Re: The Audi gods strike!!

[John Karasaki <johkar@teleport.com>]

At 08:22 AM 8/21/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Jim Griffin writes:
>> 1. What should I do first? Buy a battery charger at Sears (or wherever),
>> and recharge the battery... in the belief that a 40 minute drive home
>> would not be enough to recharge a COMPLETELY DEAD battery?
>> 
>> 2. Should I try replacing the battery? It's not very old (i.e. only two
>> years), but it does have about 70k miles on it. Is it that time again
>> already? Why wouldn't I get some warning?
>
>Don't bother with charging it at this point.  If 40 minutes worth
>of driving didn't do it, the charger won't either.  Just get a new battery.
>Does your battery have a warranty?  You may be able to get a pro-rated
>credit on a new one.


Ti, I don't agree with you.  Jim was driving for 40 minutes, yes, but it
sounds like he was using every electrical accessory he possesed during that
time.  My guess is that me may be at the limit of charging capacity of his
alternator and didn't get a good charge on the drive home.

You have a common misconception.  If the battery is drained down completely
the only way to get it back is to put it on a dedicated charger.  There is
a chart that came with my charger that lists hours vs. percent discharge.
Jim will probably at the least charge have to his battery overnight to get
any results.

Buying a new battery before he solves the real problem will be a waste of
money.

His e-mail seems to indicate that he should also have his alternator
checked.  It's a quick test that is usually done for free at auto parts
stores.

HTH.


>
>> 3. I hate to think about it, but there probably is something draining
>> the battery. Where do I begin? I'll check the doorjamb switches... and
>> the wiring for the Hella XLs... but what else? There are an awful lot of
>> wires in modern day automobiles... :-(
>
>If you have a multimeter, set it to measure DC current and connect
>it in series with the battery.  Note the current draw.  Should be
>in the small milliamps range.  Don't worry about looking for current
>drain if you pass this test.
>
>If you don't pass this test, then note the current draw, while you
>remove fuses one at a time to try to isolate the draw to a specific
>branch of wiring.  Then trace down to the components on that wiring
>branch...
>
>-Ti
>96 A4 2.8 quattro
>84 5000S 2.1 turbo
>80 4000 2.0
>-- 
>    ///  Ti Kan                Vorsprung durch Technik
>   ///   AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. USA
>  ///    ti@amb.org
> //////  http://sunsite.unc.edu/~cddb/tikan/
>///
>
>
Best Regards,

John Karasaki
Portland, OR