I put an aldi radio in my birds car last year and the battery gets drained some what randomly. most recently the car was left un-started for about 4 weeks and the battery would not charge or start with jump leads!
I tracked the radio down as the source of the drain. my question is, does a radio always take 70 milliamps or is there something up with the radio? the os rear speaker does not work. although unpluging the speakers did not drop the amps only unplugging the power to the radio did.
There are all manner of connections in behind the radio. the colour of the wires don't match up with the haynes manual.
68 milliamps drain on the battery?
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djezd
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Last edited by djezd on Thu May 24, 2007 10:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mrLEE30
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with the radio off it should not draw any current. but i assume you are measureing it correctly as you do not measure current accross a battery(as your title suggests), its measured in series with the battery??!!
70 mA with the radio on does not sound to unreasonable provided only the radio is on and the volume turned down, but with a CD running and the volume up i would expect a couple of amps
if the battery has been left to go flat in the past this could be the reason for your lack of charge, once a battery goes flat the plates inside oxidise and this hinders the chemical reaction that allows your battery to produce power (laymans terms here). the problem could be the battery.
if it will not charge then this is almost certainly the problem, try an overnight trickle charge with a machine and see how long the thing lasts, ifs its a day or so then its probably knackered mate!
mrlee
70 mA with the radio on does not sound to unreasonable provided only the radio is on and the volume turned down, but with a CD running and the volume up i would expect a couple of amps
if the battery has been left to go flat in the past this could be the reason for your lack of charge, once a battery goes flat the plates inside oxidise and this hinders the chemical reaction that allows your battery to produce power (laymans terms here). the problem could be the battery.
if it will not charge then this is almost certainly the problem, try an overnight trickle charge with a machine and see how long the thing lasts, ifs its a day or so then its probably knackered mate!
mrlee
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djezd
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ops yes in series with the battery.
it is drawing 70 milliamperes when the radio is apparently off...apart from a LED. the battery was new last year. she took it back to the garage and they said that she could keep the new one they just put as a temporary replacement. so i guess the last years one was nackered? they checked the alternator and that was fine apparently.
it is drawing 70 milliamperes when the radio is apparently off...apart from a LED. the battery was new last year. she took it back to the garage and they said that she could keep the new one they just put as a temporary replacement. so i guess the last years one was nackered? they checked the alternator and that was fine apparently.
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mrLEE30
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hard to diagnose this sort of thing remotely, i assume the 70mA is drawn with the ignition off, doors closed so no internal lights on etc. dont forget some things still run on the battery without the ignition on such as the clock. note that 70mA is less then 1 Watt, i would not see that this would drain a battery overnight, do you mean 70 or 700mA (or 0.07 or 0.7Amps) .7 amps would flatten a battery over time, but still it would take a good few days...
mrlee
mrlee