So the above took place over 2ish weeks. From loosing the contactor to searching and failing, to finding the 80 seat switch, to getting to my door, to having it ready to go back together. Well when preparing to put the truck back together I find the battery is dead. Kind of concerning, but no big deal at the time. I charge it up, and get it back together. The seat works great, life is back to normal... or is it??
Fast forward 2 more weeks...
My wife is a stay at home mom, so she kinda makes her own schedule. She likes to get out everyday, but weather and life sometimes keep that from happening. The cruiser sat for 3 days, drove it Sunday, tried to drive it Wednesday. Calls me at work “baby the cruiser is dead”. This is concerning to her, because she worries about “what if” and not being able to act if need be...
I charge it overnight and it starts in the morning no problem. I get to work and put it on our fancy charger, that will load test and charge accordingly. Good news the battery checks ok, no need to replace it. I check it for a draw and all good, max draw when “asleep”: 0.029A (29mA). I’m scratching my head, trying to make sense of it. Maybe she left something on, maybe there is an intermittent draw... I don’t know.
Back to the normal routine, driving it everyday or every other day, without any problems. Then comes the holidays, we have family in town, I’m off work for 4 days, the cruiser wasn’t driven at all. Come Wednesday morning, I’m going to warm up my car and ask the wife if she wants me to start the cruiser as well. She says yes, and I find the it is dead again. Now, I’m confident there is a problem, I check, nothing was left on. She is loosing faith in the reliability and it’s my responibilty to make her feel secure. I jump start it and take it to work.
I get the same, “battery ok, top up charge” result from our fancy tester. At first I get the same ~30mA draw, but I’ve got time and let it sit. After 30 minutes I re-check my meter and it’s showing 0.518A(518mA), way too much. Then it dropped back to 30mA, within a minute it was back to ~500mA for a minute or two, then back to sleep. Ok great I have a confirmed draw, now to find it.
Working on Audi’s for the last 12 years has exposed me to many parasitic draw concerns. Draws are not hard to figure out as long as you have wiring diagrams. One part of Audi draw diagnosis is not removing fuses. The systems are complex enough that pulling fuses wakes up other modules and voids the test. There are charts that correlate a voltage drop across a fuse into mA. I grab my meter, set it to voltage, and start checking all the fuses. I get to fuse 55(I think) which is the radio/audio/nav fuse and measure a 3.8mV drop. Reference the chart: 512mA. I have found the circuit, now to find the component. I’m using alldata wiring diagrams, not the best but better than nothing. The fuse powers the nav module, front and rear dvd, back up cam module and camera. I start with the nav module, unplug all the connectors and re-check, draw still present. The back up cam module is in the right rear, so is the rear DVD player. I figure that’s the next best place. I’m pulling trim off when 2 little orange lights catch my attention, the eject button is lit up and the light In the dvd drive is lit. I remove the dvd drive and unplug it... no more draw. I put everthing else back together and monitor the rest of the day... I believe it’s fixed.
The final check is underway. I’m gonna let it sit from today till Wednesday. If it starts, it’ll be back to being unstoppable!
Sorry for the long read, maybe the detail can help someone out if they stumble across this thread.
Until next time
