[s-cars] Battery drain

[konecc at snet.net]

I just experienced this with the 92 S4 I bought a few weeks ago.  Exactly
the same symptoms as described in Scott Mockry's website.  I was getting
133 mA of current draw with all accessories off.  I cut the #8 yellow wire
on the window controller (in the foam next to the car) and current draw
dropped to 18 mA, certainly in the acceptable range.  Previous owner had
put in a new battery in three years ago (Sears International), I brought it
to them for testing and they determined it was no longer able to hold a
charge.  Not surprising, car batteries are not designed for deep discharge
and who knows how long this had been going on.  They credit me with $35
toward a new battery, this time I got the right one with the ventilation
hole.

I'm sure there's a way to fix this if you want to dig into the electronics,
but for me this is a feature I didn't even know existed until a few weeks
ago, so no big deal.

My thanks (again!!) to Scott for his fantastic website --
www.sjmautotechnik.com

-- Rich A.
   '92 S4
   '93 S4
   '83 Coupe GT


My Canadian 93 (92 spec) is experiencing the battery drain problem.  I
experienced it (would drain the battery overnight) over a year ago and
seemed to rectify the problem by pulling the small relay from the main box
that controls the rear window driver control (30A - 5th on right side).
However, If I leave the car sitting for over a day it won't start.  I still
often have a clicking noise from the window relay in the drivers footwell
(329) when the car is turned off.  In the archives I found a good post from
Oct 28/2002, [s-cars] battery drain - window/lock servo? , from Graydon
Stuckey that nicely explains the problem and the solution, replace the main
window/lock module in foam beside the battery with an updated one out of
the later cars, part number 4A0 862 257J.  As pointed out by Gordon there
is detailed info at
http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/elec.html#windowrelayclick with a solution
that  eliminates the window/sunroof closing with the key feature. Has
anyone else experienced the problem and come up with an inexpensive
solution that keeps everything working?
Bob
Home of the Master's champ


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