Smoking Audi - Found the culprit

[Mark J. Besso]

Kent, Brett, Nick, and Bob.....

Thanks for all your suggestions.  I took Kent's suggestion to slide a 
digital camera into areas I couldn't see and take a couple of pictures.  It 
showed a bare wire that I couldn't see while lying upside-down.  After 
removing a piece of ducting, the lower dash panel, and moving the footwell 
light and some control unit I could see the harness and relay where the 
offending wire started.  The relay was part# 445-955-529 and I think that's 
for the rear wiper.

The offending wire was the one leading from terminal 15 on the relay to a 
common grounding block on the firewall.  All the insulation had melted off 
the wire and it had started to breach the two adjacent wires.  The bare wire 
was disconnected at the grounding block and cut flush at the connector to 
the back of the relay.  I didn't install the relay for reassembly.  I 
checked the fuse for that circuit and someone had replaced the 25A fuse with 
a 30A instead.  I don't know when that happened in the life of this car, but 
it's back to a 25A now.  I assume that the fuse would've blown had it been 
of the proper amperage rather than cause the melt-down I experienced.

That same fuse is responsible for the sunroof and that works fine now.  I'll 
just own an Avant without a functional rear wiper.  It's much better than 
having one that tries to imitate Kent's "Bad Puppy!"

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.  Check your own fuses to be sure 
the correct ones are in place.

~Mark


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent McLean"
Subject: Re: Smoking Audi


> Mark J. Besso wrote:
> > I'm trying to minimize the amount of times I turn the key on since
> > [obviously] something is continuing to burn each time I do it.
>
> My fear of doing a "live test" would be that the problem
> wiring/area is not shorting out, but is overheating and
> may cause a fire while all the accessories still work.
>
> Borrow/buy a small (lady's compact, dental) mirror to look up
> where your head can't reach.  Blindly feel around for burnt or
> charred wiring.  Borrow/buy a digital camera, stick it up under
> the dash, and take lots of pictures from different angles.  You
> may find the evidence you need.
>
> --
> Kent McLean
> '94 100 S Avant, "Moody"
> '89 200 TQ, "Bad Puppy" up in smoke