Audi 80 GL 5E

Current state: Registered, TÜW-passed

First registration: 21 of march 1982

Colour: Monacoblau code LA5D

Upholstery: Blue, code LA5D

Mileage: 180000 km

Engine: Inline 5 cylinder, 2,144 litres displacement, 115 Hp/ 85 kW @ 5400 rpm, 165 Nm @ ?, engine family WE, K-Jet direct fuel injection

Gearbox: Code QF (export model)

Exhaustcleaning equipment: Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)

Original options: Steel sunroof, "bad road" kit for Swedish roadconditions, Ronal 16 -spoke Alloy wheels (13"x5,5")

Tires: 185/70 R13 revulcanized (they´re cheap!)

Also equipped from Audi-seller with Blaupunkt Bristol 4-way cassettestereo with four speakers, Bosch chrome extra drivinglights.

Carhistory

I am in effect the third owner of this car, the first one was an older engineer working for Scania in Södertälje who had used it in his work. The second owner was my brother, who in 1991 was 18 years old and starting his universitystudies in Uppsala. Because his friends were buying old 136 hk Audi 100´s, he decided that he was bitten by the 5 cylinder, but he thought the 100 was too big and fuelthirsty. He knew that the A80 came with 5 cyl in the CD model, but as a student and all, it was a bit too expensive. However he had heard that there was one 80 model that had the 5 cyl, but without all the extra comfort-gear that made the CD too expensive, the GL. So he started looking, and after quite a long time he found the add in a newspaper, the price was set at 30000 SEK.

After a few phonecalls and testdrives, the car was his for 28000 SEK. One previous owner, 85000 km at the odometer and it had lightmetal rims, sunroof and stereo. All his demands on his car was satisfied!

After Universitystudies the car stood still for the better part of 1994, when my brother studied in Kalmar. In 1995, i got my drivers license and started borrowing my brothers nice 5 cyl Audi now and then, i was very impressed with the five-cylinder machine, but the springs and shockabsorbers were beyond all critics. Since my brother wasn´t at all interested in wielding the wrenches, and my sense of mechanics was awakening (thanks Johan!!), i started to care more and more for the somewhat neglected Audi. Thank god my brother did a complete underbodytreatment after he bought the car!

In 1998 i decided that just maintaining the car wasn´t enough, so i bought it too for a neat sum of SEK.

During the time of my ownership i have travelled almost 40000 km with it, the odometer is now saying 180000 km. Nowadays the GL regrettably has to do duty as everydaycar, which it has, i suppose, always done. It has never known the comfort of a warm garage, and never been spared the salty sludge of the winter in Stockholm, yet it hasn´t fared so bad in these 19 years, thanks to vigorous washing and care. I have exchanged faulty pieces of machinery and also refined it´s look and character a bit.

Things i´ve added:

- Frontspoiler from CD/Coupe/quattro

- Rearaxle skirt from Audi 80 quattro

- Sports exhaust 2", two mufflers (Simon brand)

- Instrumentpanel uppercover with sunshade from Coupe GT -83

- Extra meters in the mid-console from Coupe GT -83 (Volt, Oilpressure, Oiltemp)

- Airbox front bottom part drilled with approximately thirty 8 mm holes.

- Pioneer CD/radio with four GAS brand speakers, front two-way 3,5" and rear, mounted in the cardboardpiece behind the backseat, three-way 6x9".

Major things i´ve changed during the years (in non-chronological order):

- Clutch assembly

- Cambelt and waterpump (@ 140000 km)

- Rotor, ignitioncables and distributorcap

- Windshield (to a bluetinted one)

- Left front fender

- Drivers door

- Doorhandle at drivers door

- front rotors, pads, renovated front brakes (the girling-brakes were a bordercase, after removing the deeprust and replacing old gaskets i realized that the rust had been so deep that the metal where the pads rest against had been lowered significantly due to the amount of metal oxidized and removed, now the pads rest only approx. 1 mm from the rotorhub!)

- rear brakedrums, rear wheelbearings, brakepads with assembly, handbrake wire to a new type.

- Front wheelbearings and driveknots (?)

- EGR-pipe and front 2 to 1 exhaust pipe

- Thermostat, thermoswitch for electric cooling fan

- Valvecover gasket

- Battery

- Rear springs and shockabsorbers

- New front brakelines and hoses

Ofcourse all fluids has been changed lately so as not to get any nasty surprises. I have also treated the engine with teflon-treatment. I have since driven around 40000 km and the engine still starts and runs much better than before the treatment.

