Short Circuit Problem

[scott.john.mockry@bangate1.tek.com]

Edward,

I have not followed the entire thread on your fuse blowing problem, but here are a couple of 
suggestions:

The automotive tool truck vendors (Snap-On, Mac Tools etc) sell a short circuit tester 
(Mac Tools ET253) that connects across the fuse in question and contains a circuit breaker 
with a buzzer that goes off when the short occurs. This may help determine what "action" 
is causing the fuse to blow. 

Another thought:  Were any aftermarket radios or other devices  installed after the
car was purchased? If you haven't already done so, you might want to also pull out all of
 the door switches and look for frayed wiring. I would check the trunk and hood switches as 
well as the trunk and hood lights. Have all of the interior lights been
pulled out and checked? You mentioned that the gas gauge would go inoperative when the
fuse blew. It seems a little strange that the gas gauge is on the same circuit as the interior
lights but I have not idea how they wired that vehicle.

Good Luck
Scott M.

Subject: Fuse blowing UBERWGN

UBERWGN (my 95.5 S6 Avant) continues to blow one or two fuses
intermittently.  Neither I nor the dealer can make it happen when we
want it to happen.  It seems to happen only after a period of idling,
or usage of the interior lights/radio with the engine off.  Happens
about once a week.  The fuse that powers the interior lights, gas gage,
etc. is the common one that blows.  You can replace the fuse
immediately, and it will then refuse to blow again.

So we're trying to figure out how to isolate the problem.  One idea is
to wire some in-line fuses in front of each component on this circuit,
and see which one blows.  Another is to just disconnect non-critical
components until the problem goes away.  Of course, we could just go
replacing components too, but that's too expensive.

Anybody else got any good ideas about how to isolate a transient
problem like this?