Re: Help needed ... 86 5k electrical (and Cold Windshield Club)

[Robert Shemo <res@read.tasc.com>]

> 1.  Brake lights don't work.
> 2.  Shift release won't work (when you push the brake to get out of 
> park).
> 3.  Battery has been dying.
> 4.  Light in drivers footwell stays on all the time.
> 
> Before everything went crazy, the brake light warning display came on.  
> Now here is the really weird part: When I turn on the headlights the 
> shift release dissengages and allows me to take it out of park without 
> pressing the brakes.  I hear the "click" as soon as I move the light 
> switch to the parking light position.
> 
> I do not think that any fuses have blown ... I checked most of them.  
> What the heck could cause all of this?

Sounds like a short, probably in the trunk (brake lamp wiring harness?).
I had similar symptoms when my backup lights shorted out in the trunk,
but that blew the fuse for the alternator (why Audi decided to hook those two
things together, I'll never understand !!?) and my battery went dead in a
short time. The culprit was the wiring harness by the trunk hinge which
is about 3" too short and the wires break. All you have to do is splice in 
some extra wire and everything works again. (Although with Audi electrical 
problems you never know where the problem could be....)

With respect to the recent A/C Programmer posts and the "cold windshield
syndrome", I've found that in a pinch you can pull out the center vent
grills and lodge a long (14") piece of something in there to open the
vent manually (I've used a steel ruler, wrench, socket bar). This may be
the one good use for the cheap tire iron that Audi sticks in the trunk.
This weekend I'll probably be under the dash again...this time I'll try 
the programmer fix that was posted.

Bob

Robert Shemo
TASC, Inc.                       reshemo@tasc.com
55 Walkers Brook Dr.             (617)942-2000x3405
Reading, MA 01867 
 
'87 5000S (with a ruler sticking out of the center A/C vent)