Upcoming reparations:

• New radiator (the current one is in very bad shape, it crumbles when you touch it, but it´s not leaking and the only fault is that the engine temp rises a bit much when idling (up towards 105 - 115 C before the electric fan starts)

About the GL in general

It´s very hard to obtain any information on the GL model with 5 cyl. In Germany, there was never a GL with the 115 hp 5 cyl. Here in Sweden the car has become very hard to spot in the streets, i have under 5 years only seen three other, all in Stockholm city. I wonder if that means something, mine was also sold here in Stockholm..

Anyway, recently i got in contact with a very knowledgeable fellow in Germany who could answer my questions regarding the GL. I was quite irritated on all international oldie-Audisites because they never mentioned my variant of the GL in the official modelprogram, according to them the first A80 with 5 cyl came in 1982 and was the CD, with carburettor. The K-jet, which the GL had in 1981, came first in 1983 on the CD, according to these sites. The answer to this befuddling question is that Audi hade a special exportversion of the GL, exclusive for only Sweden and Switzerland. This special version had the larger engine, and also a "bad road" kit, tailormade for Swedish drivingconditions. It includes more rustinhibitors and larger plastic front innerfenders with built in splashflaps. My German friend further tells, that the modelcode such as GL, CD, LS, CL and so on have nothing to do with the engine, it only depends on the exterior and interior trimlevel.

Experiences when troubleshooting

There are e few things i have experienced while repairing this car that is worth mentioning.

• fuelpump relay: The fuelpump relay started to behave very badly one springday in 1999. The characteristics were that the engine ran smoothly, but after turning it off, you couldn´t start again until after some 10 minutes. After pondering the problem a while i located the fault to the fuelpump relay, which under normal circumstances buzz a few seconds when turning on the ignition. It was only when i didn´t hear the buzz that the engine refused to start. I called Audi, and was told that the fuelpump relay on these models had a habit of developing bad solderpoints on the circuitboard. Rather than pay 50 $ for a new relay i pried the circuitboard out and resoldered all solderpoints. The car has always started since. repaircost: 0 $!

• Recently, i started to get very annoyed at the fact that my drivers seatheating didn´t work (it hadn´t for as long as me and my brother has owned the car). After reading about somebody soldering old heatingblankets in an audiforum, i decided to dismantle mine too and fix it. After removing the seat from the car and then removing the upholstery, i saw that the cable was broken in to places and the heat-wire had burnt off on one place. I soldered the cable and the heat-wire (tricky!) and tested it on an old Asea 12 V charger. The heat worked for only 30 seconds, then it burnt in another place so i realized that it was best to dump the whole thing. Instead i went to Biltema (Swedish low-budget warehouse) and bought the kind of heated seatcovers you just strap over the seat and plug into the cigarettelighter contact. I tore out the heating element, which was only one piece for both backrest and seatrest. I cut the new heat-element in half and soldered a cable between the to parts. Then i stitched it to the padding and reattached the newly washed upholstery (somewhat tricky, but not at all impossible). Now i have a very warm and comfortable drivers seat, since i also installed a airbladder with a handpump in the lower backrest.

Some funny details

For the Oilpressuregauge, i had to have a T-piece for the sender-unit. I ordered three different T-pieces, which didn´t fit, i tried hydraulichoseconnectors, to no avail. At last i came in contact with an old smith who had three separate pieces, one with the correct thread for the engine, and two others for the switch and sender, he hard-soldered them into one T-piece! it works perfectly, it´s just amazing how hard it can be to get the correct parts for the Audi (If you don´t want to buy original, :)).

The fifth (or E) -gear on the gearbox is very high-geared (or is it lowgeared!?! :)) together with my somewhat too large summertyres i make 2050 rpm @ 100 km/h! now that´s something! it´s very comfortable when travelling at highway speeds hour after hour, almost like a fishingboat! (especially with my very old springs and shockabsorbers :-))

My friends has taken a liking to my car, they have expressly forbidden me to sell this car, ever! hehe, ok i guess i´ll become a collector then!

The rear under-the-bumper skirt has been remodeled to fit a straight exhaust pipe (the cutout for the exhaust pipe was moved 5 cm to the right)