Well after 6 weeks my awful electrical problem is back. Here is what doesn't work:

-Headlights/Brights
-Turn Signals
-Horn
-A/C Blower
-Windshield Wipers

But the strange part is that this does work:
-Bright lights only when I hold the switch forward
-Parking Lights
-Hazards

Ok, I replaced the ignition switch and load reduction relay before. It doesn't appear to be either one of these things this time. I'm thinking it could be a bad ground as the load reduction relay isn't performing as it's supposed to (it's not magnetizing and closing the circuit).

If anyone has ANY suggestions, please let me know as I've spent tons of hours diagnosing this problem and cannot find anything. I'm going to check the grounds this weekend.

 

All right buddy. I'm hooking you up here. Check out this thread from Audiworld. I'll keep the suspense and let you read the fix.

http://forums.audiworld.com/a4/msgs/2078747.phtml

 

Thanks for your help. I actually already read that 6 weeks ago when I was working on this problem the first time. I spent days combing the internet looking for anything at all related to my problem. That problem is similar but I already replaced my ignition switch and the new one still looks good.

The weirdest part of this whole thing is that I had a dream the night before it went out that it was going to go out....freaky.

 

Sh*t, sorry man. Should've figured you would have already found that. Not to mention I should have seen the "fix" listed in your original post. Sounds like a real **** of a problem for sure. Hope you find it. Look on the bright side.....at least you'll have the equivalent of an Electrial Engineering degree by the time you finally find the *****.

 

I do really appreciate your help. Hopefully I can find a loose ground and that will be it but more than likely I'm gonna have to pay someone to fix it....oh how I hate my car sometimes. [:@]

 

Any update? Hope you found something.

 

Hey man I'm glad you asked. I was gonna revive this thread so that if anyone was searching for this same problem in the future they would hopefully find a solution.

It was long and tedious but I started testing wires and grounds and I finally found a frayed power wire on the back of the ignition switch wiring harness. Apparently that had grounded out and blown the ignition switch that I had installed only a month earlier. So I ordered the new switch yesterday (which got here today) and I bitched a little and they actually warantied it! Of course I failed to mention that it wasn't the switch that was the problem.

So anyway when I get off work at 10pm I'm gonna go test the new ignition switch and hopefully have the car back together tomorrow (yeah right)...

 

That's awesome. Nice work finding the problem! If I ever have electrical issues I may hit you up for advice. You know...since you have your honorary EE degree.

 

I was going to post, IGNITION SWITCH. These things always are. And well yours is unique but definitely falls in the category.

 

this is the same thing that im going through right now... i replaced mine once and a couple months later it went again..
so i look closely to see that the back of the IS harness one of the wires was melted and exposed... and the connecter that goes to the ignition switch was also melted bad.... LUCKLY there was no fire...

my question is... did you just splice it and re wire it to the plastic harness? .....