More Audi fun P0133 and P0304

The turbo upgrade to the K04 was a success and the car ran great for several weeks before some new gremlins crept in.   Our ‘99 A4 Quattro developed an intermittent miss and stutter under part throttle.  The check engine light came on and trouble code P0304 – cylinder #4 mis-fire reported via the scan tool.  

Raising the hood and listening closely, I could detect an air leak, which turned out to be a cracked plastic breather pipe next to the dipstick, below the intake manifold.  A vacuum leak could affect the mixture, and create a lean mis-fire, I reasoned. This was a plastic “L” shaped piece that provided crankcase venting, and connected to some metal hard piping that routed around the engine and connected to a one way pop off valve on the intake hose leading to the turbo.  No doubt, while moving this metal piping around while doing the prior turbo install, I unknowingly cracked the plastic breather pipe on the other end.   After curing the intake leak, I reset the code and test drove the car.  The missing symptom returned after the car warmed up a few miles down the road.   While the broken pipe needed to be replaced, if I had really thought about this objectively, I would have concluded that I should have seen multiple misfire codes, and not just the #4 since the leak fed back into the intake side of the turbo and not into a port on the intake manifold in proximity to #4.

Pulling the codes, I found P0133 and P0304 again.   Thinking back, we had experienced random cylinder mis-fires about five years ago, that changing out the spark plugs did not resolve.   The cure at that time was replacing the electronic ignition control module, mounted on top of the air filter housing on the passenger side fender.  That control module is the object to the right in the photo below.   So, I replaced it again, thinking it might have gone bad again.  No dice.

This miss was now almost constant, with the check engine light and code being set before I could even get out of the driveway.   I replaced the plugs again figuring that even though they still looked good (denso triple electodes), they had a bit of wear and it couldn’t hurt.  The trouble remained, and plug 4 definitely had more carbon build up than the others, which confirmed the misfire.

I reset the codes again, and swapped coil packs (coil pack shown on left in photo above) between cylinders 1 & 4 and noted that the miss continued.   If my hunch was right, that I had a bad coil pack, the new code should be P0301.  I crossed my fingers as I rescanned and waited for the trouble code appear.  P0301.  Success – the problem moved to the #1 cylinder, confirming the failed #4 coil pack.

Another quick trip to the parts store for a replacement coil pack and this one was finally solved.   It’s an odd thing, but the feeling after one of these sessions is a bit like completing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle – drinking in that sense of accomplishment, savoring it for a few moments before moving on to the next challenge.

Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day!

Today is Community Manager appreciation day, so proclaimed Jeremiah Owyang.   Who knew?    As usual, I was a bit late to the party, finding out after one of our community’s tireless moderators took a moment to recognize me as CM and encourage the community to give me a pat on the back.  (Thanks Jane!)

 Jeremiah nets some of the challenges out in a few great bulleted points:

• “Many challenges are internal: Most companies want to hide customer issues, and shuffle them into existing support systems. Additionally, measuring ROI in new media when a company wants to keep the kimono shut, increasingly becomes a challenge.
• Seemingly never ending job: Customers never stop having problems, and with the global internet, the questions, complains, and inquires never stop.
• Emotional drain impacts lifestyle: The sheer emotional strain of dealing with a hundreds of yelling customers and the occasional trouble maker will take a strain on anyone.
• Privacy risks in the world of transparency: In an effort to build trust with customers, they expose their real name exposing their personal –and family– privacy forever on. “

No doubt that there are executives and management in companies who still  believe you are recklessly damaging the brand by allowing the negativity  to mount as issues are discussed.   Years ago, companies handled calls one at a time, and customer experiences were isolated.  A company knew more about the collective landscape than did the individual customer.  The proliferation of social networks has turned that on its head.  I think most companies are well on their way  to understanding this  and some customers are beginning to think more in terms of partnership, and less in terms of just being a squeakier wheel than the next person posting.   I think prudent transparency will feel less dangerous over time.

