Electrical gremlims exorcised!

[Robert Stirrat]

Hi listers,
              Some of you may recall I had a fault with my high drain
accessories causing brown out.  For example if I turned on the heater blower
at setting 1 you the dash lights became noticibly dimmer, naturally
increasing the settings would dim the lights further, until setting 4 caused
the lamps to extinguish.  This fault also occured when using the windscreen
wash/wipe.

I asked for assistance in troubleshooting the charging system as I thought
this was the cause of the trouble.  After much testing, measuring and
scratching of my head I concluded that the charge circuit  was not at fault.


I thought I'd have a look at my tailight leak to see if there was anything
wrong there.  Bingo! I removed the bulb holder assembly to find a little bit
of rust had formed between two of the connector terminals.  There was also a
little corrosion under a couple of the bulb holder terminal forming a
bridge.  I carefully scraped the rust and white powdery deposits from these
areas with a small flat blade screwdriver.  I then dried out the assembly
before refitting the connector block.  I left the assembly out of the
taillight to test with complete success.

I then tore two strips of thick polythene from a bag and used one to provide
a tempory seal, I wrapped the other around the connector block to help
prevent it from further exposure to water.

I now want to fix the boot leak properly using the soft black (neoprene?)
cord, does anyone know who manufactures this?  Phil?  I know Audi supply
this, but it's in a 15m roll which surplus to requirement.  I don't
particularly want to use silicon on a gun as that's got to be messy.

Thanks for the help so far!

Robert Stirrat
                    Series III 2.3E Coupe