Ok guys, my 2001 S4 w/tip died on me the other day, I found a bad fuse 29, replaced it and the car ran again. Leadding up to this the car was studdering when I would turn to the right even just slightly, I thought it was a problem with the Trans. Now today the car died again, the fuse 29 and 32 was blown. Before the car died the CEL blinked at me, studdered then died. I repalced teh fuse and as soon as I put fuse 32 in it blows. The CEL does not come on, so I figure I must have a ground or short somewhere. I unplug the ECU, and it still blows the fuse!!! I then look below the ECu and see all of these plugs that connect the ECU to the rest of the car's electronics, I unplug then on by one and find the Orange plug is the culpret, when it is plugged in the fuse blows. Does anyone have any idea where this leads? I am totaly out right now, I hope the ecu is not blown, but I can't even get power to it at this point.


I welcome all thoughts please, I am pretty lost here and about to just junk this car, I am in the hole big time since my warranty ran out. It does have a GIAC chip in the ECU.


Thanks,

Felix

 

Your ECM won't cause a blown fuse like that, either will a bad TCM.
I don't have a wiring diagram for it anymore, but you can follow that orange connector with your hand and find the point of where the short is. Common places where shorts have been found is at the bottom of the firewall, and behind the driver's side kickpanel.
Hopefully someone with a bentley can add where that wiring goes.

 

I dont know exactly where it leads too but i work on electronics on helocopters and that is a short and it doesnt really matter if it a short strait to ground or to another wire. do a little bit of wire chasing and if you know how to properly fix the wire and soder it together do so if not i recomend that you replace the wire but either way it will be inexpensive and should be fairly simple. hope you get it running

 

The orange connector's wires dispear into the cable housing that goes to various parts of the engine and back through the firewall so I don't know how I could find those specifc wires. I looked for cuts in insulation, crips, etc, could not find anything that stopped the short. I have a login to Bentleys wiring diagram, but I can't quite qrankly understand it. I guess I am going to have to send it in to get looked at. THis car has been a money pit, just killing me..

 

If anyone knows how to read the Bentley wiring diagram I will gladly give you my log in to look for me.

 

Just a thought...but just to be sure, hook it up to a multimeter to see if your getting to high of a voltage then disconnect the power and check it to the other wires in the harness to see if it really is shorting. Investing in a VAG might help too.

 

I have a VAG, but I can't connect to the computer because this powers the ECU. I made a mistake guys, it is fuse 34, not 32.
I will try the multimeter.

 

6 wires fused together in the harness at the bolt below the cooling resivor. The bolt wore through and the wires fused together, very nasty had to splice 6 of them, tapes them up, car now runs like a champ except for the old bank 1 low threshold, I guess time for a CAT or O2 sensor now.