this at the shop and not 1000 miles from home. It was clear contact was not being made in the ignition switch and all kinds of horrors about getting a new one and taking apart the steering column went through my mind. As it turned out it was surprisingly simple to sort out on both fronts. First off, my local O'rielly's had the switch on the shelf. God knows why but bless their little Irish souls non the less. Now, to put it in. I approached with trepidation but needn't have. AllData give pretty explicit instructions.

Remove the steering wheel, column shround and indicator stalks. Then pry off the spring washer that holds on the spring and you are left with this:

Then you remove that pinch bolt and the ignition switch housing slides up the column and lands on your bench:

Just remove that small phillips head screw to relaese the switch and pop in the new one. Needless to say, assembly is the reverse of disassembly but getting the spring wash in place was a little tricky. I used a 19mm impact socket and a hammer to drive it home. You don't need a lot of force, probably because you are supposed to use a new washer but once the steering wheel is back on it can't go anywhere.

Job done. Car's good for the summer but maybe I should just change the oil first. How hard could it be?

So I put the car on lift and look where the oil filter should be and bloody hell, there's two of the buggers! I was so stunned I forgot to take a picture! So off to the store to find a second filter. Apparantly it's for the turbo. Why ddin't you guys tell me about this? Well, just before taking off I decide to have a look around under there and WTF is that all over my nice new BRAID wheel?

CV grease. That's what.

Oh man. Ah well. new axle, 20 minutes of a job. How hard could it be. Well, I couldn't find an axle but I did find a CV boot. No, not at O'rielly's this time but my friends at Auto Europe hooked me up with one from Worldpac. Not OE but something appropriately German. They even slapped it on for me once I got the axle out which was a bit of a trial due to the lack of space to manouver it around.

Undo these at the tranny end

Take of the brakes and axle nut

then realise there's not enough room for the axle to slide out of the wheel bearing.

Have a cup of tea and then get creative with the jack.

Voila. Off to Auto Europe with you.

Strip the old boot. Remove the C clip and hit it with a BFH, gently of course.

Put on new boot. Run back to shop. Forget to take photo. Installation was the reverse and simple but being in there did inspire me to take on refurbishing the front suspension. So went on a quest for upper strut mounts, anti roll bar bushings, lower ball joints and even some strut inserts.

Drove the car home that night to celebrate. Look, it even made it. But there is a reason it is on the street and not up the driveway.

More on that later. I need a rest.

So, to continue the saga, the reason the car was sitting on the street instead of in my driveway was that I couldn't get reverse, nor, for that matter, 1st or 2nd! It was allright when I left the shop but by the time I was nearing home, about 20 minutes, 1st became 3rd and I kept stalling at the lights 'cause it don't like to set off in 3rd. Shift lever was feeling a bit woolie too.

I nursed it back to my shop the next day, got it on the lift and found the shifter bushing, #27 in the picture below, had distintergrated. This must have hapenned gradually over a number of years and I guess, with the elevated temperatures lately, it just crossed the threshold of being able to move the selector shaft enough to find the outermost gears. Once I fix this it should feel like a short shifter compared with the long throw that I thought was normal.

The bushing is, of course, no longer available but I found out that 034 Motorsport are making them and I also picked up an OE one from a guy on ebay UK along with some other goodies (see below). Now I have a lifetime's supply.

Apparantly, the short rod, #35 often fails and they are NLA too. Mine seems fine thankfully. The ball on the top of #33 can come loose too but again, mine seems good. It was a little tight in there above the tranny and after finding water in my basement last night I said "Sod this" and booked it in at Auto Europe. As much as I like to work on my cars I just don't have time to tackle this fiddly job with all the other stuff crumbling around me right now. Thank god my Jeep's fixed; and the Subaru moves under its own power too now, sort of.

Some stuff I dd take care of myself though:

I managed to get a gas strut for the trunk. Apparantly it needs two to support the weight of the trunk and that huge spolier and if you only have one like I had it will crash down on your bonce while you are deep in conversation with your spare tire. OUCH!. Couldn't find an OE one at a decent price so went with a Stabilus to match the other side. So much nicer than the stick I was using. Much more civilised.

I've been trying to track down a fuel smell for some time now. It was often there but seemed to be worse with the windows open and after taking some corners, particularly left handers. It was worse the more fuel was in the tank too, I think. Initially I suspected the long breather pipe that goes from roughly the middle of the tank to the filler neck. The original one was very soft so I thought it might be sweating if not actually leaking. I replaced it with a bit of basic hose temporarily and thought it made a bit of a difference but later realised that might have been wishful thinking. I may yet put the original hose back on.

