Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent

[Nard666]

I wish you luck trying to source that back to source. The only way I know to track these down is to water down the suspected areas of ingress with a fine plant sprayer, slowly and patiently, looking for water ingress after every application. It's a total ****-ache.

Luckily mine was obviously where it was coming from. The negative was that when I sprayed the rear wash/wipe and nothing was coming out, I tried it two or three more times, holding it on for ages on the last attempt, as I could hear the pump working... but no water. The cracked pipe dumped the entire lot in the amp/DVD bay... FML! It was only pure chance that I happened to go into the Amp stack just after having done this too and found all of the water sploshing down on the electronics!

Tell me about it I put cardboard down on the inside of the car which showed me a main trickle point(not far from the battery regulator under the boot lock) the water was Getting into the spare wheel well but there's no sign of a entry point (kind of) I noticed it was wet all up and down the seam of the panels right the way back to the drivers side rear corner but there still seems to be no obvious point of entry apart from the fact it actually does appear it maybe coming from the seam itself, I've read about audis with sunroofs getting water coming in like from drainholes near the sunroof which run into the boot lid shuts and also about boot lids getting full of water, I have no sunroof and the grommets from the drainholes in the bootlid appear to have already been removed also although the water runs behind the battery regulator /energy manager it runs well away from the connections to it and when battery is low everything that isn't needed seems to shut down ok so the car will Start and I've never noticed this water problem before and I've owned the car for around 5 years so I don't think this actually has anything to do with my powerdrain though of course I'm not ruling it out yet either, it shows that audi are great cars to drive because I'd never have put up with all these problems from a merc a beamer or anything else well maybe a lexus or a Bentley

[rjsdavis]

I suspect the only way is to have someone gently spray water all around the boot cavity (with the boot open) with a garden hose, until you replicate the ingress of water when you hit the right spot, whilst you sit in the boot itself and trace the water back up it's path, as you already know at least one part of it's journey. If it's getting in through a seam, it will be obvious.

[Nard666]

I suspect the only way is to have someone gently spray water all around the boot cavity (with the boot open) with a garden hose, until you replicate the ingress of water when you hit the right spot, whilst you sit in the boot itself and trace the water back up it's path, as you already know at least one part of it's journey. If it's getting in through a seam, it will be obvious.

That is what it seems to be... Coming through the seams though I can't see why it would come through the seams at that point? Puzzling the other only thing I could think is maybe it's coming from the vents at the corners underneath the bumper but that would be some effort to get to the seam from there unless it fills the corner underneath the vent but there would surely be visible evidence of that happening....

[rjsdavis]

Seems unlikely though. It would require pressure/gravity to get through a seam, which, depending on exactly where you suspect it is coming from, is more likely to be getting in higher up and simply running down the inside of the seam. Just a thought.

[Nard666]

Seems unlikely though. It would require pressure/gravity to get through a seam, which, depending on exactly where you suspect it is coming from, is more likely to be getting in higher up and simply running down the inside of the seam. Just a thought.

Now see this was my thoughts exactly and your probably right although the problem with that is I have read on a few threads about people having that happen admittedly they tended to be avants and sometimes cars with sunroofs and one guy that had cracks in his seam sealants but it did seem by what I read that drainholes usually seemed to be the problem which often run inside the panels and as audi owners we both know what a pigs ear audi make when it comes to drainholes unfortunately Im not sure on where all the drainholes are on my car some I know but who knows what I could be missing but given some nicer weather I will be checking out everything I can,anyway how are you getting on with your issues at the minute? Have you at least regained all your speakers yet?

[rjsdavis]

Mine is an Avant with sunroof. The drain holes for this are 2x at the front that pop out just below the A-pillar by the door hinge, and 2x at the rear, which follow a pipe that come down on top of the rear wheel arch above the wheel arch cover - neither of them come anywhere near the boot cavity really. As you've already said that you don't have a sunroof, this won't be relevant in any case. I would have thought that the only way you're going to get to the bottom of it, is list down all of your suspected ingress points, sit in the boot and have someone gently shower each point with a garden hose until you get some ingress. Start at the lowest suspected point of ingress and work your way towards the highest suspect. It's still a total ****-ache.

