danfil

Look at both options today, found the right hinge wiring on the boot was so kinked it had snapped all of the wiring on that side. Re soldered and wrapped it up again.

Discovered the central locking motor pump, disconnected it and checked the amp drain ... down to 0.17 amps, with car locked up etc.

So I am slowly reducing the amp drain, hooked up the pump again and the amps was the same.. so left it plugged in, did not seem to leak air etc.

Where next, possible ignition wiring under the steering wheel, its a mess there.
Removal of OE alarm is still a mystery atm, then after market alarm install and then removal is possibly causing more drain.
Central locking working with keys, surprised the car ever works as well as it does. Credit to designers..

Lago Blue

Hi Dan,

How many wires where in that RH hinge bundle; and how many where broken? Any more wiring on opposite hinge, or are they just vacuum tubing on the other side?

I might not add on any system on top of central locking till it is fixed. If you did have a vacuum leak in the power locks, it may not show up as a current draw unless the vac. pump is running while you are metering. Do you have a vacuum gauge? If not, you could still force the pump to run to be able to meter the current draw; and also see if you could change the "attempts to unlock" behaviour you have seen.

With the repairs you've done, it may be that doing the individual fuse pulling again might prove helpful. Perhaps pull all the relays one by one for same reason.

It's good to make some progress isn't it.

danfil

All the wires were broken on the RH side of the trunk hinge, I think there were 7 or 8, not exactly sure. As I removed the casing the wiring fell out of the casing and was loose. Colour matched up every wire,including colour stripe, then soldered. Wrapped up and done.

The LH side I peeled back the casing to see tiny cracks in the wires, in hind sight I should have done the same though for now they are sealed.

Similar amount of wires either side, similar colours. No vacuum piping though, I will look for it again later..

I am NOT the owner of a vacuum gauge.
When I install the alarm if not sooner I will meter the vacuum pump on operation to idle.

I think I have done the fuse pulling after the repair, seems like I do this process a lot now. Still drops 0.01 or 0.02 Amps when I pull the central locking fuse..

Yes progress is good...

danfil

After looking again under the dash to sort out a bit of a mess and to pull some more fuses / relays to test for a drop in amps drain, I found a plug that has four wires going to it, the plug seems OE type.

I know that not every wire / plug will have a connector in a car.

But the white with blue stripe throw 4.8 volts then 12.XX volts when ignition turns on.
The black with blue stripe throws 12 volts with ignition on to ground..

Picture of plug supplied, question is have you looked under your dash lately? What is an four wire plug going to, in a 94 cabriolet?

Amp drain about .018 amps, I don't want to do damage pulling the main 60 amp fuse or some of the relays other than ones reachable (i.e. indicator relay), under the dash, in which I am sure will drop the drain.

Are there any other fuse blocks in this car? On the passenger side?

Lago Blue

The amperage draw now finally sounds acceptable, I'm glad to hear.

Have you not been using the Audi fuse pulling tool (small plastic H-shaped) that clips to the top of fuses to allow easy removal and stores on the fuse panel?

My car doesn't appear to have that same unused connector immediately obvious, yes it is an OEM one. Perhaps someone with a cab such as yours will chime in?

What an ordeal! I'd just like to point out that crises like these can be often be avoided with some preventative maintenance. These cars are old and many of these issues are not new. I would urge you to STFA here and on the sister 12v engine forum for those old conversations re typical problems and use them to guide you towards doing maintenance before the known failure points become crises.

Suggested reading:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/aud.../#post24334375

Cheers,
LB

danfil

Thanks Logo Blue for that reading interesting information on the strut towers, how one serious pot hole can give you a bad day i.e. collapsed strut.

Yesterday I noticed with the battery all hooked up and the lights off completely the left rear park light was staying on.
Strange occurrence to happen, will investigate further after replacing bulb and doing preliminary inspection looks ok from that end of wiring harness.
Must be grounding the positive or positive leaking into this wiring. The vehicle only does this intermittently so it seems as when day light it is hard to see, only by chance did I recognize the fault.

Last week replaced three wires melted together possibly wired from sensor for convertible top and handbrake. These were beside the right rear seat in front not close to the vacuum pump against the rear window on the floor of vehicle. It was caused by wear on the wires that then arced and melted three together.

I am slowly removing the electrical gremlins from this 20+ year old car but although some progress is good it is still slow and not conclusive.

danfil

Went looking for +'ve voltage to ground on the black with red stripe from LHR tail light inside the cabin and replaced the wire. Took some time re routing the replacement wire from trunk to cabin without going through central tunnel.

I have basically been chasing my tail finding small faults not the major, very disappointed that pulling fuses showed no real result for me, as it should have.

Basically the drain when doors locked is 0.18 Amps which flattens the battery over one or two days so you cannot start. NOW when doors unlocked battery drain 0.03 amps which is within tolerances for extended battery connection :]
So the vacuum pump for central locking is at fault, trying to hold the doors locked I presume. I will research the vacuum pump system extensively.
I know it was suggested as a possible fault, thanks to all helped me on my journey to find the obvious staring me in the face.