[s-cars] Current draw/dead battery "Did It Fix It?!"

[Stott Hare]

I'd definitely take a gander at the after-run pump system relay in the right
footwell, position 5.  I had my footwell open last weekend, and found traces
of water down that A pillar.  My ground connections were growing a little
green, and my after run relay had wicked enough of that moisture into it,
that it was quite corroded.  I had heard the pump running excessively over
the summer, but with sufficient futzing under the hood I thought I had
managed to correct that.  Now seeing the condition of the relay, I'm
wondering if it wasn't part of my original issue. in hopes of keeping it out
of the water flow.

In spirit of one step forward, two steps back I moved the relay from
position 5 to position 6.  The relay won't be in the water flow, but now I
need to get a replacement relay, and determine the source of the water leak.

The leak seems quite towards the rear of the A pillar, so I don't think it
is the airbox recirc flap.  I'm leaning towards a sunroof drain or some
such, and hoping I don't have a leaking windshield.

Good luck on your current drain.
Stott
95 S6A

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of audijim at comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 11:19 AM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Current draw/dead battery "Did It Fix It?!"

Happy Holiday's All!

As stated in the previous exciting episode of "Current Draw/Dead Battery", I
removed a Kenwood CD power control module in the hope of that was bleeding
current and staying powered "ON". No luck! On the morning of Christmas Eve,
I un-plugged the secondary coolant pump and was thinking that the pump was
coming on during some point while it's parked and draining the battery. I
drove it to work that way, and left the battery + lead connected during the
day. To my surprise, I still has good voltage on the analog volt-meter! The
car started right up and I was pretty happy that this was possibly cured. I
left everything connected and on Christmas morning, still good indicated
voltage. The wife and I left for Christmas breakfast with her family in her
A6 and returned home at or about 1530 hrs. A quick look through the window
while walking past the S-car, still good voltage! Could it be? Could this be
fixed? Around 1700 hrs we had no plans for Christmas di nner and ordered
sushi. I left and
 took her A6 and I still had good voltage when I left to pick up dinner, I
returned about 15 minutes later, grabbed the food, walked past my S-car and
saw the voltmeter bouncing off the 10 volt range. Son-of-a-B@%^H!!!!!! I ran
into the house and grabbed my keys, unlocked the door and the battery was
too weak to power the pump to unlock all of them. I have the power lock pump
out of it's little hole while trouble shooting this and while the voltmeter
was pinging off the 10 VDC range, I started un-plugging things. I first
unplugged the vacuum pump to see if the fluctuations would stop and the
battery would stabilize, no joy. I then started to pull the fuse cover off
the left side of the dash and pulled one fuse. It didn't change anything. I
then realized that I had a wife and dinner waiting inside for me, in order
to continue with this, I needed to get some tools out, and I said "to hell
with it" and took the + le ad off the battery. I will prob get another new
battery this week bec
ause this current new battery has been deep cycled so many times, I'd rather
just start fresh with another fresh one. I wish I had the tools and my DMM
just laying in the car, ready to see what the actual draw was on the
battery. My wife saw that I was visibly upset that this pain in the ass car
is driving me crazy. The lack of time to trouble shoot this is getting the
best of me right now too. On the plus side, I have a bag-o-relays coming
from a lister who answered my calling for some "known good" relays and is
parting an S6. They will prob be here this week as well. I have a new
turbocharger coolant temp sensor coming as well. I'm not ruling out that the
aux water pump is running. Even though the pump was unplugged from the aux
water pump, the relay might be doing this to the battery. Again with the
"ifs"...if I had my DMM out, I could have seen if there was power at the
disconnected plug for the aux water pump. That would have drove me to that
system (electrically) Today (time 
permitting) I will remove the  left and right footwell covers and expose the
relay panels down there. The aux water pump relays and rad fan relays are
down on the  right side, the power window stuff is on the left.

The car will be able to sit for the upcoming New Years holiday. My wife and
I are going to Baltimore to my cousin's home for a New Years Eve bash he and
his wife throw every year. If I'm able to do anything significant to the
S-pig, that will be a good static test for it. (or maybe someone with set it
on fire for me!)

Once I get this pig fixed, what do these cars go for on trade in at the
dealer?  :)

So to sum up this episode "Did It Fix It?!" the answer is hell NO! I have a
growing list of what is not draining my battery!

Stay tuned for the next episode titled "One Step Forward...Three Steps Back"

Jim
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