Later I discovered that the gas cap was getting wet with fuel after spirited drives so I replaced the fuel cap gasket with an OE one from the dealer. So far (not very far actually) so good. Fingers crossed. No picture; it's a round piece of rubber with a big hole in the middle. Use your imagination.

When I initially test drove the car the passenger side window stopped working. Well, not completely. It would just go down a couple of inches, make a horrible grinding noise and stop. Fortunately it decided to go back up so I bought the car anyway. So I finally got a chance to get inside the door motivated by the increasing temperatures and lack of air conditioning in the car. Door card came off easily once I located all the screws and clips (didn't break any either :) )

I was happy to find that the wire that pulls the window mechanism had come derailed from the bottom pulley and with a bit of effort I managed to get it back on there. It works now but does make some funny noises sometimes. The same noises the driver's side makes so I figured they are factory. Job done!

While I was in there I took the opportunity to have a look at the door lock mechanism. The button was going up and down when I operated the driver's side lock but the key was doing nothing in the passenger side, not that one ever uses the key in that side. It did cross my mind that perhaps it was a design feature then I realised, why would they have a lock. Anyway, brain back in gear it soon became apparant that the little plastic ear on the back of the lock had become detached from its actuator rod. Two minutes and a skimmed knucle later it was back on and working as Audi intended all along. Look:

While messing around in the cabin with the various knobs and switches I found out that my blower fan goes to ELEVEN. Well, it goes to four but that's amazing as the the panel only indicates 3. It works too; fan goes even faster! I can't for the life of me figure out why the switch goes to 4 while the panel only goes to 3. What were they drinking in Ingoldstat in the mid-eighties?

I put back the undertray that giudes air to the intercooler. It came with the car but not actually attched to it. I had to do a bit of rally-rigging with some zip ties as it's missing a couple of screw holes now.

Part of my ebay UK haul was a pair of new sun visor clips in more or less the original color. A snap to swap out but they totally transform the car. Handles as if on rails. OK, they hardly made any difference, even to the visors, but it feels good to have replaced more broken stuff.

More UK parts: dash vents, middle and sides. Only my middle one was broken but it's good to have spares right?

Broken vent. All flippity floppoty:

New vent. All nice and together. You can see the tabs that hold it in place too....

....so I know where to stick my screw driver.

Maybe I should just leave it like this:

Nah!

Man, that was a lot of venting.

In the category of interesting aside did you know, Wikipedia says "The Illuminati, a Bavarian secret society, was founded in Ingolstadt..." and my business is called Team Illuminata Motorsport. Coincidence? I'm saying nothing. Schtum!

Now, off to Auto Europe with you Stiggy (Hmm. I think I just named my car)

The white plastic visor clips get brittle as they age. I replaced my CGT ones with black replacements. The plastic compound is a bit different due to the coloring and they may hold up better. Didn't really look out of place on my cream headliner.

The center vent is only easy to replace if you have one to look at! That thing is a nightmare otherwise.

At first I guessed your fan switch had been replaced with a 4 position one but then realized the wiring would have to be different for the additional speed. I think. Maybe. That's a puzzler.

Just got the car back from Auto Europe and it now shifts beautifully :)

Thanks to Kenny who did a great job and worth every penny to let a professional fiddle with it this time. Here's what came out:

26 year old German rubber. Yuk!

Kenny said the short rod #35 was OK but getting a little worn. I should start looking for one but they are NLA of course. Anyone have one or want to make me one?

When I went to pick the car up they had it parked next to a Corrado. Interesting comparison don't you think?

The Corrado almost looks like a next generation quattro more than the one that actually followed it.

Now the shift libkage is sorted I've started thinking about a suspension rebuild. Have all the bushings bought but Kenny also gave me some NEW Bilsteins for the car. They are actually from a later car but might fit. Anyone know?

Also, it looks like my gas cap gasket has solved my fuel smell issues too :)

If they are all out together I'd suspect the switch at the pedal.

Am I missing something, literally?

I noticed my front grill was a bit loose along the bottom so had a fiddle with it. All the top clips are in place but I'm not sure what is supposed to hold it in place along the bottom. It seems like it might latch behind the bumper via some tabs but they don't reach high enough. There is evidence of one potential securing device roughly in the center but it may be broken. Can't believe that's athe only means of securing the grill so how do the 85 grills attach, anyone know or care to probe theres?

