Columbus DVD / Nav Radio draws 10 volts / 2.5 amps when off?

[REH17]

Ok so have posted here before about a huge drain on the Scout battery.

 

Today after much fuse pulling, and meter reading, coffee drinking, we have narrowed it down to the Radio.  Fuse in engine bay was pulled, and the current draining off the battery was massively reduced...  to 0.13 amps.... when radio re connected it settled at 2.5 ish amps..

 

OK so the radio has been highlighted as an issue... question is, why does it draw all that current, 10 volts odd and several amps when it is off? key out, engine off, doors closed.... 

 

Is this normal? 

 

I also have an issue of the drivers seat moving all by itself when it wants, sometimes when driving, sometimes when Im out of the car....

 

I believe this may also be contributing to the battery drain, but am unable to locate the fuse, of which I can remove to isolate the seat.  I removed the control pannel off the side of the seat, however, it still rose up when I opened the door, and remained in a position which it shouldn't be in...

 

 

 

So to recap:

 

Stereo drawing 10 volts / 2 odd amps when nothing is on.... is this normal? Is it a software issue perhaps???

 

 

 

 

Image shows the stereo fuse in a tester with the meter showing the voltage being drawn...

 

 

 

Went to halfords to get an adapter to wire in another stereo I have, but its an order only part and 128 quid....

 

Seat :  need to scan the car to find out what is going on... or find a fuse to kill it for now..

 

 

Can anyone help??

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

Rob

 

 

[Rustynuts]

Try a different head unit (borrow one from a mate who has a Skoda or VW) and see if it's a wiring issue or a head unit. Note that the head unit isn't turned off when you turn it off and remove the key from the ignition, it's merely half asleep. It waits for half an hour before finally turning off. Allow for this when you're testing current draw. Also be aware that having the bonnet open will also affect current draw as the bonnet switch will tell the car that the bonnet is open and not allow the car to sleep.

[REH17]

we had the radio in for hours and hours.... and I accept that there will be a slight draw but 2 amps? 4 days standing and the battery is dead.....

[Rustynuts]

Was the Columbus a factory fit or is it a retrofit?

[REH17]

Came with the car... I bought it second hand, but it seems to have alot of options... this being one of them. 

[REH17]

Came with the car... I bought it second hand, but it seems to have alot of options... this being one of them. 

Car was bought second hand to clarify, radio was already in, and havent had an issue up until lately when I stood the car for a few days... before that it has been driven daily of left for no more that 2 days.

[Rustynuts]

Have you got VCDS?

[pikpilot]

Loads draw current, not voltage. Consider the analogy with water in pipes. The head of water pressure is like the battery voltage and the water flow rate drawn is like the current.

With a voltage of just over 10 Volts the battery is almost discharged and at a level where some items will behave erratically.

You have identified the source of the discharge (2 A drawn by the radio), however recharge the battery to over 13 V before making further tests or you will find funny things going on. Have you had your battery tested lately? Failing batteries will self discharge to around 10 V, sometimes overnight, but unlikely to start the engine.

[REH17]

The battery is not at 10v... thats the draw on the radio circuit....

 

that picture shows the meter connected to the radio circuit, with engine off, radio off.

 

Battery was at 12v or there abouts.... the battery is practicaly new, water is over the plates, etc etc... The car fires up fine now ive driven it, even short trips, and shows 14v when running....

 

 

 

And I have not go VCDS but am considering a purchase, unless someone fancies doing me a favour?

 

[Rustynuts]

I'll say again, you'll get a current draw on the head unit for up to half an hour after you close all the doors (and bonnet) and lock the car. After this time the car will shut down all the head unit functions and you'll get a valid reading of current draw to the circuit.

 

You could also pull the head unit out, disconnect the Quadloc connector, and check the current draw again (after locking the car and waiting for half an hour of course).

 

If you have a friend who has VCDS and can scan your car, then save a log, then post the log up to see what errors you have.

[langers2k]

Couple of links to help with diagnosing current draw on modern CAN bus based VAG cars.

 

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/TSB_27_08_04_Matrix.pdf

https://wiki.bentleypublishers.com/display/tech/Parasitic+draw+testing+through+fuse+panel+VW+technical+bulletin+270711

[REH17]

With the radio fuse out and  or the headunit removed the draw off the battery reduced to pretty much nothing. the current on the radio circuit was then 0

 

I think the only way to go is a scan...

 

But you can clearly see that Im saying / asking that 10v across a circuit where the item is supposedly off (even though I know it will still be in standby) is far too much..??

 

As for the seat.... I have no idea.. VCDS will likely tell us

[Rustynuts]

With the radio fuse out and  or the headunit removed the draw off the battery reduced to pretty much nothing. the current on the radio circuit was then 0

 

I think the only way to go is a scan...

 

But you can clearly see that Im saying / asking that 10v across a circuit where the item is supposedly off (even though I know it will still be in standby) is far too much..??

