1992 Audi S4 electrical power drain

[pkennedy@netscape.com (Paul Kennedy)]

Hi,

This is my first post, and I've been interested in seeing if there was a
list like this for some time, but never got the time to really search
for it. Thanks to AltaVista I have.

I have a problem with my Tornado red 1992 S4 Quattro. It has been going
really well but now I have this really strange problem whose cause at
least one Audi shop hasn't been able to track down.

Here's the details. I came back from my Chrismas vacation out of the
country to find my battery dead. I got a jumpstart from AAA, and all was
well for a day or two. Then the battery was dead again. I took the S4 to
my usual shop, they found 3 dead cells in the battery. It was the
original factory-installed. Two days later the replacement battery was
drained of power. So dead that it couldn't light the instrument panel.

I took it back to the shop and they were unable to find any power
drains. They scratched their heads and told me to come back if I learn
any more about the problem. While it has been intermittent up to now, in
the past 24 hours it's gotten worse. It's now at the stage where the
battery will drain totally dead in 2 hours, each time I leave and lock
the car.

So what are the clues, if any ? Well, I have noticed that recently there
is an alarming sqeaking coming from the area where the relay panel is
located, near the clutch-pedal in the passenger compartment. Don't know
if that's a symptom or a cause. Also, sometimes the infra-red key
doesn't seem to work.

Likely candidates (to my mind at least) are the alarm system / door
locking system. I now have it at the Audi dealership in Palo Alto,
California to see if they can track it down. 

Has anyone seen problems like this with an S4 ??? Is this a well-known
problem (rather like the steering leakages which I encountered in my old
Audi 5000S)

Regards,

Pk. 

-- 
pkennedy@netscape.com |  Paul F. Kennedy
Bldg 15, #60          |  Netscape Communications Corp.
tel: 415.937.3098     |  501 Ellis Street
fax: 415.528.4164     |  Mountain View, CA 94043