Ontopic A Thread About Butt Mustard, For Those Who Drive Automobiles

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So. We have a dissatisfied customer in the Starbucks lineup.

It's July, me and the missus are like "hey, lets go camping", we're looking at borrowing a camper off someone or maybe even buying one. So hey, I'll fire a trailer hitch on the Q5. I mean, the 4400lb towing capacity is half the reason I went with the Q5 in the first place.

The part # for the OEM hitch is obsolete/discontinued. None in stock at the dealer, they brought some in for some other people from other dealers but that's all dried up now. There's a new part number for a new and improved one but it's on nationwide backorder.

The OEM hitch is a 100x cleaner install than any aftermarket hitch so I really want to go that route - OEM hitch comes with an electronics box that plugs into an existing connector on the harness and converts from power/canbus/whatever to a 7 pin harness, doesn't require me to take half the interior apart to tag onto shit, and lets me use the preinstalled wiring under the dash up front to poke in a brake controller. And it detects if the trailer's plugged in and disables all the backup object detection bullshit so that it doesn't go apeshit if you're towing a trailer, requiring me to unplug those sensors and have the dashboard bitching at me about broken sensors because apparently that's less aggravating.

Part numbers exist for the electronics module and associated harness, but would you believe those are discontinued/unavailable too, as well as costing the same as the whole fuckin' hitch kit on their own.

I'm all polite, but the gf called the Audi dealer pissed off as hell. They couldn't do much but gave her some super secret contact number at Audi Canada, and they're "working on a solution for us", whatever that means.
 
you seem to have a fair share of challenges with availability of things. Is this a "rural" canada thing?
 
Just called the dealer and mentioned "hey, I can grab one in Maine."

"Hey if you can do that, we'll put it on for you"
"How about you get from them for me?"
"Well akkkssshuuwwwlllyyy, Audi Canada and Audi USA are separate entities, we can't buy each others stuff... oh, and can you get the part #? sometimes shit's different between Canada and the US"

Sure enough, US part begins with 8R0, canada part begins with 80A, dig further and the control modules are different. :/
 
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So, weird shit with the MAP sensor.

Factory one went out maybe 5 years ago. I swapped to a new one, it ran ok for about 6 months. Same symptoms, was out in the boonies, I had the old one so I thought "fuck it, I'll try it." and she ran right.

8ish months later that one goes out. I think "well, it worked once..."

Ever since I just swap them out when instart getting symptoms. No cleaning, no maintenance on the sensors, just shut off the truck and swap.
 
So, weird shit with the MAP sensor.

Factory one went out maybe 5 years ago. I swapped to a new one, it ran ok for about 6 months. Same symptoms, was out in the boonies, I had the old one so I thought "fuck it, I'll try it." and she ran right.

8ish months later that one goes out. I think "well, it worked once..."

Ever since I just swap them out when instart getting symptoms. No cleaning, no maintenance on the sensors, just shut off the truck and swap.
Check for corrosion up the harness from the MAP sensor, starting at the connector. Moving it around is probably what's making it work better.
 
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Check for corrosion up the harness from the MAP sensor, starting at the connector. Moving it around is probably what's making it work better.

This^

Your truck is old enough you're gonna run into shit that's not the usual shit.

MAP, MAF, EGR all kinda "work together" so to speak and carbon buildup in the tiny passages in the manifold or not perfectly tight seals along the air intake are as much of a cause as the sensors but you just did a whole overhaul, cleaning, so....
 
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This^

Your truck is old enough you're gonna run into shit that's not the usual shit.

MAP, MAF, EGR all kinda "work together" so to speak and carbon buildup in the tiny passages in the manifold or not perfectly tight seals along the air intake are as much of a cause as the sensors but you just did a whole overhaul, cleaning, so....
The MAP should be exposed to full manifold vacuum, so it shouldn't have much trouble with blockages or carbon buildup.
 
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