Cars at the dealer today, 4th attempt at fixing the blowing fuse #14

[LuvnhatemyA6]

Already had a new lumbar mechanism, fuse still blows.

At least I get to drive a Kia Rio for the day!

[thomas1978]

[mpw]

This may not work, but it is free and will take less than 5 minutes. There is a stack of connectors under the right front corner of the driver's seat. You can get to them easily by tilting the front of the seat up. Disconnect the black, two wire connector at the top.

You can see this connector in the 4th picture down in Boston Driver's sport seat install post.
This is for the rear footwell light, so you're not missing much by having it unplugged. I did this over 4 months ago and have had no fuse 14 issues since.

I arrived at this fix after isolating the cause of the blown fuse to the seat (I noticed that the interior lights were on until I sat in the seat on one particular occasion). I saw several posts here regarding some wires in the seat shorting. Digging through the wiring diagrams, the only one I found tied to fuse 14 was this one. The root cause may be more involved (like maybe the lumbar support), but this will at least let you know which wires are involved. I think I can live for quite a while without the rear footwell light.

If it doesn't do the trick, you can reconnect it just as easily.

Hope this helps!

• Boston Driver's sport seat install post

[Boston Driver]

I had the fuse 14 thing, and it ended up being a pinched wire for the Homelink in the visor. Must have gotten pinched when I hardwired the radar detector. Juts a few minutes and some black electrical tape did the trick.

You might want to pull the visor out and inspect the connection and the wires. Just pop the little cap over a philips head screw, take the screw out, and remove the visor (it has a j-shape, rotate the forward part of the visor hinge down and back). Check the wires for anything stripped or pinched.

Also, check your wires for the sunroof. IIRC, tey run off the same fuse...I think.

Good luck!

[LuvnhatemyA6]

It always seems to be when I move the seat, though.

[jacare79]

Fuse 14 was blowing monthly, weekly, and recently -daily- in my '01 2.7T. Thanks, mpw, for the suggestion. It's been three days now without trouble. Other electrical problems seem to have vanished as well (interior lights blinking, radio screen flickering). I'd agree this is a great thing to try before bringing it to the dealer. It took me just one minute to find and pull the plug as described.