Communities ebb and flow like the ocean with members reading and reacting to one another and the company messages twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.   But like the ocean, the community can be a dangerous thing to turn your back on.  Anxiety over what is being posted in public right now, orwhat private requests for aid are going unreplied can follow a community manager on vacation or haunt his sleep.

The emotional drain is quite real and can furrow one’s brow during supper.  

Privacy – ah, the ever vigilant attempt to protect members from themselves, and others.   The privacy issue remains seemingly one-sided in communities today.  The customer is generally unfettered to name names, dates, events, facts from their perspective, while the company is limited in the ability to counter with pictures, documentation, call transcripts, or other information related to the matter at hand.

So why do we do it?   Despite these challenges, communities are truly a rewarding place to meet new people, share experiences, solve issues collectively, and generally build goodwill.    If this were easy, then it probably wouldn’t be work, and there wouldn’t be much value to it.   Luckily, the burden is shared and I know many have my back.

Thanks Jeremiah for carving out a day for us.

P0422 code on an Audi A4 – investigation leads to turbo and cat replacement

Last year my wife’s daily driver, a 1999 Audi A4 Quattro with the 1.8L turbo charged engine began setting a check engine code P0422 which indicates not enough difference in value between the first and second oxygen sensor.   On OBD II cars, 1996 and newer, two oxygen sensors are used in the exhaust system in series mounted ahead and after the catalytic converter.  The first sensor provides data used to adjust the air / fuel ratio by the ECM while the second sensor’s data is compared to the first to ensure that the converter is effective in reducing the level of hydrocarbons.   If the values are too similar, the ECM sets a code indicating the converter may not be working.

As this code was intermittent in our case, I simply reset the code and planned to replace the oxygen sensors in the near future as a first step, and then the converter if needed as a second and more expensive step.   I will note that the car never ran as strongly as it should, and I suspected the turbo was not generating boost.  At 150K miles, I expected the turbo bearings were worn and needed to be replaced, and this might explain the lack of power and rich fuel condition leading to the P0422 code.   

The over rich condition also led to higher exhaust temps at the cat, as the downpipe eventually cracked around it’s circumference at the turbo flange.  I’m infering that the higher temps caused the failure after many heating / cooling cycles.   I initially planned to just remove the converter with intention of simply rewelding the flange.   While I had the converter out of the car I noted that it was stopped up - couldn’t see light through it.  I also found the round plunger from the wastegate actuator had come out of the turbo and been blown into the converter.  

Note the missing plunger / plug, the open port and the wastegate actuator with the hole (where the plug would mount) to the right side of the picture.  To the left side we can see the exhaust side turbine wheel.

Mystery of the non-performing turbo solved.  With the wastegate permanently open the exhaust was always in bypass and the turbo would not spool up – no boost.   These findings seemed to explain the lack of power, rich mixture, plugged up cat and the p0422 code.

I removed the turbo – a lengthy process, if fairly straightforward.   Instructions from a shop manual or All-Data would have been helpful, but I just grabbed the wrenches and jumped in.  The two things I would note are:

1) Drop the AC compressor out of the bottom of the car and suspend it with bungy cord.   Once this is out of the way, there is adequate room to work to remove a mounting brace to the turbo, the oil and coolant drain lines, and intake and pressure side hoses to the front of the turbo.  The pressure feeds for oil and coolant, along with the hoses to the wastegate controller can be removed from the top side.  Having a lift really helps as you can work more comfortably from a seated or standing position under the car.  It might be possible to do the work with ramps or jack stands while laying on your back, but I’d recommend against it.

2) There are coolant lines connected to the turbo charger.   A lot more coolant than one might expect will drain from these lines when you disconnect them.  Be prepared for it with a large drain bucket.  

While we could have welded the plunger back to the actuator arm on the wastegate, I noted the bushings on the bell crank assembly were worn as well.  These items could be addressed, but this seemed like a great time to just replace the turbo.  And, as long as I was replacing, why not upgrade from the factory K03 to a K04.  The K04 uses the same housing and bolts right up, but has larger internal components and a different A/R ratio.  

What a shiny clean, factory new turbo should look like – with all port covers and plugs in place to keep dust and debris out prior to installation.

