General Short term storage

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General Short term storage

malcolmgb

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May 10, 2008
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I am due to go away again for a few weeks the car will be parked up, last time I returned the 1 year old battery was flat. I have a non standard CD/radio both wires to the single permanent feed which I believe is causing the battery to go flat in 4-5 days. My question is do I remove the radio or just disconnect battery while away, is there going to be an issue with the ECU or Body Computer being disconnected for about 5 weeks.
I will remember to leave the handbrake off this time :idea: for those who saw a previous post :D
 
Hi mate,

Just remove the fuse for the radio! (y) That way you don't have to bother taking the radio out, or disconnecting the battery!

Hope that helps,
Alan
 
Thanks Alan, have you come across this before? I saw some posts on the Punto pages but wasn't able to find a definitive answer, Hellcat's post put some doubts in my mind ;)
 
Hi,

Yes most modern Fiats have a single permanent live to the Head unit, and the ON/ OFF is controlled via the CAN network. As a result, when an after market head unit is used along with the standard wiring, it never turns off fully (some makes do but the majority dont). As a result, lots of people suffer from battery drain when they have fitted an aftermarket headunit.

The answer is to use the permanent live for the head units "memory" supply (ie the constant feed that keeps the memory alive but doesnt flatten your battery) and then create your own switched live for the power supply. There are several ways to create the switched live. You can either take a supply from something like the cigerett lighter or electric window switch (which are already controlled by a switched live) or run a new switched live direct from the ignition.

Hope that helps,
Alan
 
Yes thanks for that Alan it is what I thought was the problem, just need to locate the correct fuse now or stick with my original plan of removing the radio :)

Am I right in thinking that using the cig lighter feed would be ok provided it isn't used at the same time as the radio, or that would allow 25+ amps to be drawn on a wire/circuit not intended for that current. Maybe better fitting an inline switch in the (sw 12v) radio feed.
 
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