Made no progress on my power drain or speakers. Have now got a replacement amplified aerial, but haven't had decent enough weather to spend a couple of hours putting it in, and going through all of the wiring slowly to see if the speaker issue was just a loose connection, or is linked to one of the replacement parts (radio receiver and / or amp) that was fitted. Will no doubt be a sequence of deduction on that one....

[lynalldiscovery]

Which grommet ? The flat ones that seem to have no real reason for being there? I have got a small leak myself not much water but it would seem more than you had, I've checked the grommet in the direction of where mine seems to be coming from but it appears to be in good condition and it was sitting correctly though I'm wondering if it's actually coming somewhere else as it seems to be running along the seams of the panels in the boot, after having the plastics off and the carper up it appears be coming in from the corner by the jack holder but as I say the grommet appears to be fine, I've also had the rear light out on that side as I could see a trickle mark leading from the boot shut and down the back of the light and this leads to the plastic bit underneath the light (I believe these are vents the let heat out as this makes sense on the other side by the stack (amp etc)

Imagine standing square on to the back of the car with the boot open and the floor lifted up, place your left hand forwards and down the inside of the spare wheel well and the grommet is there, about 2 inches diameter.

[Nard666]

Imagine standing square on to the back of the car with the boot open and the floor lifted up, place your left hand forwards and down the inside of the spare wheel well and the grommet is there, about 2 inches diameter.

Yeah the flat one by the sounds of it

[Nard666]

Mine is an Avant with sunroof. The drain holes for this are 2x at the front that pop out just below the A-pillar by the door hinge, and 2x at the rear, which follow a pipe that come down on top of the rear wheel arch above the wheel arch cover - neither of them come anywhere near the boot cavity really. As you've already said that you don't have a sunroof, this won't be relevant in any case. I would have thought that the only way you're going to get to the bottom of it, is list down all of your suspected ingress points, sit in the boot and have someone gently shower each point with a garden hose until you get some ingress. Start at the lowest suspected point of ingress and work your way towards the highest suspect. It's still a total ****-ache.

Made no progress on my power drain or speakers. Have now got a replacement amplified aerial, but haven't had decent enough weather to spend a couple of hours putting it in, and going through all of the wiring slowly to see if the speaker issue was just a loose connection, or is linked to one of the replacement parts (radio receiver and / or amp) that was fitted. Will no doubt be a sequence of deduction on that one....

Trouble is by the amount that's getting in I'm guessing it will take a big amount of spraying down to trace it and unfortunately as I live in flats I don't really have a hose or a way of using one and I've not been able to trace any water to show a point of entry into the car even after going out to it directly after the rain has stopped so I figure it being very difficult even if I sat in the boot

Yeah Im with you on a weather, I'm in the same position and I've got a couple of things I really wanted to look at before my mot is due and that's coming quickly in fact I want to get my mot booked asap as it's up on the 14th, well I hope you get to the bottom of it soon and without any further problems or money needed

[rjsdavis]

May have to go down that route if the new receiver doesn't shut down the system as it should...

Trying to keep this thing from spirally totally out of control!

Ok - so I'm now even more confused by this damn electrical glitch than I was before!

So - I have followed all of the instructions/suggestions from the auto-electrician. It turned out that the first replacement radio tuner I received was faulty, but a third now means that the MMI system is running properly, with no further "self-shutdown" glitches, auto-resetting gltiches, or "self-muting" glitches. In short, since the working radio tuner has been fitted, MMI works as it should.

However, I still have the shut-down issue that is quite right. Previously, the electrician determined that the car wasn't shutting down at all, and that it was this was causing the large drain of the system, that meant that after 24-48 hours of being parked, the car was unstartable with no battery power.

