Hi all, well seem to have the old battery draining problem having fitted a new Kenwood CD/Radio. Despite the stereo manual having a wiring configuration for the Felicia (i.e. car loom has 2 permanent lives and no ignition live) the radio still manages to draw 0.2A - 0.5A with it powered off and the facia removed!!

Consequently, I want to make my own switched live connection to connect to the appropriate stereo wire. As the cigarette lighter is always live that's no good, so want to tap into the fuse box if I can. Anyone done this that can recommend an appropriate place to connect into either in the fuse box or elsewhere?

Much appreciated.

Paul

If you have a haynes you should be able to identify an appropriate switched live going into the fuse box and just tap into that... only draws a very small amount from that to tell it to switch on so shouldn't matter where you get it from.

If you don't I'm sure someone will be able to indentify one for you... don't have mine with me at the moment.

Phil

Rather than look for a tap in the fuse box and add another wire to the snakes' nest under the dashboard I mounted a simple switch on the side of the radio compartment cutting the red wire on the radio's loom. I just bend down as if to scratch my ankle and turn it on.

The radio will require a live feed though (yellow wire on the radio's loom) if you want to keep the preset stations stored. But I would have guessed that it takes less than 0.2 A?

Edited 23 February, 200917 yr by swedishskoda

Hi,

I wanted to do exactly the same as you. What I did was to take off the steering wheel shroud, which just about gives you access to the wiring from the ignition switch. I then located the black wire and using a scotch connector, I wired the radio live switched wire to that. It is a little tight to get in there, but not too much to make it difficult (just slightly awkward). The only problem I find I have, is that I cannot have the radio on without having the fan and all the associated electrics running. This means that you can't just sit in the car, with just the radio running whilst waiting to pick up the kids from school etc. Otherwise it works perfectly as a switched live. It also has the advantage, that it is easy to run the wire along the bottom backpart of the dash, to the steering wheel housing, thus keeping the wire out of sight and away from any feet. hope this helps.

Ian

Thanks for all the responses. Will have a crack at it today and let you know how I get on.

Cheers.

Paul

Hi all, well seem to have the old battery draining problem having fitted a new Kenwood CD/Radio. Despite the stereo manual having a wiring configuration for the Felicia (i.e. car loom has 2 permanent lives and no ignition live) the radio still manages to draw 0.2A - 0.5A with it powered off and the facia removed!!

Consequently, I want to make my own switched live connection to connect to the appropriate stereo wire. As the cigarette lighter is always live that's no good, so want to tap into the fuse box if I can. Anyone done this that can recommend an appropriate place to connect into either in the fuse box or elsewhere?

Much appreciated.

Paul

i'm asuming you have speaker conected to the radio (duh) if the radio is drawing .2 - .5 amps when not turned on then that means that one of the cable leading to the speaker is faulty or that the earth for the radio is faulty;

if you have a security system installed one of your speakers might be serving as a glass break sensor... check that

or

i would check the radio itself first, no speakers, conected straight to the batery, to see if there is a fault or short,

or

the earth (negative) wire that goes to the radios is not good or mixed with a car system that has problems or is always on (like the inmovilizer)

or

The blue or/and blue-white wire coming out of the radio is not properly shielded, so you have a small leak check that

now i'm not a radio technitian, but i've done all my instalations and friends instalations for a long time since the audio installers here charge a lot, and they (wich are supposed to be expert) do a realy ugly job most of the time, so what i'm telling you is out of past experience, your problem could be something else i haven encounter yet

Best of luck mate

bang a switch on the yellow wire. easiest thing to do without taking your dash apart.