RE: '88 16v -- Hello! (and thank you)

[Chris Zamara <CZam@compuserve.com>]

Wow! I am overwhelmed by the helpful and friendly advice to my initial
message. I thought with all this talk of engine swaps and suspension mods,
my humble A/C and sunroof problems could have been easily ignored, but I
got so much help. Thanks so much to all who replied!

Rather than reply to all the replies individually and add more to
everyone's in-box, I'll cover the highlights below:

>From Greg B:
>>  march on down to your VW dealer ... and order the Bentley manual 
>> for your car. It is basically the shop manual that the VW 
>> mechanics use.
>> ... It will become your bible, and will stay beside your bed. 

Thanks, Greg, I will do just that. I was wondering which book to get, now I
know. With my recent Scirocco obsession, the shop manual by the bed is my
Wife's greatest fear (she calls me obsessed) but the car's now part of the
family.

>From Brett V:
> When the a/c system is discharged, the compressor clutch will not engage
as 
> a safety mechanism of sorts.  With no freon in the system, the compressor

> would ruin itself, so when no pressure is detected in the system, it
doesn't run

I guess there could be a freon leak after all, then. I'll have to diagnose
this one.
I started with the fuse because I like to try the easy things first, and
I'm foolishly
optimistic. Realistically, I doubt I'll get off that easily.

Also, the fact that the chime I removed doesn't warn of headlights left on
is a good bit of info for me, as I now feel slightly less silly for
draining the battery.


>From Shawn M:
> Recently I came upon a later relay that has the musical chime and since
its so 
> loud, I simply put some electrical tape over the speaker section to quiet
it down.
>... BTW, having that relay removed doesn't effect anything else on the
car,

The tape idea is a good one, as a gentle musical chime might be almost
useful and not nearly as bad as that ear-splitting DING DING DING when I'm
getting into my car in the morning. It's good to know that I haven't
affected anything else by pulling it out (I did have a nagging concern
about that).


>From Dan:
> My sunroof is just starting to jam up now.  Take a look at it from the
> top when you try to turn the lever and maybe you can see where it's
catching.
>
> I can open mine now by putting my arm out the window and pressing down
> on the front left corner of the sunroof while turning the lever.  There
> is some special lubricant (silicon, maybe?)  that you're supposed to use
> on the sunroof, too.  It's in the Bentley.

My sunroof moves a bit when I turn the crank, but one side seems jammed so
it goes crooked and stops. The previous owner told me he was quoted $300 to
fix it, but it may just take a few parts and some fiddling around. I have
no idea at this point as I haven't really investigated this yet. Hey, maybe
it just needs the lubricant! (There's that foolish optimism again)

>From Rick L:
> (Detailed diagnostic procedure for determining A/C problem)

Thanks, Rick! I can't wait to get in there and check all this out now that
I have a better idea of how it works. Is the low pressure cut-off switch
easy to find?

>From Shannon F:
> As for the sunroof,... Does the crank turn? 
Yes, the crank turns but it only goes so far before the sunroof goes
crooked and jams.

Thanks for the detailed info on the A/C relay. Again, I will get a Bentley
manual!

Whew! Sorry for the long message, but I wanted to acknowledge and reply to
everyone who helped. I'll let you know the outcome of these problems in the
hope that it can help someone else.

-CZ
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