This is what an intact wastegate assembly should look like.  Compare this to the failed K03 above.  

The factory converter is a pricey item, and I elected to go with a performance converter made from a generic high flow shell with pipe sections and flanges appropriately clocked and welded in place.  The assembly provided to be slightly longer than the factory configuration once installed, which meant that the factory pipe hanger at the transmission no longer bolted up and will need to be cut loose and rewelded.

I’ll share a follow up posting with hopefully favorable results after I finish refilling the oil, coolant and complete the road test.

Turning 40

If one is to believe all those dark themed greeting cards, black balloons and napkins, then I’m officially over the hill today having just turned 40 years old.  I don’t put much stock in those and instead prefer the message on another card I received, “Forty is knowing what you want and making it happen.” 

Early in our lives we have an over-abundance of energy – just watch a bunch of six year olds at a birthday party.    But, we live life one moment to the next – we want cake, ice cream, to go outside and play.   We haven’t the developed knowledge, wisdom and life experience to establish longer term goals.   As we age, the pendulum swings and we know more about ourselves, what we want and what we don’t, but we have less time and energy to pursue it.     Somewhere in the middle, perhaps we find a sweet spot – a time in which our capabilities – our life energy, esperience and wisdom are in harmony.

Much of the last twenty years I have spent working with things, and these last few years I have had the opportunity to work more with people, learning, solving problems, and building relationships that I would have imagined possible.   Today, as I stopped by our forum, I see some of the moderators decided to announce my little milestone.  I was surprised to say the least.

As 2009 draws to a close…

As 2009 draws to a close and we begin our second decade in the new millenium, I am increasingly aware of the acceleration in the rate of change.   I see it in my own life as the days, months and years seem to fall from the calendar faster and faster, and I see it in my work as more people move online and increase the degree of connectivity in the global human network.  Set against the backdrop of the last 2000 years, the last 100 years in human technology looks like a ski jump ramp.  Exponential, asymptotic.  

Craters of the moon park in Idaho.  In the 1860’s, the first settlers crossed this area in horse drawn wagons.   A hundred years later in the 1960’s, astronauts trained in this same  area as they prepared to travel to the moon by rocket.   After thousands of years of life  rolling about on stone and wooden wheels behind beasts of burden, in the scant space of 100 years, mankind is driving cars, flying jets, and leaving the planet routinely on rockets. 

Plastics and alloys, cars, jets, rockets, atomic power, lasers, computers, fiber optic, cellular and satellite communication networks, the internet, test tube babies, cloning, super conductors.   Most of these have evolved from science fiction to fact, and on to commercialized products which are becoming increasingly commoditized and mainstream.   

So what?   Tomorrow will start a new decade for all of us, and perhaps it is an opportunity to take stock of where we are within all these different evolutionary streams of technology.  Are we early adopters and pioneers or just being carried along by the wave?

Christmas at home

While no stockings have been hung on the chimney with care, our tree is replete and the stage is set to celebrate the holidays with family in our home this year.   I feel very blessed at this point in my life.   Merry Christmas to all.

Ka-pow!

You just have to love Alice’s situational appraisals….

Yet another Scam email…

At this point, I have to ask whether there is anyone with an internet connection and a spam catcher, er .. email account who hasn’t received some version of the “Nigerian Bank Scam”  ?   Today, I received yet another despite my employer’s best intentions…On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this one about a 2 because the storyline is a bit more detailed.   It still fails horribly because it, like all the rest, can’t provide a plausible reason why the recipient was chosen or why the sender can’t address the recipient by name.    Above all, keep this proposal confidential.  Ok ‘Michel’, whatever you say…  

 

“FROM: MR. MICHEL VALIDIRE

FOREIGN REMITTANCE MANAGER.

Société Ivoirienne de Banque (SIB) 

ABIDJAN, COTE D’IVOIRE. 

E-mail: infosib_ci@sify.com 

Dear Friend, I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we never meet before. I am the FOREIGN REMITTANCE MANAGER of (SIB) Société Ivoirienne de Banque, I Hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both families.

