Unhappy RS2

[GandalfS6]

A friend of mine (ZenRS2) recently bought a silver RS2 which is in a stunning condition. The car only has 107,000 km on the clock and is still on Audi's "Freeway Plan" till 120,000km which means Audi pays for all service and repair costs. This also implies that the car is really stock!

When he got the car I had a look at it and there was a boost leak and the DV was not working well. Audi has since had the car to fix the boost leaks and the DV was replaced (Audi actually allowed him to use a Forge DVR rather than the OE DV - for his expense though).

We had a Dyno Day for the Audi Club on Saturday, and his dyno (power at the wheels at an altitude of 1600m and as it is winter the ambient was about 20 C) is below. I had driven the car and it did not feel right. Up to 4000 rpm the car feels fine but then it feels as if the car is suffocating. The dyno plot bears this out.

Any ideas what could be the problem? I think it could be the Cats that are blocked after 10 years on poor SA fuel. I haven't done a boost test since Audi "fixed" it. Could also be fueling?

[S2central.net]

No point in discussing this one until you can quote boost values - how do you know the leaks are fixed ?

Pull fault codes as well.

The RS2 will need 98RON in stock trim to get stock figures of 232kW and 410Nm.

It might be wise to check condition of the fuel system and that correct spark plugs are fitted. Could also be a faulty MAF, but fit a boost guage and rule out the obvious stuff first - like control hoses blah blah blah


Paul

[alg]

My recent experience suggests cats unlikely to be culprit Kim Collins at qst has ' never known one fail '
In addition to all the above need to check air filter condition and if fuel filter ever changed ( made a difference to mine when replaced ). This is not on audi service schedule anymore but should be.

[GandalfS6]

Paul, you are quite right - I'll connect my boost gauge up on his car and see what it does. I will also do a boost leak test to see if they really fixed the problem.

Alg - unfortunately we get pretty poor quality fuel in South Africa and one of the chief technical guys at Audi SA told me that cats last an average of 60,000 km here. I will also check the fuel pressure as I am sure with our fuel the filter is clogged.

The really sad thing about this car is that it has been maintained by Audi for its entire life but they seem to be pretty useless in doing so. His service advisor (also mine on my other car which is under Freeway Plan) told me that Zen's car "goes nicely"

[audiman]

Thats cos as usual they know nothing about the car!! The RS2 was fitted with metal cats, which dont fail very often. Most cars have ceramic cats which may fail due to poor fuel grade.

I suspect small boost leak. IC 'o' ring?

Check boost pressure and fault codes and let us know. We may be able to fix this one via the international garage that is this forum

[S2central.net]

Yeah why should 'IVF' get all the exposure... The 'IVG' is much more important to the welfare of S2 owners around the world - The International Virtual Garage

[GandalfS6]

Paul, I had a chance to connect my boost gauge to this car and it actually looks quite normal for a stock RS2. It looks something like this:

2800rpm - 0.5 Bar
3200rpm - 1.0 Bar
3700rpm - 1.45 Bar
4800rpm - 1.2 Bar and holds that to the red line.

Remember we are at 5000 feet above sea level so one would expect boost to come in a bit later than normal.

I also tested boost with the WGFV disconnected and the car only made 0.35 bar


I think we are back to a fueling problem or restrictions in the exhaust.

Any ideas?

[alg]

Yep, change the fuel filter. Even with poor SA fuel metallic cat should be OK. They are a wire mesh with no/little ceramic content to deterioate and block.
Consider air filter also (OEM).