Hi all,

I am building a 97 A4 Quatro for a 24 hours of lemons race. As part of prepping the car, we have to remove all unnecessary wiring. My goal is to get it down to nothing more than what is required to make it run and keep the ECU happy.

I found the the air pump in the trunk (the central locking module) is tied into the start circuit and the car will not crank if I remove that module. It will continue to run if you start the car, then remove the module.

I want to remove the module completely and the associated wiring. Has anyone here succeeded in doing that? Looking at various diagrams I can see there is a power wire and a return signal to the ignition switch. Is it as simple as twisting these two wires together?

My concern is the potential to fry something in the switch that kills everything and leaves me a new puzzle to solve. I have read that there is no imobilizer for this year of the US cars, and don't think the key is chipped, but it does have some kind of button on the key (or maybe that is a loose battery cover?).

So far I have successfully removed 22 lbs of wire and still have a running race car!

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

I figured this out on my own. In this year model, the locking module is part of the clutch and neutral system. The 16 pin connector is the only connector that was required to stay in the CLM to make the car start. Once started, the CLM could be disonnected and the car would continue to run.


I tracked down a good system schematic, it was pretty clear that only the Clutch and Park/Neutral could have an effect. The rest of the wires: Radio, Auto Check, Ultra Sound, various Alarms, Lights and Windows were clearly not it (these are already removed devices).


I systematically cut and confirmed the car cranked and ran each of the wires listed above. Finally, with only two wires left connected it was just a matter of determining which one had voltage when the key hit crank. Crazy as it sound the two wires are in separate harnesses and the wire changes color along the way. Grounding the black with red wire solved the problem. The CLM is removed and car starts and runs!