88 5ktq Battery Drain

[Ti Kan]

Eric Schoeffler writes:
> My car is draining or not charging the battery enough.  I replaced the
> alternator a year ago with a bosch rebuilt, and when I take the positive
> lead off the battery while the car's running it doesn't die.   My battery
> checked out fine and holds enough charge to start the car for a few days.  I
> also know  I'm not overcharging because the battery isn't swollen.  Any
> ideas

Perhaps your alternator isn't charging the battery sufficiently?
With engine running, what's the voltage output at the alternator?
And at the battery?  If there is a significant difference between
the two I would suspect the undercarpet wiring splice going bad
(see SJM's web site http://www.sjmautotechnik.com for details).
If both voltages are above 13.5V or so while engine runs, then
there is probably a drain somewhere.

With ignition off, check for an unusual drain in all the different
circuit branches by pulling each fuse in the fuse box and measuring
the current with a multimeter in AMP scale (make sure all accessories
are turned off).  If you encounter one circuit that has a drain that's
more than what's needed to keep the clock and radio memory running
(in the order of tens of milliamperes), then isolate further by
determining what devices are in that fuse branch, and debug it from
there.  A Bentley manual (with its wiring diagram) would help immensely
at this point.

-Ti
2003 A4 1.8T multitronic
2001 S4 biturbo 6-sp
1984 5000S turbo
1980 4000 2.0 5-sp
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