Tried searching but didn't find anything as severe as this...

So my '02 Turbo has a vampire drain that has gotten progressively worse (I think, no data to support it). Replaced the battery first, still problems with drain. Now the car can barely stay over night, and after driving to/from work and then parking another night it will be dead the next morning. And thats with an AGM 95Ah battery. An Ctek charger keeps it charged overnight and I finally got around to doing some troubleshooting today. Current drain: 2,8 AMPS(!!). I had to triple check that the multimeter was at the right setting but yes. 2,8 amps it is.. Covered up the movement sensors inside, clicked the door lock, locked the car and was ready to test. It first stopped at 3,5 amps, then fell to 2,8 a little while later. Pulled fuse by fuse in the fusebox, no go. Tried pulling all the relays as well, still nothing.

What can pull that amount of current in the car, that isn't fused? Alternator? Anything else?


Also: No warning lights, no errors in Durametric. No beep on lock so all zones are closed properly when parked.

 

Alternator would be my first guess. I have had a bad drain, not as bad as your's, that I traced to the ignition switch - they go "bad" but there's nothing inside the damn things?!

I'd start by disconnecting the alternator. If the drain is still there try disconnecting the ignition switch under the dash.

 

i dont think the car can be owned without a ctek or similar trickle charger, but your parasitic drain sounds even more insane than what is "normal". and normal for us, is off the charts for a sitting/locked/alarmed vehicle.

 

My car actually does pretty well now that my ignition switch has been replaced. Tip: don't use a Chinese knockoff switch, use the Bosch. I knew something was goofed when I looked outside and saw my rain sensing wipers running in the rain and my key was in my pocket with one of those cheap switches! There's nothing in the things but brass wipers and contacts - how do you screw that up?!

 

!? i replaced mine with a six dollar vw part! been ok a few years now. but you're wise to mention it, as the stuff that was going haywire was completely inconsistent ( one would think!? ) with a failing ignition switch. i.e radio on/off by itself, who knows what all else.

it
's kind of like the random cels i was just getting ( abs/psm drive to buggerer immediately! ) when all i needed was to charge the battery, and since no more cels ( while of course i bought a new CPS! for 50 bucks ) and yet i got "cam position sensor input low bank one" cels! for nothing other than having a low charge battery.

its insane what happens to these when amperage is low or under supported.

 

So, alternator, starter motor solenoid or ignition switch?
How do you check if the error is in the ign.sw?

I also get the odd ABS/PSM error, but very rarely. It's always the front right, so I figured that was the harness, but if its related to this and gets fixed, awesome

 

I'd do alternator first, ignition switch second. The ignition switch has a plug on the back of it, since you're already measuring current at the battery I'd suggest simply unplugging that thing and seeing if the drain drops - just like I would the alternator. When my ignition switch was bad I saw my wipers run, I heard a smal motor sound IN the car with the keys in my pocket, all sorts of things. The car could go maybe a day or two before the battery was dead. Now, it can go a week easily if not more with no problem at all! I still trickle it though because I'm paranoid. It's in the stereo shop now, want to bet it comes back with a toasted battery?

 

yeah they cant be left alone safely for more than a few days, at least i wouldnt either. if i have to leave it at a shop i will literally bring the ctek. blkmagic knows a lot more than i do about all of this stuff, but if you're a capable diy'r? given the ig switch is literally a 6 $ part ( if you buy the generic vw part which is the same as ours or 986 same ) then you could eliminate that as the cause for nothing other than a 6$ part and five minutes of your install time. then move on. I'm not sure of the protocol but doesn't this lead to a fuse pulling endeavor if and once you rule out the switch and the alt? can a failing alt cause a parasitic drain?! or simply not allow the battery to "charge"? I've switched out my alt with a new bosch and the only symptoms were failing battery. i dont even think i got any cels, just low on the gauge, and one AM, ..fail.

