I am the proud owner of a 1999 Audi A4 Quattro with 230K+ miles. I love my car and, so far, have been able to do all the work myself.

I bought the car with a bad turbo and replaced it. I read posts on this site to diagnose and fix a bad oil cooler gasket. (Thanks to all that posted)

I now have an electrical issue... Most on this forum would say that it is the multifunction switch behind the steering wheel i.e. (lights, signals, cruise switches). THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

I was driving home a few days ago at about 3am...(from work not bar) and stopped for gas. When I turned my car back on I had no headlights, turn signals, rear defrost and the AC started acting very peculiar.

I checked fuses and then went home and checked known articles. Since my brights would come on while manually pulling the lever back, I gave the whole multi-switch thing a try. I pulled my multiswitch and all the components looked brand new to include the lower slide that is known to overheat and have melted plastic on it.

Perhaps related...I pulled the octagon shaped pig tail from the back of the ignition tumbler while the wheel was off and it did have a burnt spot on one of the hot power prongs..... I cleaned it and also replaced the multiswitch with a used one from a wrecked car that had been working fine prior to the incident. This did absolutely nothing.... My car starts and runs like a champ, but I have no power to my headlights, turn signals, rear defrost and the AC fan comes off and on sporadically, but the compressor does not seem to. All of these things worked fine before the dreaded gas incident...

Is there another fuse (in line) or perhaps the ignition tumbler itself that could have shorted out causing this????

 

Well all of those things are on the load reduction "X" circuit. Usually its ignition switch related, but there is a Load reduction relay. jump terminals 30 and 87 in the relay socket and see if everything starts working. If it does you have either a bad relay, or missing the relay ground (86) or the relay power (85) from the ignition switch.
load reduction relay is on the relay panel behind the lower dash panel on the drivers side. its Number 2. Lowest relays, 2nd one from the left.

 

Thanks PROSPEEDER...I tend to work in mechanics..electrical is def. not my forte'.. I will give it a shot in the AM!