[V8] interior light delay

[Dave Saad]

Hi Roger,

I don’t know if you are able to do this yourself, but repairing the seat heaters is something you could be working on now during these cold months.
If you can get the seat out of the car, the upholstery comes off pretty easy. If you can see how to do this then you will save a lot of money.
I have only had 1 heater go bad, and it was easy to fix once the heating pad was exposed. When it broke, it “burned open”, which was a good thing since it left a little black spot where the break was. All you do is crimp (not solder) on about a one inch splice of maybe 22 gauge wire. It does not need to be insulated, but should be stranded just for flexibility.

Before going there though, make sure the wiring and relay are working. You will need an volt/ohm meter and the wiring diagrams. I can hook you up with the diagrams if you need them.

The light problem could be simple (if it is a removable relay) or hard (if it is controlled by the dash board). I don’t remember where the controller is but the wiring diagram is your friend here too.

On to what to do with the car - DRIVE IT! Audis hate to sit in garages, and a BARN? well thats just an insult. The Audi gods will get you for that. In fact, it seems the headliner god has already visited.
I had to park mine out of necessity while I went back to school and now that I am driving it again I love it even more. I have been taking lots of road trips (have a son in college) and it is SO much nicer on a long trip than my Explorer (and it is a well appointed XLT) that I dread taking the explorer when I need the extra space.
I think I already told you all that I put in a new Blaupunkt head unit with bluetooth and all the modern goodies, and it has transformed the car. The stock Bose speakers sound fantastic. I just leave an old iPod in there with 4-gig of music on it in shuffle mode, and it fully integrates with my iPhone too. Very cool.

Here is another thought that will solve ALL your winter problems:
I had a guy over for dinner last night that has a dihatsu (I don’t know how spell it, but one of those tiny japanese forward cab truck like things, with 3 cylinders) that he converted to a tracked sno-cat. Apparently there is a Canadian company that makes retrofit kits for about anything. You just remove the wheel and bolt these things on.
It takes him about an hour to go from wheels to tracks. Now how much fun would it be toodling around in a V8 Quattro sno-cat with heated seats and delayed inside lights?
Your neighbors would be so jealous.

Dave


> On Mar 3, 2015, at 6:48 AM, Roger M. Woodbury <rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net> wrote:
> 
> I am pondering the arrival of spring. At least I think it is coming at some point.  I started the V8 up last weekend. It's been on a battery maintainer all winter and it came right to life, of course. I have started to make a wish list of things that I need to do to put the car back on the road this spring, if indeed I decide to do that.  One thing I really want to do that is a simple fix, is get the inside light delay fixed.  It stopped working some years ago and I noticed the interior door switch's rubber boot was torn. So I replaced that, but still the interior light delay was inop.  What happens is the interior dome and foot well lights do not light when the door is opened.  I suspect this is a relay, and I think this has been discussed some years ago, but I thought I'd ask to see if anyone on this list remembers or knows right off the top of their head, WHICH relay controls the interior light delay and where it is located.
> 
> I am also VERY disappointed that the headliner in the rear has started to sag a bit this winter.  It isn't serious, but it is disappointing as up to the time I put the car into the barn for the winter, it was up and tight.  Very annoying, but typical, I guess.  Fixing it is somewhat down the road, I think as the sag is mostly noticable by me.
> 
> I am also going to have to do the tires this spring I think. It's really time as the Michelins that are on the car are about at the end of their usable life.  I have NO idea what I will get for the car this time, but I have been using Altimax's on the station wagon and have found them pretty decent for the price. I doubt the V8 will actually see much more than thirty five hundred miles from mid-April to December when I would put the car back in the barn for winter.  Yet another reason why I am pondering not keeping the car at all.  On the basis of 3500 miles a year with seasonal use only, it's getting pretty expensive to just hold onto.  But I've said that before also.
> 
> Then there are the heated seats that I would like to have working in a perfect world and I think if I end up taking the car to the shop for the headliner, I'll get the seats pulled apart and the heating elements repaired. The seat heaters are mostly for my wife's back, and even in the summer she uses them on occasion.
> 
> That's near the end of the long list for this car, although a new windshield will need to be installed before it will pass inspection. That will be an insurance issue, as the split stems from a small ping I got going through a construction zone driving it back from the shop after the last oil change last fall.  Tiny ping that just spread this winter.
> 
> So, if anyone knows about the dimmer relay, I'll get that done as soon as the snow  has melted enough to roll the car out of the garage for a sunbath.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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