Some pictures to illustrate:

I've been driving the car quite a bit recently, mostly aolng Woodward Avenue, the venue for the upcoming Dream Cruise. For those of you who are not familiar with this crazy event check out this [URL="http://www.woodwarddreamcruise.com/About/History.aspx"]web site[/URL]. Basically, Woodward, which is a mile from my house, hosts the biggest car event on the planet next week and has been building up to this climax for the last couple of months. The street is the ultimate car guys hangout during the summer months. I spend way too much time here but the car is a big hit and it can't hurt business. I will skip the actual cruise itself as I'll be at a RallyCross but by then it is so far out of controll as to be not worth it. The preceeding week is the best IMHO with every conceivable type of car on display driving right by you. Here it is taking on two modern iterations of the theme:

So as a result of all this hanging out on Woodward a few issues came to light. First of the car cut out as I was leaving a prime Woodward vantage spot last Friady. I popped the hood/bonnet and fiddled with the ignition equipment looking for anything obvious. The only thing I found out of place was the connector on the side of the distributor which had come loose. The screw holding it on would not thread back into the distrubutor body so I zip tied it in place in proper rally fashion. Car started right up and has been fine since.

I got it into the shop the next day but could not get the screw to tighten up. It seems as if the threads have stripped so we are sticking with the zip tie for now. I broke the bracket in the process too :( I have no idea what this connector is for or if it could have caused the engine to cut out like it did but it seems to run fine now.

I did notice the rotor arm seemed a little worse for wear when I looked at it so I cleaned it up with a bit of sand paper for now and ordered a new one for next week.

I also had some issues with the driver's window. It wouldn't go back up a few times. I had had this happen once before but disproved it later when it slid up nice and smooth but this time it definately needed some assistance. I've since figured out that it only does this if it's raining or I've jsut washed the car. Seems as if the guides are a little loose so the window can wobble in them and if it's wet stick. Are the guides adjustable or do you have to replace them? I did try to have a look in the door but failed at the first hurdle: I couldn't get the door handle off the door card! Oh, the screws came out OK but I couldn't figure out how to disconnect the wires from the power mirror switch in the handle. I couldn't even create enough slack to rotate and release the top mount so I could see the connector so was doing it blind. Any trcks here or can anyone tell me how it comes apart?

I also need to replace a breather shown below as it it perishing and looks about to fail. Of course it is no longer available new and the generic pipe I had in the shop was too small.

Why do I have two heated window switches? Neither of which seem to do anything anyway. The top one even feels broken as it does not flip on or off positively. Why two and what do they do? Are they readily available and easy to replace?

I found this relay on the floor under the driver's seat.

Anyone have any idea what it's for?

See you on Woodward this week?

Thanks to some tips from some helpful Audi owners I got into the door again yesterday. The switch does just pry out of the handle and is easy to unplug with the help of a screwdriver:

Then it was easy to get the door card off and find out what is causing my window to stick.

Here's one obvious issue. Two of the isolator studs that hold the motor to the door have sheared so the motor flops around under load. Can't be ideal.

Fortunately there was a threaded hole in the motor that lined up with the big hole that I assume was for a hand crank on lesser models. I used a big washer and secured it in place. I couldn't locate it where it wanted to be as it wouldn't clear the big aftermarker speaker that a previous owner added. maybe this is the cause of the shearing.

Hopefully that helps though the window still felt loose in its guides. To help I shoved some large cable ties behid the guides to push them out a bit and take up some of the slack. It work somewhat.

I tried to replace my rotor arm but was supplied with the wrong part. Hole is too small.

I did mange to find a self tapping screw to hold my hall sensor in place though. no more cable ties. Looks almost OE.

I had a go at my over-abundance of heated rear window switches too. I loosened the bezel but it wouldn't come off without removing the steering wheel and indicator stalks. Fortunately I still had enough room to pry out the switches and blank and this is what I found taped up:

Looks like someone nearly had a fire. This might explain the two HRW switches and why one was iffy. The undamaged one wasn't connected to anything nor were there any extra wires back there so I suspect a previous owner bought a new switch to try to fix a non-functioning HRW and just left them both in place when he found the melted mess. I'm not sure if I'm going to deal with this one either.

I am wondering if there is a short in the HRW wiring somewhere. I had a quick look in the under-hood fuse box but didn't find a relay for it.

Maybe one day when the dash is apart I'll splice in a new HRW connector for that newer switch.

So a couple of weeks ago now (I've been on vacation) I took the car to a RallyCross. before you get too excited, no, I didn't run the car, just took it out there to see the new Detroit Region course and hang with my RallyCross buddies most of whom haven't seen the car yet. Parked it right in the middle of the paddock for maximum exposure but was soon joined by another red Audi:

On the way there I tried the cruise control as I was on a freeway for about 30 minutes. I was very impressed that it still worked but even more impressed how it held the speed rock steady over hill and dale. Awesome.

No. that's km/h not mph. I beleive this represents exactly 70mph ;)

The last 15 minutes to the event was on the smoothest dirt road I have ever seen. The car thought it was at Rally Finland!

