Went to start my car this morning only to find the battery was flat. AA came out and proceded to test the battery telling me that there is a 1.5 amp drain whilst the car isnt running. (acceptable levels are apparently 0.30 or less). he then removed each individual fuse until the levels dropped to normal, finding the problem was the radio (Blauplunkt DXR-52 travel pilot fitted by a skoda uk dealer before i purchased it two weeks ago). I have noticed how ever that the neon light is constently on the head unit, and even after leaving the car for a few hours if you wanted you could turn the radio on even with out the keys in the ignition or the car running. Is this, or could this be the cause of the battery discharge. i know it's the radio as the levels dropped to normal once the fuse was pulled out, and he tested the alternator with no problems there, but why is the radio draining so much power? any advice or explanations would help as it's booked in on thursday to hopefully solve the problem. i would like to be armed with a bit of knowledge before going. :confused:

Does sound like that's the cause - the head unit shouldn't have power with the key out of the ignition...

Rob.

Check the wiring out, dont know headunits but do they have a switchlive at the back? maybe accidently connected to a permenant live?

Its been wired up wrong.

Id say they havent switched the permenent and igntion lives in the iso lead.

I suspect the dealer didn't swap over the switched and permanent live when they fitted the new HU.

Does sound like that's the cause - the head unit shouldn't have power with the key out of the ignition...

Rob.

I dissagree, you can happly wire a Hu to a car on a permante live and not have this problem....mine HU in the otcy and every other car since i was 17 have been wired permantly on and not to the ignition...

Now im not saying they havnt wired it wrong in this case they might of done, with out looking i woudlnt know,

How old is the car?

When did it last have a new Battery?

Joel

:woot:

I was kind of right lol

Surely you would want a permanent live? Else you have to reprogramme your stations in each time.

The car is a Fabia VRS, 4 months old but only had it two weeks.

RichardEames:- There are two feeds to the stereo, one permenant and one linked to the ignition.

On most VAG cars this is (I'm told by my local car audio shop) the opposite way around in the connector and you need to reverse the wires (as Lummox and EddieH says) or you have a stereo which you can turn on with the ignition but will never hold any stations (trust me - that's what happened to me).

Joel_Vrs:- That may be your experience, but have any of your head units had a permenant power draining neon like snoopy describes?

Given your description of the stereo the swap of the power feeds has def. not been done, the Skoda dealer really should know this needs doing - it's an extremely common problem.

thing is the radio does hold all its stations and hasnt experienced any memory loss! does this mean the wires are conected the correct way???????

thing is the radio does hold all its stations and hasnt experienced any memory loss! does this mean the wires are conected the correct way???????

IIRC there are two feeds, one permanent which is used for things like retaining memory stations (ie. low power consumption) and the other being the ignition feed which is used when powering the amp circuits, etc. (relatively high power consumption).

If your stereo is retaining memory stations *and* draining the battery, it sounds like it's all coming off the permanent feed. I guess it could also possibly be something to do with the ignition switch making the ignition feed run all the time, but botched wiring is more likely IMHO.

Rob.

found out today that the radio still works even with the fuse pulled out, but only with the ignition keys in and the car running( as i believe it should!) and stranger still is that again there is no memory loss with all settings and radio stations intact. but the sat nav part of the system which is all intergrated in the unit (Blauplunkt DXR-52 travel pilot) is no longer picking up saterlights therfore not working ??

found out today that the radio still works even with the fuse pulled out, but only with the ignition keys in and the car running( as i believe it should!) and stranger still is that again there is no memory loss with all settings and radio stations intact. but the sat nav part of the system which is all intergrated in the unit (Blauplunkt DXR-52 travel pilot) is no longer picking up saterlights therfore not working ??

It sounds a bit like someone has 'bodged' the wiring to me!! Given the scenario that the whole thing works keys or not with the fuse in but will only work keys in when the fuse is removed - it sounds like both the permanent and switched inputs on the radio are attached to both the permanent and switched outputs of the car. That is not right at all!! Why the sat nav isn't working, I don't know... it's all gone a bit weird now.

I look forward to hearing what the dealer says is wrong, make sure you get details or we may never get a good nights sleep again!!!

went to the dealer today for them to take alook at the sterio and wireing etc, and they have taken the whole unit out and are sending it back to blauplunkt for diagnostics. they seem to think its the unit draining all the power out of the battery and say its not their wireing.

Hmmm - well it's possible I suppose but I'd still suspect the wiring personally.

Let us know how you get on though

I suspect the wiring too, my Blaupunkt Madeira was installed incorrectly (by some assistant of my Skoda dealer) which caused incorrect behaviour (memory loss for the clock but not for the stations...). They rewired it and now it works normally.

and even after leaving the car for a few hours if you wanted you could turn the radio on even with out the keys in the ignition or the car running.

It IS possible to put your radio on when your ignition is off, but all the other clues also fit the wiring theory.

Went to start my car this morning only to find the battery was flat. AA came out and proceded to test the battery telling me that there is a 1.5 amp drain whilst the car isnt running. (acceptable levels are apparently 0.30 or less). he then removed each individual fuse until the levels dropped to normal, finding the problem was the radio (Blauplunkt DXR-52 travel pilot fitted by a skoda uk dealer before i purchased it two weeks ago). I have noticed how ever that the neon light is constently on the head unit, and even after leaving the car for a few hours if you wanted you could turn the radio on even with out the keys in the ignition or the car running. Is this, or could this be the cause of the battery discharge. i know it's the radio as the levels dropped to normal once the fuse was pulled out, and he tested the alternator with no problems there, but why is the radio draining so much power? any advice or explanations would help as it's booked in on thursday to hopefully solve the problem. i would like to be armed with a bit of knowledge before going. :confused:

have you got kids ?? this happened to my wifes pug. when the dealer took the radio out there were coins inside which my kids had "posted" :eek:

Hi, did you find the resolution to this as I believe I am having the same prob (with a different HU)

If the R & Y wires were not reversed as required then it's perfectly feasible that the HU would drain the battery and 1.5amps isn't unreasonable. Sat Nav is pretty power hungry and most OEM units as soon as they have ignition power will kick into action to ensure a warm start even if the head unit is physically turned off. The demand from the permanent feed input for preset retention etc can often be met by the switched live input on many head units and since the switched live on your HU isn't being interupted, then you don't lose any settings.

Also, Many modern HU's store presets in non-volatile memory these days. The permanent live is often only there for backup of the more obscure settings.

could be either a screwed unit or screwed wiring.

one of my headunits was faulty and the amp switch live was contantly on so the amp was constantly on, not making any noise but just sat there with the on light lit. took ages to work out why my battery was dead every morning

blaupunkts do remember their radio settings even up to 6 months after being removed. Common problem, we see loads of Vauxhall / VW / Skodas where people haven't reversed the powers ! Just because it looks like an ISO plug it don't mean that its standard wiring !!!!!!

Ps - Forgot to say, I had a DXR-52 in my Octy for 3 months without any problems.