Aldi Radio wearing out battery??

SparkyLarks

I bought a radio in Aldi just before Christmas and installed it in my Gf's 00 Punto.
I connected the wiring harness straight into the radio and I did need to get an adapter( Iso to Din or the other way round) for the Ariel. but everything else worked no problems

however since then if the car is left for a few days the battery wears down.:(

Has this happened anyone else.
Would it be due to a wiring mismatch in the old harness to the new radio, causing a current leakage.

Have I onjly noticed the problem which has been going on for ages since I installed the radio?

hugoline

Funny, exactly same happening here with the LIDL MP3 radio :mad:
And believe it or not, also in a 00 Punto (I'm not kidding!!).

Also I'm using the car almost only on the weekends, and yup, had to charge battery twice so far.
I guess it's up to the wiring of the ISO plug, I already had to swap some pins as the previous radio had a different layout.
I'll probably measure the currents for the radio next weekend and will keep you posted with my findings....

I also have to add, at the moment the radio is permanently on power and not only when the key is turned, so that will be most likely it.

MercMad

Most radios will require a constant live, so it retains station memory, and a key switched live for normal operation !

You may have mixed up these two !

SparkyLarks

The radio in the GF's punto isn't constantly on.
It turns on and off with the switch

when off it's in a normal standyby type mode displaying the clock.

that said I'll check the wiring of the two lives.

sandyg

We bought one for our motorhome (ford transit) from aldi. Best advice is bring it straight back to aldi and get a refund. It totally drained the battery and caused me more damage when the AA had to come out to jump start the motorhome. When i brought mine back the security man there was telling me that they were in-undated with the radios being bought back with exactly the same problem. Pity though as it was a nice radio/cd.:(

Alun

SparkyLarks wrote:

The radio in the GF's punto isn't constantly on.
It turns on and off with the switch

when off it's in a normal standyby type mode displaying the clock.

that said I'll check the wiring of the two lives.

Just because it's switched off doesn't mean it's not still drawing a considerable amount of power. An on/off switch on most electronic equipment nowadays is very rarely an actual physical switch that cuts off all power to a device, and even something only drawing a couple of watts such as an interior light left on over night in a car with a marginal battery, especially during the winter and only doing short journies can be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back.

If it was properly wired, when switched off, it should be completely off, i.e. no display, nothing, with the permanent 12V supply only supplying a milliamp or so to keep the station memory intact.

unkel

SparkyLarks wrote:

if the car is left for a few days the battery wears down.:(

What Alun said. Even a total power used of just 5W (tiny bulb) would drain a brand spanking new and fully charged Punto battery in about 4 days

SparkyLarks

Alun wrote:

, when switched off, it should be completely off, i.e. no display, nothing,

I just checked, when switched off it is compleatly off, no display at all.

There is an LED behind the front panel which is always on, but given the power consumption of a typical LED I wouldn't think the power consumpiotin of an LED is enough to wear a battery down.

Alun

SparkyLarks wrote:

I just checked, when switched off it is compleatly off, no display at all.

But in your previous post, you said ...

when off it's in a normal standyby type mode displaying the clock.

?

There is an LED behind the front panel which is always on, but given the power consumption of a typical LED I wouldn't think the power consumpiotin of an LED is enough to wear a battery down.

True, but it's also quite possible that in addition to just the LED that the radio electronics are still drawing some power, and it doesn't take much to drain a dodgy battery overnight.

Here's a simple check. If you sit in the car, with the ignition off, switching the radio on should do nothing. If noise comes out then it's wired up wrong

SparkyLarks

Alun wrote:

But in your previous post, you said ...

?

I was wrong in my first post, I just ran out and checked. I'm driving her car today. I'm not 100% familiar with the radio.

Alun wrote:

True, but it's also quite possible that in addition to just the LED that the radio electronics are still drawing some power, and it doesn't take much to drain a dodgy battery overnight.

Ture but the battery is new, it was replaced at the end of january.

Alun wrote:

Here's a simple check. If you sit in the car, with the ignition off, switching the radio on should do nothing. If noise comes out then it's wired up wrong

Are most car radios not wired so that if you turn the radio on with the ignition off the radio will come on. My own car radio does this( Origional Seat radio in a 00 Cordoba) as does any other radio in every car that I frequent.