 

As for the seat.... I have no idea.. VCDS will likely tell us

 

When you turn the unit off, you don't turn it off. All you've done is effectively turned off the screen and the sound output. When you turn the ignition off and remove the key, you still haven't turned it off. When you close all the doors and lock the car, you still haven't turned it off. It's just sleeping. Until the cars CANBUS system tells the head unit to turn off then it's still drawing a current, and it takes half an hour from locking the car for the ECU to shut down the head unit. So, connect up your multimeters outside the bonnet of the car and close it, then lock the car an monitor the current draw until the CAN system is satisfied that nothing is using anything and it shuts the system down. Then read what the current draw is.

[pikpilot]

With 12 V at the battery and only 10 V at the radio, there is a volt drop of 2 V with 2 A flowing, equivalent to a series resistance of one Ohm. This is high and points to a poor connection at the battery or a connecion enroute to the radio. Needs to be corrected but unlikely to be the cause of the constant discharge unless the low voltage at the radio is screwing up its control logic. The voltage at the radio should be almost the same as at the battery terminals.

[REH17]

All I know is something is drawing power, and as that was the only thing showing a high reading today Im sticking with that for now....

When leaving the house for the pub in the Wife's fabia, we could hear the drivers seat going up and down by itself... another contributor to the battery drain no doubt.... either way the VRS is on standby for the morning....

[Rustynuts]

All I know is something is drawing power, and as that was the only thing showing a high reading today Im sticking with that for now....

When leaving the house for the pub in the Wife's fabia, we could hear the drivers seat going up and down by itself... another contributor to the battery drain no doubt.... either way the VRS is on standby for the morning....

Did you wait half an hour for the canbus to...

 

Oh, never mind...

[REH17]

I will try that tomorrow...I am currently enjoying ale in the pub.... Im not ignoring your comments, but in the method we tried,it was the common problem.

[Eddie-NL]

The radio may be causing the battrey to drain, but there are other factors to consider.

 

Do a full VCDS scan to see if you have any other issues.

 

I have seen the radio cause a drain on several cars, when it shouldn't have done and the causes were:

 

faulty ignition switch

 

Can fault running in single wire mode

 

faulty door lock

 

faulty climate panel

[walidhosny]

It seems to be a firmware problem you should install an older firmware to get rid of battery drain. I would advice you also to get rid of the Columbus it is a useless device just buy a DVD player type Ds-611 from audiosources company for 300$+72$ shipping fees. Or you can buy it from icebox on eBay.. You will be so happy by changing to DS-611

[REH17]

It seems to be a firmware problem you should install an older firmware to get rid of battery drain. I would advice you also to get rid of the Columbus it is a useless device just buy a DVD player type Ds-611 from audiosources company for 300$+72$ shipping fees. Or you can buy it from icebox on eBay.. You will be so happy by changing to DS-611

[REH17]

If i buy a new device I will loose the nav, pdc display... etc etc.

Will do a scan and report back...

Thanks for all the input it has been useful.

[walidhosny]

http://m.alibaba.com/product/60320304979/Audiosources-DS-611-the-newest-car/specifications.html. Use this link to see the DS-611 specifications. It is perfect with screen resolution 1024x600 capacitive screen. USB connection. SD card up to 32GB display all video extensions. Bluetooth with phone mirror link. No battery drain

[langers2k]

It seems to be a firmware problem you should install an older firmware to get rid of battery drain. I would advice you also to get rid of the Columbus it is a useless device just buy a DVD player type Ds-611 from audiosources company for 300$+72$ shipping fees. Or you can buy it from icebox on eBay.. You will be so happy by changing to DS-611

 

Don't suggest the OP waste money buying a cheap Chinese headunit. The Columbus is a perfectly good headunit and if correctly fitted in a car with no other issues should give zero problems. Also, at this point we aren't sure the Columbus is the cause given the fault finding done, even more so if one of the electric seats is moving around with the vehicle locked!

 

REH17, the Columbus and other OEM headunits continue to pull power for some time after the key is removed and the car is locked. This is completely normal and nothing to be worried about unless it's doing it a long time after the car has 'turned off'. Even then, it may not be the fault of the Columbus as Ed mentioned some other issues can prevent it correctly turning off.

 

To get a true reading for how much power your Columbus is pulling you need to have all doors including the bonnet/boot shut, the car locked and left for 2 hours as per the TSB from VW regarding battery drain issues. At this point you can measure the mV across the fuse or the amps using your adaptor. The adaptor will need to be fitted and then the bonnet shut so you can do the measurement without unlocking the car and opening the bonnet. An alternative method is to short the bonnet sensor so you can have it open but the car believes it is shut. This way you can measure the mV across every engine bay fuse to check for a current draw, don't start removing fuses as that'll wake the car up!

 

I've had a look at a wiring diagram for a similar Octavia and the seat adjustment module is connected to fuse S44 (30A). The description states it's 'at additional relay holder above the onboard power supply control unit', this is located under the steering wheel so you'll need to remove the lower trim under the steering wheel to get access. Be careful as the OBD port is also connected to this trim.

[walidhosny]

You will not know how better the Ds-611 unless you search for it just go to the web site and see the specifications for the mentioned device with Navigation it fits the same as Columbus with the same quad lock socket the same double fakra antenna socket the same GPS antenna socket... Just search the DS-611 DVD player then tell me your opinion. It use sygic maps and Igo8 for navigation system. Just give it a look.

[walidhosny]

DS-611 on youtube just give it a look https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CyEfJHMg7V8