So, in my newly purchased lemon, the battery all of a sudden was dead.

I jumped it, no problem...until I stopped. As soon as I turn the car off nothing works. no dash lights, no door locks, nothing. It also won't start again. I just jumped it this morning and drove around the block, pulled in the driveway, turned it off and tried to turn it on again - nothing.

The battery was "shipped in 2010" - so it's not that old.

I'm not great at reading multi meters but I made sure to have it set right and I'm not really reading anything. I have it set on the 20 level of the DCA. It reads -1.4. I unhook it from the battery cable (I'm making the connection with the neg pointer on the neg cable and the pos pointer on the neg terminal with the neg cable disconnected) and it still reads -1.4. I move further away from the car and it starts going way up and doing other weird stuff.

I've looked all over the forums (both this and audi world - along with a good search), and I've found that a normal culprit for battery draw is the gauge cluster, climate control, and door lock controls. However, everything I read states that it dies overnight or over a longer period of time.

The fact that it jumps tells me that battery should be fine. While I was driving the in dash gauge said it was up around 15-16 volts. Before this problem showed up, I paid a guy with a vag-com to check all my codes (of which there are many) and he noticed the battery seemed to be great.

Anyone out there who's got a thought?

 

So, I left the neg cable off the terminal all day.

I then tried to check things with my multi-meter again. It read about 1.5. I started pulling fuses. The #3 (glove box) lowered it down to .9 or so. When I put it back in, it went back up to 1.5 or 1.6.

I then struck gold on #5 as well. This is related to climate control (the system on the bottom of the console bezel). My original one had all the screw holes broken so I had replaced it with one from another car. I began to suspect that it was faulty unit. So, I pulled out the unit and tested again. it was about .2. I put the original unit in; it was again at .2. I pulled it out and put the new unit back in, it was again at .2.

It seemed the problem might be fixed. So, before hooking everything back up I pulled off both cables from the battery and touched them together (a mechanic friend mentioned that can reset systems), then tightened them down real good.

I jumped the car, let it run for a couple minutes. I turned it off...then turned it back on, no problem. I then turned it off and waited about 30 seconds...it turned back on no problem. I then waited about 15-20 minutes, turned it on, no problem.

I'm going to go check the meter in a little bit and will update you with what I find.

 

It's been starting up fine with no major battery issues.

I do have another one that came up - my flashers just started going. They go with the car on or off. It was weird. I pulled out fuse 4 (I think, or might have been 3 - the one associated with the central locking system), and it stopped. So now I've figured out that I need to replace that module.

That might have been pulling power from the battery. Fun times.

 

So, in my newly purchased lemon, the battery all of a sudden was dead.

 

If it won't hold a charge - get a new battery.

If it seems it's holding a charge, but something else is draining it, you gotta hook up the multi meter and start pulling fuses. Good times.