I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($8.4M) Eight Million Four Hundred Thousand United States Dollars immediately to your account. The money has been dormant (in-active) for eight years in our Bank here without any body coming for it.I want to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer, An Iraqi Foreign Oil consultant/contractor. Mohammad Al Nasser made a fixed deposit with my bank in 2004.

He was among the dead victims in December 26 2004 Earthquake in Jawa , Indonesia .Mohammad did not mention any Next of Kin/Heir when the account was opened. And I am his account officer. and if my Bank Directors happens to know that Mohammad is dead they will take the funds for their personal use.

I don’t want the money to go into our Bank treasury as an abandoned fund, so this is the reason why I contacted you, so that my Bank will release the money to you as the nearest person to the deceased customer.

Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned amount if you agree to help me execute this business. Thanks and waiting for your urgent response,

Best Regards 

Mr. MICHEL VALIDIRE”  

 

No time to blog?

A month elapsed since my last post, and I feel compelled to post something, anything really.  Why am I finding it difficult to continue personal blogging?  Most of my time is now spent online responding to conversations I didn’t begin, or at least not directly.   But, if this blog were nothing but a first practical step on the path to becoming a practitioner in social media, then I have certainly achieved my objective.  No, time isn’t the limiting factor, more rather it is an issue of priority.

Work – Several unfolding issues, and while “I told you so” is sometimes a gratifying if ill-advised retort during a personal conversation, it really has no place in situations where being right is less important than being able to do something to constructively change a situation to the benefit of all.   Social technologies are trending toward greater and greater speed, and are outstripping the ability for traditional approaches to reach consensus on reality, develop and communicate a plan.    Three years ago, blogs were the medium and the barrier to entry required a bit of thought and perhaps 30 minutes to draft an articulate post.   The accepted time to respond seemed to be at least overnight if not days.   Facebook and Twitter have dramatically ramped up the volume of participants while simultaneously lowering the barrier of time and completeness of thought.   Not a bad thing, but certainly a change in dynamics.    There are notions of integration and layering of social platforms with other types of media, multiplying the number of dimensions in which people can connect.   I see these accelerators posing significant new challenges to companies trying to keep pace with an audience that is collectively more intelligent, moves faster, and outnumbers them by a factor of 100k or even a million to one.   But I think there is a potential for a countering force in the form of advanced analytics, and subsequently social network based artificial intelligence that could arrive within five years. 

Home – Lots of time with family this past month, and I expect this will continue through the rest of the holiday season.  Our fourth annual cooking baking extravaganza went over well this past weekend, and I got to spend some quality time with my father in law, watching Alabama defeat Florida for the SEC championship.   I’ve never been one to really follow sports, and Garry entertained my numerous questions on rules, tactics, and overall gameplay.   Having played for Alabama during his college days, his commentary offered a new connection to the game.

Projects – Addressing an exhaust leak on the wife’s Audi is expanding into replacing the converter and upgrading the turbo-charger.  With the shop roof complete, I’ve begun the wiring plan and pricing out the components.  How much power am I going to need?   Copper is king, and is priced accordingly.  Aluminum entrance wiring can be economical, but you have to increase the size dramatically and this leads to complications at the source end at the house.

Shop roof complete

At last, my workshop has a roof.   Where does the time go?  Two years ago I started digging the footers, last year in April we poured 84 yards of concrete after what seemed an eternity of pumping muddy water out of the forms and footings, and then the initial euphoria of getting the steel framework up in a couple of weekends gave way to weeks of abysmally slow progress with the insulation and siding.   The last significant milestone was hanging the 10 X 12 roll up metal doors, and that was back in May.

The summer of 2009 passed, along with my best intentions to get the roof done myself.    The economy has been tough on a lot of folks, and an enterprising brick mason facing a lull in work volunteered to tackle the job.  He brought along two carpenters and a helper, who also happened to have a lot of extra time on their hands.  I got a deal, and the work got done in 2 days.  One insulated roof.

Not exactly the Sistine chapel, but I like it.  Being able to finally put things inside the building, and have them stay clean and dry feels fantastic.

Now, on to the electrical.