ok...my 2001 a6 2.7 was putting out 18 volts... i checked across the battery with a multimeter ..also had a 39.7 milliamp draw with fuse box wire connected after it was unhooked it would drop to 35.4 milliamp ..killed the battery overnite put the trans into safe mode etc etc ..so today when i started it i disconnected the battery so i wouldnt fry it ..car ran for maybe 15 secs then quit. so i reconnected the battery and started the car thinking that i would turn the headlights on to draw off part of the charge when i looked at gauge it was back to 12 volts..now this car had been doing this for weeks and only quit after i unhooked the battery while the car was running...and this i gonna sound ignorant as hell but is there any way that reset the voltage regulator in some way..yes i checked with the meter afterwards and it is putting out 12 volts now. i would be happy but when something like that happens it drives me nuts till i know why....so any ideas?

 

397 milliamp draw and 354 milliamp well over the rated draw of 100 milliamp havnt rechecked it but everything seems to be fine now...as i said i just dont like when things happen that make no sense because that shouldnt reset the regulator in any way but it seems to have done something like that