I booked it out of there before a big storm rolled through but had a great time doing ride alongs with some of the competitors. Glad I took my helmet. I was quite pleased with how the car drove and that it didn't, for once, break any parts or show any previously hidden issues; or so I thought. This is what I discovered the other day:

Yep, broken exhaust hanger. Anyone know where to get one of these? Car is still serviceable thanks to the wonders of cable ties.

No wonder they call these a rally icon. There's more cable ties on this than my rally car now!

I'm still struggling to find the correct distributor rotor for the car. The first had the same electrode as the current one but was too small to fit over the shaft. The latest (#3) fits but the electrode is smaller. Can I use this one?

Still need a new gas cap too.

Cars and Coffee at Kart 2 Kart tomorrow.

Later

The exhaust hanger shouldn't be anything special. Looks like the ones on my CGT. I always kept a spare.

In reply to OFracing:

I can't tell if you're suffering from Japanese car bias or envy. Isn't continuous Miata & Miata owner bashing getting a little old? Don't forget, the cars you drive were once also somewhat popular and you, like I probably had hair with color in it then too.

If people didn't buy cars before they were "classics," you'd have no source for cars or parts now. If we look down our noses at every entry level "yahoo" just because their choice of ride is still in production, our hobby will have no future.

Yes there are MGS, Edsels, Falcons, Healys, and of course DeLoreans for hose who like to feel special. But failure of a company or product doesn't make either the company or the product a classic. Neither does having good success by producing a quality product like the PL-510, SPL-1600, 240Z, Miata, etc. make that company, country, or specific product the exclusive domain of Yahoos.

Canoe alert. And, holy 3 months late Rupert.

Time for an update. Been doing a bit of driving and a bit of maintenance. Car has been behaving itself lately too. Took it on a 3 hour round trip to Northern Ohio a few weeks ago:

Though it was daylight I ran it with the headlights on both ways as a test. Someone, perhaps on here, had mentioned how the headlight switch can get really warm and sometimes can melt the connector behind the switch. I thought, with Fall approaching, it might be an idea to see if they would survive and indeed they did but, I must say, the switch did get alarmingly warm. In fact I would go as far as to describe it as "hot"! So when I got back I put it on my list to investigate the wiring with a view to maybe adding some relays.

It was during this process that I decided my main beams weren't working as I couldn't get the inner-most set of lights to come on. Later, with the car in the shop I could clearly see the main beams change from low beam so was a little puzzled. Once I got the lights off the car I realized that it has dual filament H4s or something and they are wired up and work but the innermost high beams are not wired up which is why I didn't see them come on and why I thought they weren't working. In the daylight I couldn't see the H4s change to main beam. This must all be a consequence of the Euro headlight conversion the car underwent sometime in its past. So, I am going to rewire the headlights and all main beams to function using the headlight switches to control relays powered directly from the battery. I think I can create a harness for this that will just plug into the existing wiring without doing any cutting or splicing too. We will see.

I did discover that the headlight adjusters are missing too. Apparently these were automatic motorized jobbies on the Euro cars but manual ones can be used too. Anyone shed any light on this?

I also discovered a bit of rust behind the right side headlight. I'll have to get a bit of stop-rust on that later.

While I had the lights out I thought it a good idea to have a look at the air filter as it seems impossible to get at it from above. Look:

I manged to pry the lid off enough, but just enough, to ease the filter out.

It was really tight and the clips were hard to reach. In fact it looks like the previous owner managed to pinch one of the pleats between the lid and housing last time it was replaced. Probably wasn;t sealing too well I bet:

Turns out it has a washable K&N filter so I washed it, oiled it and put it back

After checking the filter I thought it might be a good idea to check the spark plugs especially as they are so easy to get at. hey were all in pretty good shape but were of the triple electrode type from Bosch. I thought these were a bit hokey so went in pursuit of some replacements only to be told that these are the correct ones the car came with. Is ths right?

I tried the new narrow contact rotor arm on the run to Ohio. The car ran fine but didn't feel as powerful so I have swapped back the wider one. Feels better again. I have found a Porsche part number for the wide rotor arm and endeavoring to acquire one through our local Porsche dealer. The pld w one is not in bad shape but a new one can't hurt.

My brand new gas cap came in too and proved successful during the Ohio trip. I can now run a full tank without is pouring down the side of the car.

On the way back through Canada last week I swung by the previous previous owners shop for a visit. I had hoped to be in the quattro but those plans fell through but still, it was good to visit with Rob and share stories of the car. I snagged a few original parts to such as the quad lights and ac parts. perhaps I'll put them on one day.Thanks Rob.

I'm trying to drive the car as much as possible rather than working on it as winter is approaching but I still have a few things I want to do sooner rather than later such as the headlight relays, rotor arm, breather hose and radio though I must say I am enjoying my 80s Duran Duran albums lately.