New stereo draining my battery (I think)

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Mcrdave
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New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by Mcrdave » Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:39 pm

Hi all,

I feels like I only post when I have a problem but I'm a regular reader!

Over Christmas I changed the old Sony stereo on my 98 Freda for a nice new Sendai 889 which has aux in and bluetooth.

The change over went well until I left the van sat for a week and came to start it. It wouldn't start, ticked a few times and gave up. To be fair the temp was about 1 or 2 degrees so I got the jump leads, got it going and put it down to the cold weather.

Came to it a week later (today) with the temp a balmy 5 or 6 degrees and again no start. The battery was testing late last year and is in good condition so I think the culprit is the new stereo. I've heard of this before from reading on here and hoped this wouldn't be the case with mine but I think it's draining the battery. So my options are:

Well for now I'll unplugged the whole stereo and will come to start it mid week and see what happens.

In the long term I wondered if simply removing a fuse would stop the drain?
Or could I connect it to the leisure battery?
Or has anyone got a solution as to why it's draining the battery?

Any help appreciated with this predicament!

Dave
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by g8dhe » Sun Jan 27, 2013 9:39 pm

The normal is to swap over both the standby and the main power for the radio over to the L/B, then you can run the radio without the ignition on as well!
You need to switch the circuits on these two fuses over;
Standby;
Image
Power;
Image

Doing the above puts the radio, Cig. lighters, Interior lighting, AFT, Door locks (partial), Mirrors and a few other ancillary circuits on the L/B which doesn't normally cause problems unless you have an immobiliser that watches the door switches!

The normal way of doing it is to remove the fuses and make up a lead to plug into the lower connector only, these run back to a new fuse box which you put the removed fuses in and power the fuses from the L/B. Its also common to switch over the Blinds as well, so they can be operated without ignition on as well, thats these two fuses;
Image
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by Mcrdave » Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:39 pm

Thanks Geoff,

Is the new fuse box similar to the kit that Willinton do on eBay ie this one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAZDA-BONGO-1 ... 4ac08167db

I guess you then have to run from the new fuse box to the L/B which looking at the pics on the above ebay listing, is probably what it shows.

Also, I do have an immobilser but don't know if it watches the door switches, why would it cause a problem, not sure I understand.


Thanks very much for the help, hope I can have a go at this myself!
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by g8dhe » Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:58 pm

Yup, he will also do just the loom you need see http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAZDA-BONGO-L ... 337f23196b
If you contact him on Ebay he will put together a kit of just what you need.
See this thread regarding door switches and volt drops for the immobiliser's http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=57281
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by New Forest Terrier » Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:07 am

Some radios can cause chaos even if wired up correctly to the leisure battery. I had a Sony worked perfectly with my leisure battery and willinton kit. Then it died and I replaced it with a Aldi bargin. All hell broke loose. It flattened both batteries almost overnight and caused random electrical sillies. Removed it and replaced it with another Sony and all went went back to normal.

There is a technical explanation, Geoff will get this correct, but this is roughly it. It is to do with the live being on a different wire on German EU spec radios as opposed to Japanese spec ones. #-o This only causes problems with a leisure battery where the power is permanently connected rather than cut off by the ignition switch. Instead of being properly switched off the radio continues to drain power, a rather large amount in my case. Either that or the local poltergeist was being very busy :lol: :lol:
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by g8dhe » Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:07 am

Yup there are two power "supplies" to a radio, hence the two fuses above, one supply is un-switched (A4 iso) and is intended to provide backup to memories etc. The other is meant to be the main source of power for the radio and is switched via the ignition key (A7 iso). However some radios / vehicles have the connections reversed see the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectors_for_car_audio .

