So this is what happened:

One day I pulled out of my driveway, and no more than a 100 ft later my 85 came to a sputtering halt. When I restarted the engine it died again almost immediately. My neighbor and I pushed it back to my driveway and had a beer. Tried starting it again, now it keeps running by idles REALLY rough. Oil pressure also didn't show up so I turned it off. Had another beer. Turned it on again, and it idles fine with plenty of oil pressure. Weird, huh? So I popped the hood and heard a nice hissing sound, and promptly found my brand new vacuum leak towards the back on the intake manifold, on the passenger side. Off the manifold came a tiny hose to a 3-prong fitting thats kind of T shaped. The bottom fitting still had its hose on. The top fitting of course went to the manifold. The side manifold was hissing, and I couldn't find its occupant anywhere. So I decided to give it a test drive to see what happened:

Engine is still warm by the way, and its an automatic. It wouldn't shift up until it hit at least 2000 rpm. Figured I can drive for a couple days like this until I look at it closer. Day two, nice chilly morning. Now it won't shift until 3000 rpm. As the engine warms up (like when I get close to work), it goes back to shifting between 2000-2400 rpm. Tried going through the gears manually, and that doesn't change anything. I plugged the leak with a cap, no change. I found some random vacuum hose wound around somewhere else (no idea what it goes to, but I know it isn't the one that belongs there), and connected that one to the hissing fitting. Nothing changes. I'm stumped at this point, and I really really don't want to go to a shop. I heard from somewhere that the 700R4 has a vacuum line going to it?

Thanks,
Bill

 

There's no vacuum connection to the A4 but the ECM does control TC lockup.

First off check tranny fluid level and reset the TV cable.

 

What is the TV cable?

 

There may be a problem, here.

Do you have a service manual? You are going to need one, if you are going to do much with your car. The "TV" cable is the Throttle Valve cable that runs from the TB to the trans. The trans regulates the line pressure for proper shifting, based on throttle position. Your service manual will cover the adjustment, as well as numerous posts, on here.

Your delayed shifting and your vacuum leak are unrelated, only coincedental. The stalling and failure to restart, is likely a third problem, but possibly related to the vacuum device that is disconnected and the vacuum leak.

Do you have any codes stored in the ECM?

RACE ON!!!

 

And don't forget to have another beer! Good luck.

 

The starting problem has gone away once I plugged the leak, and I still drive the thing to work every day. So if there is no TV cable going to the trans, then how does it know when to shift? Does it kind of have a "limp" mode when it doesn't know whats going on?

So the TV cable comes from the TB.. which side of the TB? Once I know where its SUPPOSED to go, I can easily (I think) fix that myself. I remember seeing two cables, one I know is for throttle, like opening the butterflys, and other one I assume was for cruise control. I'll have to go have a look and see if one of them is missing...

 

It doesn't! The shift points are determined by the interaction of "governor pressure" and "throttle pressure". With no TV cable ALL your shifts will be either late and hard, or early and soft and mushy, depending on where the TV valve has taken up residence (inside the trans). And your transmission life will be short and expensive. There is no "limp home mode". The only "limp" will be yours, after you've walked 30 miles to call the tow truck. Oh, heck with it! Let's have another beer.

RACE ON!!!

 

OK get this, the problem went away. As if I waves around a magic wand! I'm guessing the problem was something having to do with the ECM controlling TC lockup? I guess that anti-poltergeist powder really works! What could cause something like all this to happen then go away? Bad ground maybe?

One last thing, how exactly does the ECM tell the TC when to lockup? I mean, I just think of a torque converter as a big donut looking thing full of fluid that just does its job when it feels like it.