Basicially I'm wondering if anyone knoes if this is a wiring fault( in which case I'll correct the wires/ Get someone to correct them)

Or is it a problem in the design of the radio that in standby( i.e radio off ignition off) the electrics draws too much power and any battery and wiring configuration will result in the radio draining the battery. In which case I'll go back to Aldi for a refund( If I can find the recipt which I think I threw out)

Alun

SparkyLarks wrote:

Are most car radios not wired so that if you turn the radio on with the ignition off the radio will come on. My own car radio does this (Origional Seat radio in a 00 Cordoba) as does any other radio in every car that I frequent.

Not in my experience of the cars I've driven recently. My current car, a new Focus C-Max , has a special mode where if I switch the radio on with the ignition off, it works but automatically switches off after 1 hour.

Do you have access to a multimeter so that you can measure the current drain? And double check the wiring too .. I assume there's information with the radio telling you which terminal / colour wire is for permanently on 12V and which is for switched 12V?

Also, does the radio keep its presets when the ignition is off? If not, that's a sure indicator of a wiring problem.

SparkyLarks

Alun wrote:

Not in my experience of the cars I've driven recently. My current car, a new Focus C-Max , has a special mode where if I switch the radio on with the ignition off, it works but automatically switches off after 1 hour.

Do you have access to a multimeter so that you can measure the current drain? And double check the wiring too .. I assume there's information with the radio telling you which terminal / colour wire is for permanently on 12V and which is for switched 12V?

Also, does the radio keep its presets when the ignition is off? If not, that's a sure indicator of a wiring problem.

Did a quick poll in the office and everyones car(5 people) can turn it on when the ignitoin is off, some peoples radio does turn off.

I have access to a multimeter, not sure about a current probe but I can probably acquire one.

I'll double check the wiring manual tonight, But will I not need a wiring diagriam for the punto too, colours may not correspond?

and the radio does keep it's presets.

Assuming I can get a multimeter what shouls I be checking

sandyg

Alun wrote:

Not in my experience of the cars I've driven recently. My current car, a new Focus C-Max , has a special mode where if I switch the radio on with the ignition off, it works but automatically switches off after 1 hour. QUOTE]

I have the new punto grande and i have a "special mode" too with my stero. Ii can set the radio to go off anytime from 5 mins up to 1 hour if i want!!

I didnt need the receipt or box when i brought my radio back (It cost €80). I was told by a member of staff there that all the returned radios would probably be thrown into a big skip and dumped and that they were not going to be advertising those radios anymore in their store.

Alun

SparkyLarks wrote:

Assuming I can get a multimeter what should I be checking?

I'd be double checking that the switched and permanent 12V connections on the radio are receiving just that. The radio manual should tell you which pin on the ISO connector on the radio is which, and then you can unplug the connector and see whether the corresponding pin on the car side is supplying the right power.

Once that's sorted out, measure the current drain in the permanent 12V feed with the radio switched off. You should be able to get your multimeter in by disconnecting the inline fuse holders if present. It should be very low, a few 10's of mA at the most. If it's significantly more then this could be a sign of something wrong.

SparkyLarks

I'll do that tonight if I can.

I'll need the punto wiring schematics to tell the switched and permanent 12V connections apart. I can;t think of any way to tell the difference with a multimeter

I'll get back to you with the results

MercMad

I'll need the punto wiring schematics to tell the switched and permanent 12V connections apart. I can;t think of any way to tell the difference with a multimeter

..........the multimeter connected to the permanent 12V will show 12V permanently, whilst the key 12V will only show it when the key is used !!

Alun

SparkyLarks wrote:

I'll need the punto wiring schematics to tell the switched and permanent 12V connections apart. I can;t think of any way to tell the difference with a multimeter

Well, with the ignition turned completely off, only one of them, i.e. the permanent one, should give a voltage reading, with the ignition on, both should give a reading.

I've searched the 'net looking for a good description of the ISO connector pinouts, but this is the best I could find http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/iso.asp .

