85 UR quattro

6 minute(s) of a 211 minute read

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 filamet H4s or something and they are wired up and work but the innermost high beams are not wired up wihch 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. Apparantly 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 withought 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.