Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Ok - car is now back from the auto-electrician.
He told me that he had "quite a job" (don't they all?), and that when the car was linked up to his rig, it was reporting no draw at all when the car was off and locked up. He claimed that this was the 7th car in a row that had done - sorry, if I come across as unnecessarily skeptical!
Anywho... after having had the car in his garage for three days, he reckons that he's traced an intermittent fault back to the amplifier in the boot. He reckons that this has become water-damaged at some point (which, to be fair it has), and that the plug was showing corrosion, and that water had ingressed onto the amp circuit board. He then reckons that the amp was sparking into life intermittently and regularly, and bringing other systems on that are on the same fibre optic network - i.e. the rest of the MMI system, the DVD player in the boot and so on. He tells me that as soon as the amp was disconnected, all of this stopped immediately and didn't repeat itself once.
Therefore, he has left the car amp disconnected and given it back to me. He's told me to get a replacement amp from Fleabay, and that once that's arrived, to pop back, he'll pop it in FOC and check that the systems are running normally after the new one's in. I picked it up Wed eve and drove it home. It's been on the driveway since then and I'll be using it later today this afternoon - will see if there's any signs at all of "low battery" warnings on the dash or any potential issues with starting it.
As I've reported on here in the past, I had the dreaded rear wash-wipe pipe break, and had all of the internal casing out to replace the pipe to rectify. I actually found this fault as I was buying the car, and testing the rear wiper and trying to work out why no water was coming out. The amp/DVD bay was drenched as the water poured into that cavity, but we clearly hadn't a sufficiently solid job of mopping up all of the water.
****. £216 to an electrician to root the cause back to something I already knew about. I knew that the MMI system was the prime candidate for being the root cause of this issue!
New amp is en route. Hopefully, this is indeed the root cause. Should know by Mon/Tue next week...
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
There was post done years ago which identified a failing transistor in the amp that kept them in full powered up mode when supposedly off.
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dan2485
There was post done years ago which identified a failing transistor in the amp that kept them in full powered up mode when supposedly off.
Interesting, I have a powerdrain also although at a much slower rate (a battery lasts me a year or near enough), I don't have an avant so water into the boot wouldn't be the cause but maybe this? Any ideas of the fuse location for the amp? so I can pull it to see if it makes a difference
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
There's a complete list of fuses and fuse rack locations in my Audi handbook Nard - albeit the one's in the boot were reversed (wrong) from the left-hand drive models (idiots!)... but still, they are numbered accurately and you can match up what you see in the racks to the fuse ratings and descriptions in the manual. I spent twenty minutes matching up every single fuse in my car to the manual, so now know for sure what every single one of them does.
The amp fuse for the Avant is in the boot fuse racks behind the right-hand panel with the toolkit etc - Saloon is very similar isn't it?
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Saloon is the same
You could look at left hand side in boot & see the amp
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Every single time I have been to an auto electrician has been a failure, I have taken the car home & fixed it myself
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Quote:
Originally Posted by
niall campbell
Every single time I have been to an auto electrician has been a failure, I have taken the car home & fixed it myself
It's the first time I've ever used one, and only did because I couldn't find the root cause myself. Indeed, as posted earlier, I couldn't even detect an electrical draw from the battery when the car was off with an amp clamp on the power cable! The bill of £216 did make me feel pretty sick, but it is starting to look like the amp was indeed the root cause. I've been driving her around since last Wed - no starting issues and no low battery issues, no repeated electrical glitches (oil level sensor / MAF etc et al), all of the external lights always come on as they should when you unlock the car. It does appear that the amp was at the root cause of everything - I presume because it's on the fibre network, thus could interfere with other electrical systems?
I put the Tunit box back in yesterday afternoon - no issues on the initial keyturn and power/economy is back to where it was previously (which was awesome levels of improvement on both).
I've got a new amp now, it's going back in to the electrician to fit and then fully system check tomorrow to make sure all is well FOC (or at least as part of the prior £216 bill!). Could easily fit it myself, but I might as well use him as I've paid for him, and he'll be able to do more to system check everything than I could.
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Wifes car is a saloon and when changing battery the other day I noticed water in the boot and luckily there was dust and the water had left a trail which was coming form the grommet on the rear face of the wheel well which had a small split, there was literally only a sppon full or two of water but who knows how long it has been elaking for?
Bobbing down and I could clearly see the grommet in the rear bumper gap woughly 1/3 rd in from the passenger side.
Removed grommet applied a bead of silicone, refit smear in silicone done and dry so far.
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Went back today for the amp fitting and system check - two hours later, and the electrician wasn't happy with the radio receiver either. FML!
He reckons that with the receiver connected - system takes about 35 mins to shut down. With receiver disconnected, just 5 minutes to shut down which is what he'd expect. He reckoned he cleaned off corrosion from the plug and circuit board of receiver when it was in the first time, but that this had now returned, and he was concerned new water was making it's way into the cavity. New receiver en route. Cavity filled with paper to test for water ingress. Still not sorted.
Ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...................
Re: Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rjsdavis
Went back today for the amp fitting and system check - two hours later, and the electrician wasn't happy with the radio receiver either. FML!
He reckons that with the receiver connected - system takes about 35 mins to shut down. With receiver disconnected, just 5 minutes to shut down which is what he'd expect. He reckoned he cleaned off corrosion from the plug and circuit board of receiver when it was in the first time, but that this had now returned, and he was concerned new water was making it's way into the cavity. New receiver en route. Cavity filled with paper to test for water ingress. Still not sorted.
Ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...................
Can you not ask him if he can fit an ignition powered relay for the receiver/amp power supply, so as soon as you key off them items are electrically dead?