Sorry i didnt see there was a second page to the thread

 

a little off topic.. when I bought my S, I had a mobile vehicle inspector come out to run through the car. He offered to do a compression test, but said it wouldn't be necessary, unless his vacuum test came out with poor readings.

I had never heard of this vacuum test before, so I want to run it past you guys. I don't know the specific details as to what was carried out, so hopefully my description rings a bell...

Essentially, he hooked a vacuum guage to some line, and blipped the throttle a few times. Based on how much vacuum was registered, and how fast the needle moved under certain conditions, he said he was able to determine if the valves were sealing properly. He said the vacuum/valve test would give poor results, if the cylinders also had low compression.

Anybody heard of this type of valve/vacuum test? Is it BS?

 

easier than i would have thought

 

Great write up...
Curious, what's the reason for holding the gas pedal down?

 

Opens the butterfly on the throttle body. Less restriction gives more accurate/consistent numbers.

Actually, I'm kinda curious if there's a different behavior on the drive-by-wire systems.

 

[QUOTE=Seattle2k,May 1 2008, 01:07 PM] a little off topic.. when I bought my S, I had a mobile vehicle inspector come out to run through the car.

 

Anybody happen to know how to get the adapter for the compression tester out of the spark plug hole?

The adapter came loose from the gauge before it came loose out of the motor head.

I was an idiot and did this test with the car warm and it cooled down and now the head is essentially squeezing the attachment, so there's no way I can tighten it to the compression tester without tightening it even more into the block.

It has an 18mm nut on on the end, but I don't have a socket thin enough to get down the spark plug hole...

I was thinking of poking a hole in it with a large flat head screwdriver and hoping to twist it out that way...

It's actually missing from the packaging in the picture of it in the OP (ironic)

 

^ So the hose came off the end of the adapter, or is the hose still on there but it just twists w/o moving the adapter? Does a regular spark plug socket not fit on it?

 

hose came off the adapter (it twists into the adapter). A regular spark plug socket is too small to fit around the adapter...

 

WHEW! we got it out with a file end and a hammer. Jammed the file end into the adapter and unscrewed it.