SparkyLarks

I did a few checks.
On the ISO connector block ther is 12.9V between
the +12V Battery and earth
and the + 12 V ignition and earth when the key is NOT in the ignition.
This would make sense as the radio works whether or not the key is in the ignition or not.

If this is incorrect then the wiring wrror is in the Punto some where and I'm not going at it.
Ther is also 12 V between the Illumination pin and earth.

on the Speaker plug there is 12 V between the Rear speaker pins and earth and .3 v between the front speaker pins and earth.

However ther is an adapter for the Aldi(Treviion ) on this it only takes the ignition 12V the earth the Illumination and I think the N/C above the +12V battery( can't se why).
If the 12V ignition did only turn on with the ignition key that would mean the battery wouldn;t run out at all but that the settings would be lost.

So I took the fuse out of the back of the radio and measured the current flowing through the fuse.
with the rafio power off 66mA and with the radio power on(I didn;t have the ariel connected though) 790mA

The capacity opf the battery is 45AH (420A) or (680 hours or 28 days at .066A).

Alun

SparkyLarks wrote:

I did a few checks. On the ISO connector block ther is 12.9V between the +12V Battery and earth and the + 12 V ignition and earth when the key is NOT in the ignition. This would make sense as the radio works whether or not the key is in the ignition or not.

That would explain it. It's not quite according to the rules, but if the current drain is low enough it shouldn't matter

There is also 12 V between the Illumination pin and earth.

Again, not strictly according to the rules. What's supposed to happen here is that this pin is at 12V only when the cars lights are on to provide illumination for switches etc.

on the Speaker plug there is 12 V between the Rear speaker pins and earth and .3 v between the front speaker pins and earth.

This is a bit odd. Where were you measuring this? On the car connector, the radio connector, with or without the radio connected to the car?

However ther is an adapter for the Aldi(Treviion ) on this it only takes the ignition 12V the earth the Illumination and I think the N/C above the +12V battery( can't se why). If the 12V ignition did only turn on with the ignition key that would mean the battery wouldn;t run out at all but that the settings would be lost.

You've lost me there. What adapter is this? I thought both the car and radio wer both fitted with ISO connectors?

So I took the fuse out of the back of the radio and measured the current flowing through the fuse. with the rafio power off 66mA and with the radio power on(I didn;t have the ariel connected though) 790mA
The capacity opf the battery is 45AH (420A) or (680 hours or 28 days at .066A).

That does seem a tad on the high side, but not excessively high.

I'm beginning to run out of ideas here, but that 12V across the speaker terminals is a bit odd. Maybe you should get a proper car audio guy to take a look at it. Sorry I can't be of more help .

SparkyLarks

Alun wrote:

This is a bit odd. Where were you measuring this? On the car connector, the radio connector, with or without the radio connected to the car?

from the Iso Connector Speaker Block terminasl to the Iso Connector Power Block Grounund Pin, without the radio connected to the car.

It is strange though

Alun wrote:

You've lost me there. What adapter is this? I thought both the car and radio wer both fitted with ISO connectors?.

No the Tevion (Aldi) radio has it's own connector block, The radio coomes supplied with an adaptor( Bunch of wires from the connector in the back of the radio to a female Iso Block housing) ther are only 4 connection in the female housing for the power block( 12V Battery, ground,Illumination and the N/C one)

Alun wrote:

I'm beginning to run out of ideas here, but that 12V across the speaker terminals is a bit odd. Maybe you should get a proper car audio guy to take a look at it. Sorry I can't be of more help .

It does look like I'll have to go see a car audio guy thoug, any one know any good ones in Cork?

AMurphy

Teh typical ECU of a car itself draws about 50Ma even when off to retain various memory settings.
I'd not expect the memory of the pre-sets to draw more than 10ma.

So if you know how, check the idle current draw from the battery, should be about 50Ma after 30 min or so of non-use.

An LED usually draws about 20ma. however, you could have some display drivers, etc still powered, if power supply wires to the radio are connected incorrectly.
Or you may have some feature like the auto ariel extend or a power feed to an auxiliary amp powered up, etc.

Or it could be complete cooincidence, the easy to check is disconnect the radio for a few days, see if the battery recovers to pre-radio behaviour or continues to play dead.