Hi there guys new to this forum (and audis)

little background first. The other half has been on about getting an A3 for years. eventually found one that fitted the bill, a 2000 w reg A3 1.9tdi se. phoned the dealer (no an audi dealer, just some second hand car dealer) to make sure we could drive it home that day if we drove the 90 miles to the dealership. Yes of course you can was the reply so we went down, paid for it and then noticed there was no tax. That should have been the first clue. told sold as seen so had to take it away with no tax (a fun drive home!) couldn't use it until it was taxed so it sat for a couple of days on the drive. When we next went to start it there was nothing, not even a click from the solenoid. The dealer was having nothing to do with it and wasn't interested in the slightest "it was fine when you took it away" and all that crap.

Fitted a brand new battery and all was fine until the next weekend when it had sat for a couple of days again. battery completely dead. It does this every time it's left for more than 24-48 hrs.

I have disconnected the battery -ve lead and put the mulitmeter between the -ve terminal and the -ve lead. with everything off and the doors shut, there is a constant drain of 0.18A. If i disconnect the left hand 30A fuse on top of the battery the drain immediately drops to 0.02A, then every time i connect the multimeter again it starts momentarily at 0.18A then drops to 0.02 pretty much immediately.

What is this fuse for (what are the three of them for actually) so i can try and find the problem? any other ideas what the problem might be?

thanks for reading and sorry for the long post.

cheers gill