Re: urquattro killing battery??

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>]

Bob writes:

> The first two days were ALWAYS OK, drawing 65mA. After that 
> though, it mysteriously jumped up and down between 750mA 
> and 65ma and once it hit 2A.  I thought it was the radio so 
> I disconnected it, but it still did it. It wasnt the radio.  
> Never really found what it was, so when it was going to sit
> for a while, I just disconnected the battery.

I once experienced the Adventure of the Self-discharging Battery on a
Nassin XZ082 that I owned four or five years ago.  Drive it every day or
so, no problem; let it sit for a week and it was jumper-cable time. 

I tracked everything down myself till I'd identified one circuit, which
included interior lights and a few other things.  After racking my
brains on it for most of an afternoon, I gave up and sent the car to a
decent mechanic near home.

He spent a few hours on it and traced it down to the lighted vanity
mirror in the passenger's sun visor.  This used a spring-loaded switch
to detect when the visor was down.  Apparently the spring had softened
over the years and a slight impact would cause the visor to drop enough
to make contact.  He bent the spring to tighten it and the problem
didn't recur.

The final piece in the puzzle was the presence of cat footprints one
morning in the fresh condensation over the passenger's visor.  I was in
the habit of parking near a small tree in front of my house, not large
enough for the cat to climb into but certainly large enough for birds to
land in.  Apparently the car's roof made a lovely bird observing
platform.

So... got any cats?

--Scott Fisher