85 UR quattro

5 minute(s) of a 211 minute read

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 web site. 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?