Surprise cure for the "bomb"

[twfaust at aol.com]

I have been sort of lurking here for a few years as the only Audi I have  
left is an '82 Coupe GT. One car in my fleet is a  extremely low mileage  
Supercharged model of the '90 Cougar. That also has the Teves system with  
antilock. I had power brake failure on that and assumed the accumulator had  
failed. Here is my post to the Super Coupe site, not certain of application to  
Audis; but Audis were famous for bad ignition switches.
 
For a while my "antilock" light was on, I figured "get to it when I can".  
Then the red "Brake" light came on and I had the classic stiff pedal no 
power  assist.
 
Follow me now, I was thrown off by the "red" and "amber" lights being on at 
 the same time, combined with the "stiff pedal". I assumed that the 
"accumulator  ball", or "Bomb" as Audi people call it, had failed.
 
I took it around a few places and since the pump ran with the ignition "on" 
 no one could help. Assuming a bad accumulator, and 2 weeks for a new one, 
I went  to a pick n pull and grabbed one off a Turbo Coupe and Jaguar. I 
couldn't test  them, so I just installed them, no better, no worse. I continued 
to assume a bad  accumulator.
 
Then, I decided to stop, make a coffee and think about. I was sort of  
tipped off by the directionals and heater blower working when the ignition was  
in the "on" position. If I started the car and returned the key to "on/run" 
the  directionals and blower quit. I looked at the fuse box cover and 
noticed the  fuse for the hydraulic pump was between the fuses for the 
directionals and  blower. I tried the few other things that required the ignition to be 
on, they  all worked in the "on" position, but quit when I started the car.
 
The solution became obvious. I put in a $12 ignition switch and now I have  
power brakes again.
 
The "antilock" light is still on (as it was before the brakes failed) so  
that is a separate problem. I might have arrived at the solution sooner had I 
 not read on the Net about both lights being on indicating a bad  
accumulator.
 
Tom Faust