16v dies when you turn on the ac
 

I have an '87 16v and when you turn on the air and you are driving down the road the car will die. Especially when the weather is hot.

I just recharged the system. Any ideas as to what is wrong?

Carl

I may not be much help. I notice on my 16V that the AC makes a noticeable drag on the engine, especially when the system is properly charged. When the AC compressor engages the idle speed adjusts to compensate for the increased load. Is this working on your car?

It seems to be working but when you come to a stop sign and push in the clutch the rpms will drop way down and die.

You may want to get your compressor checked out. This doesn't exactly apply to your car, but I have heard of 190Ds for example that wouldn't run at all because of bad ac compressors.

Ron
http://germanstar.net

Carl Cottrell,

The issue is more likely a problem with the idle motor. I wrote of my experience with this before, but it was similar to yours. Without the air conditioning on, the car did not always stall when you slowed down and put the clutch in, but it did it with pretty irritating regularity. Then, if you had the a/c on, it did it all the time. I also noted the a/c idle speed increasing feature worked erratically.

I had the Oxygen sensor and the idle motor changed. The idle motor is the aluminum cylinder between and under the intake runners for the number 2 and 3 cylinders. It is part of a system only a German engineer steeped in the tradition of "why make it simple when it is easy to make it complicated?" could design. Anyway this thing apparently spins a cylinder inside that has an orifice that passes air used for idling only when certain ports line up, or something. I am not clear on how it works, just that when it doesn't, you lose control of the idle function. Any abrupt or difficult idling situations and the car stalls.

Others on this site have reported removing the idle motor, filling it with carb cleaning fluid, and turning the mechanism by hand (through the port) and rinsing it out. Another gas rinse and then the inner rotating cylinder gets freed up and it goes back in, apparently ready for another lifetime of idle control.

I only mentioned the Oxygen sensor because it was replaced at the same time. It was not cited by the mechanics as the culprit in the idle fix.

Hope this helps, Jim