On an S5, when the motor is sitting in neutral idling, are the actuators supposed to be up or down?

Both the Haynes manual and the FSM show that when they are activated, the plunger retracts. But when my car is sitting there doing nothing they are retracted. Now how can this be?

I don't know if the actuators are opening or not. I'd try the grease trick to see if it moves but if they move out instead of in I wouldn't be able to tell the difference!!!

 

Hmm, it seems as if they are stuck open. You could always take them out and just clean/spray (wd-40) actuators until you could manually push the actuator arm with your finger.

Once you do that and remove any excess carbon buildup then it should be freed up and then you can do the "grease test" on the actuator arm once installed again. I believe these actuators have gaskets so you might want to make some new ones or reuse the old ones if still good.

 

Sorry, to answer your first question yes the actuator arm is supposed to be fully extended at IDLE. Fully extended meaning that you could see the shaft on the actuator arm instead of it being "pushed in" like what is happening to you car right now.

Carbon buildup plays major factor and a lot of times it came to be freed up with some wd-40.

 

The thing is, they are free. I've taken them off and I can blow into the tube, pretty easily, and the shaft goes out.

My question is for an 89. Now I have an 88(S4) that when the car is turned off, just sitting there, the shaft is out(fully visible) and they aren't frozen either!

I don't know if I'm saying what I want to say, but I think I am!

 

On my S4, the the rear actuator seemed hard to open and close. I took it off and it moved just fine, i sprayed it with WD-40 anyways. I then checked the little part that swivels. Seems that's where my problem is/was, i WD'd that but it still isn't working properly. I can DEFINITELY tell when it opens and when it doesn't. Car runs so much better in the tops of the gears when they are open. I'm about to just wire them open.

 

IF YOU DON'T KNOW, DON'T TALK

On a S4, the actuators are extended when closed, and retract into the mechanism when opening.

On a S5, the actuators are retracted when closed, and extend out when actuating.

-=Russ=-

 

Thank you Syonyk. That's what I've been looking for!

So is there anyway to test them on the car?

 

Test what? To see if they're actually opening when driving? If so, use a piece of tape across the mechanism. Go for a drive. If the tape is broken, then it's working.

 

heres one fo the easiest ways to see if theyre stuck: first, take off the tube going into the actuators, then but a new, clean tube on it. Blow into the tube. If you can open the actuators by blowing into that, then they are working. If they arent working but pass that test, its something farther up, like the air pump.

 

Go to your six ports solenoid. It has two hose on it. Jumper them together. The actuators should fully extend IF the engine is running and the airpump is working. There's a free download of the fsm that shows all you need to know about the aux/6port actuators. Pictures also.

 

I just did that and they work nice and smooth. The solenoid works if I jump it from the battery. I connected a 12v light in parallel to the solenoid connector and took a drive, the light never came on. So I'm asumming the problem is electrical. So I'm just going to build an RPM switch and hook it to the solenoid and boom, good as new!