 

Had a bad drain - car's phone, the dealer found it.. removed the phone electronics and just kept the old school phone plastic in place... it's so funny when somebody gets in and observe it... lots of jokes from this

I guess in the owners manual they say to lock the car and wait till the second flash of the lights, if I am not wrong this will disconnect some of the consumers that are there for short periods of time, as this kind of locking the car means - "long time sleep"... in my case nothing more than one week to last or so.... I also have an Aquamist meth kit that I should install properly as controller still works with ignition off... check this kind of stuff for your setup...

 

Do you have any aftermarket devices installed, like new radio, radar detector, alarm, etc.,

 

There's a voltage regulator in the alternator. I've had zero issues with mine but I've seen at least one post somewhere that was the result of someone having an issue with the regulator draining their battery. I don't think the alternator harness is that hard to get to but I'll admit my car is in the shop and I can't go look.With a drain as high as this one that sounds like an excellent place to start looking! the ignition switch is a little bit of a hassle to get to but there's a good DIY around that explains how to get to it, just follow that to reach up and yank the plug off. With some of the truly bizarre things my car was doing with that switch screwed up it's certainly a potential culprit! The VW switch is a good tip, I'll admit I went with the Bosch one Pelican sells and probably paid too much but having already gotten a bum knock-off I wasn't taking chances! Glad to hear the cheaper VW unit works

 

^ it went DOWN! 5.90 and 8.50 shipping. thats where they get ya ha

 

Did you also try the alternator? How much did it go down? I really really hope that's it for you but it might still be worth checking the alternator too.

P.S. If you've got an Audi dealer nearby maybe call them up? You want a quality part for this, trust me!

 

I did the fuse-pulling, read the first post
I've heard of alternators that, if two diodes fail in the correct order, can cause a smaller short that will put that kind of drain on the system.


Yeah, I also had the PCM with phone console, all of that is gone now and replaced with a Parrot Android Smart unit instead.

Locking the car and waiting will see modules shut down, Porsche says 02-> cars will take as much as 61 minutes to reach full sleep, where drain should be around 30 milliamps. The reciever for the remote key will also shut down after five? days so you need to use the hardware key to unlock and reactivate the wireless system. With a fully charged large capacity (80Ah+) battery it would take more than 100 days to drain it under ideal conditions.



Oh hell yes
Dashcam (with recording when parked), aftermarket headunit with high accuracy (10Hz) GPS-module, GPS-tracker, and so on and so forth. Most of them are disconnected when the ignition is off, the rest is on the same power source as the radio, which is fused in the fusebox. I tried pulling ALL the fuses without much drop in drain so my various gismos isn't the cultprit.




There's also the rectifier diodes that are, according to the interwebs, inside the alternator, not in the regulator. The alternator-connections are unfortunately pretty hard to reach, you'd have to remove the air filter box, connecting pipe, Y-pipe with various connectors and sensors, the oil filter bracket, the +12V connector next to the oil filter, and possibly parts of the plumbing for the recirc-valves to reach behind the alternator. At that point it's probably easier to undo the two bolts that hold it to properly reach the rear of the alternator. When you're that deep in the starter motor is easier to reach so it's a good oppertunity to check that as well. Again, the interwebs speak of starter solenoids that can go bad and cause a short.


Guess I'll start at the alternator and see where things go from there. Also, 3amps should produce some heat, so I'll try to feel my way around the engine bay tomorrow before I fire it up.



Not yet, too much dismantling to do. I've ordered a new one though. I've got a Porsche dealership 2 minutes from work so parts isn't a problem, their pricing might be though...

 

My only concern is that perhaps we should have SOME power going through that switch all the time and if pulling the connector didn't drop it as much as needed perhaps that wasn't the fault at all. However if you expect to see as low as 300ma then it does seem like perhaps the switch was part of it. I do agree that multiple amps ought to be producing heat somewhere! It sux that the alternator is so hard to get to and I too have heard about diodes getting toasted to cause current drain. Hopefully you're on the right track now though!