Whislt this is no longer the case, the car is now taking about 2 hours to shut down instead of just a few minutes.

The original amp was also replaced, and curiously, this worked ok as far as we could see, however, it didn't cure the power drain issue. The first replacement radio tuner was fitted, and this also didn't cure the battery drain problem, and the MMI system was still playing around.

A second radio tuner was ordered and fitted, and whilst this cured the MMI rebooting problems, when I picked the car up from the electrician, I found that the speakers on the right-side of the car stopped working properly. I was reluctant to keep going back to the electrician, as it seemed to me that he was simply "guessing" at what component to change - it was a case of, "Let's try changing this and see what happens". When this didn't work we'd then change the next component etc etc etc.

I started to investigate myself, and VCDS was reporting open circuits in the amplified aerial, that came in under the radio tuner section of the VCDS report. I bought and fitted a replacement amplified aerial (that was a right fiddly bugger to fit), but it made no difference to the open circuits being reported by VCDS.

It then occurred to me that the fault might have laid within the replacement radio tuner itself. I ordered and then fitted a second radio tuner. This worked. No more open circuit faults being reported within VCDS at all (with either amplified aerial), and MMI was working as it should with no gremlins. I still only had sound from the N/S of the car though!

I checked and tried the original amp (that had received a dousing when the rear wash/wipe had leaked), and it seemed to work just fine. There was evidence of some green corrosion on some of the pins, but I cleaned this off with some Deblocker and cotton bud / toothbrush until they were clean. Also cleaned the electrical plug up too. The original amp cures the speaker problem (all work when it is fitted), but I still have the irritating 2 hour shutdown issue (which I already had before the original amp was re-fitted back into the car).

So, I've now got a fully working MMI system, sound from all speakers, but still a 2 hour shutdown.

I determined that the original amp might have water damaged (the main board) regardless of the plugs being thoroughly cleaned up, and decided to buy a second amp. This arrived a few days ago, and upon fitting, just like the first replacement amp, this also stopped the O/S speakers from working! Worse - VCDS was also reporting an open circuit fault from this second replacement amp, which returned immediately when it was cleared. Put the original amp back in - all speakers work and no open circuit faults in the system.

Could it just be very bad luck indeed, and BOTH replacement amps that I have purchased both had faults? This is where I'm struggling a bit, as it's hard to accept, but not impossible. Anywho, the second replacement amp will be on it's way back to the seller shortly, and I'm probably not going to bother getting a third replacement.

But here lies my quandry. With the original amp now fitted back in, the second replacement radio tuner fitted, the MMI system still works. A VCDS scan now reports NO FAULTS WHATSOEVER (which is brill news), but I've still got the 2 hour shutdown problem. Granted, it's not stopping the car from starting, but it's irritating me ENORMOUSLY, as I want to fix it. Where to go next with it?

Also - in the last two days, I've got a new min oil level fault showing up on the dash. It's reporting to me that the oil level has dropped below minimum, and this is not the first time this has happened - however, on the occasions where it has happened before, a top-up of about 0.75l of oil, refills the engine enough the warning goes. This time it hasn't - AAAAAAARRTRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.

I've put an extra 1.5l into the engine, and my reading of the dipstick is that it's now slightly overfilled (not worried about that), but concerned why the fault warning isn't clearing!! W H Y ? I'm reading the oil level cold. When I dip and remove the dipstick, clean her off, and dip her again, it's clearly showing me that the oil level is a little over the max notch. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking that it could just be an electrical fault issue that is related to whatever is causing the slow shut-down of the car. Before I got to the bottom of the underlying MMI problems, I was beset with oil temperature failure warnings, which persisted after changing the oil level / temp sensor with a brand new gen unit, and wasn't cured until the electrical issues were cured.

What to do about the engine oil? I know the engine has plenty of oil in it!! and.... still no faults being reported within VCDS. FML!