However in this case as the battery takes several days to be discharged, I think its more likely that its just the total standby drain from everything in the vehicle, especially as the cooler weather is now with us. Its very easy to add additional items into cars these days and modern electronics don't really understand the concept of "OFF" meaning drawing NO current, in most cases "OFF" means standby and its fine if I draw several milliamps to keep my circuits happy isn't it ? The trouble comes when these all add up and you find yourself with a standby load on the battery of 100mA to 1 Amp which means you only have a battery life of a few days!!! I suffer this myself on our Bongo :-( Whilst you might think that a 100AmpHr battery can easily take this load, its really a case in this weather that a vehicle really doesn't get a decent run to recharge its batteries so the battery after a few weeks of this weather is actually only charged to about 30-40 AmpHrs and then its left for a few days and ... problems strike.
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by Mcrdave » Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:47 am

This is really interesting, thanks for explaining it in simple terms. So in theory, could I not just take out the fuse for the power to the radio - ignition, leaving the fuse for the memory intact and this would stop the power being drawn if I leave the van for a week at a time?
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by g8dhe » Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:59 pm

Unfortunately no :-( Its the standby power that is causing the problems, if you take out that fuse;
Image
then;
1. You won't get in the car by the remote, as your remote receiver for the central locking is most likely powered on the same fuse,
2. The other doors won't open on the central locking when you use the key itself, the switching circuit uses this fuse,
3. Your radio looses its settings and has to be retuned,
4. The ECU won't have had power whilst parked, no massive problem here, but its like doing a reset on the ECU.
5. Possibly your alarm battery will get discharged, and if this gets too low then you may find the alarm goes off, but this will likely be weeks down the line.

None are vital, and if your going to lay up the vehicle for any length of time, you might as well disconnect the battery anyway!
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by Mcrdave » Mon Jan 28, 2013 1:06 pm

Ah sorry, I meant the power fuse for the radio (the blue one?) and leave the standby fuse as is. I'm sure it can't be as simple as this though!
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by g8dhe » Mon Jan 28, 2013 1:16 pm

No the Blue 15Amp fuse is switched via the ignition so when the Ignition is OFF then no power can be drawn. Its the un-switched, standby circuits that cause the battery to go flat, but if you disconnect them then the hassle as listed above happens!
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by mikeWalsall » Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:25 pm

Out of interest how much power would be used by a radio left on stand by ..??

I came back home at 12pm yesterday .. looking through the window at around 1am this morning I thought the light in the |Bongo was the light of the moon on the glass .. but on checking, the drivers door had not fully cached and the two interior (mirror) lights where on ..

I was expecting the starter to be a bit sluggish .. but no .. it whizzed over / started completely as normal..!!
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by g8dhe » Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:43 pm

You would expect between 1mA to 10mA if its just memories, however a lot continue to display the Time etc on the front panel, so then the current can go up to several 100mA's that's where the problems start :-(
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by ChrisQ » Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:15 pm

This is exactly the problem I am having, and correspondence with Martin re the Willington kit have confirmed that it is working ok ( I thought battery was back discharging through the system). I fitted an Erisin 2 DIN all singing/dancing radio DVD satnav unit, which works fine and no regrets about purchase, until continual draining of LB caused early failure from being left flat
Can anyone recommend a 2 din system that will not drain the LB, or should I introduce 2 in line switches so I manually switch the power on to the radio ??.
With the the Willington system, the right hand feed (power) is no longer controlled by the ignition switch. Don't want to unplug the leads from the fusebox every time, but it,s my current short term fix

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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by g8dhe » Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:31 pm

Its very rare to find what the current draw on each of the two supplies is normally, they just quote a single figure the Max. its likely to take, but some specs sheets are better than others.
You can put an extra relay in driven from the ACC circuit so that it can control devices on the L/B, however you normally end up with a bypass switch for when you do want to run the radio and the engine is OFF.
It might be best to actually measure the current at the L/B itself and then disconnect each item and make a record of what draws what current, it helps in the future when trying to work out problems! Then you know that it really is the Radio and not two or three USB charger adaptors left in the cig. sockets!
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Re: New stereo draining my battery (I think)

Post by rapiddescent » Wed Feb 06, 2013 11:11 pm

I bought one of those all-singing all dancing units as well - but i put a wee round rocker switch on the sidewall of the little compartment under the radio slot so every time i leave the bongo i just kill all power to the radio. i did this to stop the LB draining whilst stationary.

Also, bear in mind that re-charging the LB (e.g. through a willington split relay) will cost you £££ in diesel each time you run. So best not to let it drain flat.
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