battery drain

[ainarssems]

Well curiosity got better of me, I tested 150ma drain current from the battery on mine. Car unlocked and waited until light in the boot goes out before measuring. Tested with multimeter at 200ma range in series without any resistors or anything else. Removed the clamp from battery but pressed it to the battery terminal so there is current going to the battery, connected 1 lead from the multimeter to the battery, other to the cable and then moved clamp away from terminal to make the current flow through the multimeter. This was done to avoid high current and possible damage to multimeter at the moment of connecting. Car has factory CD changer, SatNav and working phone and aftermarket alarm.

[oldnick]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Well curiosity got better of me, I tested 150ma drain current from the battery on mine. Car unlocked and waited until light in the boot goes out before measuring. Tested with multimeter at 200ma range in series without any resistors or anything else. Removed the clamp from battery but pressed it to the battery terminal so there is current going to the battery, connected 1 lead from the multimeter to the battery, other to the cable and then moved clamp away from terminal to make the current flow through the multimeter. This was done to avoid high current and possible damage to multimeter at the moment of connecting. Car has factory CD changer, SatNav and working phone and aftermarket alarm.

sounds a lot to me ...try pulling the radio/loudspeaker/telephone fuse in the boot and see what you get !

[ainarssems]

Mine is PF, haven't got any fuses in the boot.

[oldnick]

presumably there is a radio/loudspeaker fuse in the main box then ..try having a look there !

[oldnick]

well , progress ..of a sort
having found that removing the phone/radio/loudspeaker fuse reduces drain by 30mA and to an acceptable level I put it back in and removed components one at a time
phone ...never been fitted by the look of it
CD stack .......no reduction
electric aerial ....no reduction
back parcel shelf bass speakers [ nokia 4DO 035 401 25Y ]that don't work .....no reduction

so that seems to just leave the radio itself + door speakers [ audi concert ...in the handbook for that it mentions bose without saying for which parts ] ; could that account for 30mA on it's own ? incidentally it appears to need a code [ tear out strip in the book ] but when I have disconnected the battery it works just the same

anybody any idea what the radio draws normally ?

[ainarssems]

I did find the fuses in the boot, I have not noticed them before on my car because they are under the cover but I have seen them on somebody else car without removing any covers, I guess they were missing the cover, that made me think I do not have any in the boot. Anyhow found the radio fuse and it is drawing 1.2A with radio on silently, drops to 0.5A when radio switched off and then to 7ma after half minute or so. So it is not radio drawing current on mine. 150ma is a bit more than I would like but car still starts fine after 2 weeks without use and on old battery so cannot really complain.

[oldnick]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

I did find the fuses in the boot, I have not noticed them before on my car because they are under the cover but I have seen them on somebody else car without removing any covers, I guess they were missing the cover, that made me think I do not have any in the boot. Anyhow found the radio fuse and it is drawing 1.2A with radio on silently, drops to 0.5A when radio switched off and then to 7ma after half minute or so. So it is not radio drawing current on mine. 150ma is a bit more than I would like but car still starts fine after 2 weeks without use and on old battery so cannot really complain.

thanks! 7mA sounds like the sort of figure I would expect , but 4 times as much , as I have ??? sounds like enemy action ! if I had your radio [ do you have a concert ? ] it would solve my problems ! I didn't realise that you could change the settings from standard to bose , my system being standard if it has been changed to bose it might have caused the problem [ can't check , don't have the kit ] ; as the radio is constant live could maybe find a way to put a switch in the circuit to isolate it , sounds like mine isn't switching off !

you say that the car starts fine after 2 weeks at 12.2 ... I have been checking the voltage drop over 4 days and it is down by about .12 volts so starting after 2 weeks would be about 2 weeks might be possible from what you say , would probably need 12.3 with winter temperatures where I live even though I head for the sun when it starts to go below zero !

anyway have started again , put the battery on charge and will test daily for a couple of weeks , my 90 quattro 7A 20valve may be on it's last legs but fine for running around locally which is all I need until I go to england to visit my daughter in the new forest in july

don't forget to post what your problem was when you discover why your drain is 150mA

ps , maybe the reason that the other A8 you looked at didn't have a side panel was because the owner needed frequent access to the battery !

[oldnick]

this is driving me crazy
pulled radio , debranched 12v feed plug , checked that there is now no power to radio , aerial or CD stack ; don't have phone [ never did I think ]
so now power drain on battery drops by 30/40 mA the same as when I pull the fuse ?

nope , no reduction at all

as Alice said , curiouser and curiouser

any ideas as to what to do next seeing my theory that it is the radio has turned out to be erroneous ?

[Goran]

Write to Audi and ask what normal sleep mode current is for a D2. You could be chasing a non-existent problem if D2s have a larger sleep mode current due to all the systems in the car.
We now know of 4 cars, two of mine, Ainars's and yours which drain 100mA and above, can all these cars have a problem? or is this normal for this type of car?
Anyone else measured their current drain? Please post.

[oldnick]

well ain has the same circuit as me , and has a drain of 7mA whereas mine is about 40mA ; obviously cars vary according to what equipment is fitted but as this particular circuit is limited to radio and ancillaries it seem impossible that there could be so much variation...unless there is something related to the phone which neither of us have !!!

I've checked around the rest of the car and there is nothing which seems to be excessive so mabe contacting audi to see if there was something fitted as OE on this circuit would be a good idea !