Left Out in the Cold - Plight of 84 4ksq Battery

Kevin Hoff kwhoff at gmail.com
Sat Jan 20 21:42:07 EST 2007


I went through similar issues bringing my neglected '86 4kq back from the
dead a few months back.  After starting with 4+Amp (!) draw due to shorts
and frayed insulation on the trunk wiring I still had a 300ma draw and ended
up tracing almost all of that to the trip computer.  After killing the trip
computer it now pulls about 5ma, ~0 if I disconnect the clock.

40ma is a lot, enough to kill a fresh battery in two weeks or so.  Do you
have an aftermarket stereo?  I've noticed that bling stereos tend to pull a
LOT of power keeping their memory charged.  As another point of reference,
my Subaru pulls about 20ma with the alarm on and the (factory) radio plugged
in.  With the alarm off it's about 15ma.

Good luck,
--Kevin H.
Durham, NC 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com 
> [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of George Butler
> Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 10:07 AM
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Subject: Left Out in the Cold - Plight of 84 4ksq Battery
> 
> Hello all,
> 
>  
> 
> And please accept my belated best wishes for the New Year...  
> 
>  
> 
> THE PROBLEM: 
> 
>  
> 
> Up until a snap of single-digit temperatures two weeks ago 
> (in this otherwise balmy winter in the northeast) my 84 4ksq 
> was starting flawlessly.
> However, when I went to start it one very cold morning...the 
> battery...a 3.5 year-old Sears International Try-Hard ;-) 
> ...was dead.  I recharged the battery a few times and 
> got...as I expected...the identical symptom each time. The 
> first few times I recharged it I took the car for a long ride 
> afterwards. If the outside temperature was reasonable (above 
> 20 degrees F) the car would start the following morning (but 
> not a few days later if left idle. as I didn't trust the 
> charging system enough to take the car to work...thank God 
> for my Taurus wagon.) As an experiment though I specifically 
> didn't take the car out after the last re-charge in the event 
> that the voltage regulator on the alternator was flakey (BTW, 
> alternator belt is adequately snug and cables coming off 
> alternator have been checked, cleaned, and have solid 
> continuity) and would be draining the battery during the 
> drive.  The results of the experiment were the same...dead 
> battery the following morning.  
> 
>  
> 
> Fast forward to last Saturday (1/13)...I decided to put fresh 
> batteries in my multi-meter, put the leads (+DC amps) between 
> the negative car battery post and chassis ground cable and 
> check for parasitic current draw by removing one fuse at a 
> time.  Of course the only activity I got was on S4 which 
> controls the dome light, trunk light, radio, etc. The circuit 
> drew about 40 milliamps...which I suspect is OK.
> 
>  
> 
> Thinking something was wrong with the battery itself, I 
> brought it back to Sears for a test... and everything looked 
> fine per their test equipment. As I'm going through this 
> diagnostic process, I'm beginning to recall a similar problem 
> I had way back in my VW days,  I had one battery that was 
> less than five years old that was temperature-sensitive (and 
> another with a dead cell...what a PITA).  I'm wondering if I 
> haven't run into another one.
> 
>  
> 
> Earlier this morning (brrrrr...) I threw the leads of my multi-meter
> (resistance) across my disconnected battery cables. At 100K 
> and 10K-ohms I got nearly dead shots...but I'm guessing that 
> this is simply the resistance of the components in the S4 
> (fuse) circuit...especially at those settings.
> At a 1K setting I'm getting about 400 ohms (hmmm...about 40 
> milliamp draw in the DC current draw and 400 ohms of 
> resistance across the battery cables...makes sense...I think).
> 
>  
> 
> After this clearly verbose description of my problem...and 
> being cognizant of our Audi electrical gremlins...are there 
> any of you folks who've run into
> a similar situation.and if so...how did you fix it?    
> Anyway...does anyone
> have any ideas relative to the remainder of the diagnostic 
> path I should be following...or what I should be telling the 
> guys at Sears?  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
> 
>  
> 
> Regards,
> 
>  
> 
> George B.
> 
> 84 4ksq
> 
> 88 5ksq
> 
> Massachusetts
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. I do have a test-light for shorts (the type that pierces wire
> insulation)
> 
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