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[cp]

Hi, I had dumb mishap with my '86 5000 TQ, I drove
onto a median and knocked a small sign over. The front
left tire was knocked out when the car went over the curb
and it sprung a huge oil leak when I drove the car 100 feet
to park it. The car drove fine (knocked out tire) but was there
was a pool of oil, I don't think I caused any damage due to the
oil leak. The car needs new lights and a new hood (the sign pierced a
hole), I'm hoping there's no serious damage to the engine, other
than the oil pan being ripped off. I'm worried that the unibody
frame was perhaps bent, the driver door doesn't close as smooth
as before. If there is frame damage, is it hard to fix (by a
professional of course)?

TIA

cp

[Steve Sears]

cp,
geez...sorry to hear about the accident - of course it could have been
worse - like a telephone pole in the median or a kid crossing the
road......we have a median in front of our house that has collected 2
westbound cars and 1 eastbound car over the past 2 years (mostly sleepy
drivers).
Look across the roof for wrinkles, along the body lines from back to front
to see if there are any bends, and look at panel transitions like where the
rear door meets the rear quarter panel to see if they've crashed into each
other. The Bentley manual has measurements that you can make to see if
there's been any body distortions. If you're buying lights, grille, a hood,
a subframe, an oil pan, engine and tranny mounts, etc., maybe you should be
looking in the online classifieds for a new 5ktq - the junkyards were at one
time fairly full of them, but since the scrap metal price (in North America)
is through the roof many yards around me have been squishing them for the
cash. You could get an estimate from a couple of autobody shops on the
repair and get them to see if the frame is out of wack. You probably could
repair the car without yanking on the unibody, and get a (4 wheel) alignment
to make it track decently, but any distortions will have an effect on the
suspension geometry and how it handles in turns, etc. As far as the
difficulty level, I'd imagine it would depend on how rusty the car is, but
I'm sure a shop could at least give you an estimate.
Cheers!
Steve Sears
1987 Audi 5kTQ
1980 Audi 5k
1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes
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"cp" <asdf@asdf.com> wrote in message news:7D7yd.6462$uj2.2031@clgrps12...

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"cp" <asdf@asdf.com> wrote in message news:7D7yd.6462$uj2.2031@clgrps12...

[cp]

[cp]

Hi Steve, good to hear from you. Yeh, could have been worse, luckily no
one saw me! I'd collapse from embarrassment. I was looking in the
papers and found 4 audis ('86-'88 can I use parts from an '88 CS?) very
cheap, for the price of a hood and lights at a junk yard. I'm going to see what
the mechanic will say about the important parts underneath the engine, the car
was running fine, I drove for half a block to find a parking space, backed up
and all so it's driving. All the oil leaked out of course but I don't think the engine
was affected. Yeh, too bad; the thing drove like a charm, not a speck of rust on
it, it was garaged all its life by some rich audi fan who had a number of audis.
Yes, if the frame is OK I'll probably keep it.

Thanks!
cp

[Tony]

Replacing the hood, fender, bumper, and trim is a very easy job if there is no
distortion. Four hour job. Try to find colors to match.

Look where the bumper is mounted to the unibody with shocks (near the radiator
on the drivers side). If the impact was sever the mount will have crumpled as it
is designed to do to absorb energy of impact. If no crumpling, then you probably
didn't hit hard enough to do more than cosmetic damage.

Oil leak: Given that you drove very little your engine probably is fine.

Changing the pan requires dropping the sub frame under the engine but that is
quite easy to do on a lift.

T44 qt's are getting more rare. Fix it.

If the parts donors you are looking at are turbo then the parts should fit. The
only question, if they are not turbo, is if the hood is the same over the
headlights.

Tony

cp wrote:

[cp]

Hi, thanks for your reply, I'll check the bumper mounts asap. So you're saying
that this model is worth fixing? It does (did) drive very nice, engine sounds
beautiful, sometimes I just rev it just for the pleasure of it :-)

For a 1986, it probably was the most generally advanced mass produced
car, no?

Thanks for the advice!

cp

[Steve Sears]

cp,
Sure, if it's not really busted up, fix it!
Heck, I'm contemplating making a "faux-v8" out of my 5ktq - if I do I'd have
the body parts (bumper/hood/grille) for cheap - provided you're in the
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada area.
It was pretty advanced for its day - people are suprised when I tell them my
car is an '87 - it looks fairly current even with the cars of today. The
galvanizing of the body was definitely advanced for it's day. The hydraulic
pressure accumulator....well.....sometimes the "road less traveled" is that
way for a reason.
Cheers!
Steve Sears
1987 Audi 5kTQ
1980 Audi 5k
1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes
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"cp" <asdf@asdf.com> wrote in message news:iNjyd.14317$KO5.889@clgrps13...

[Tony]

T44 TQs have nearly a cult following. check the AudiWorld forum to meet some of
them : )

http://forums.audiworld.com/v8/

Tony

cp wrote:

[cp]

Will do, thanks!
cp

[cp]