[DeathVW]

Hello,
i have a 2002 Turbo S, that only has a couple of weeks since purchased.
It has 90.000 miles and besides this problem it works great and has not other problems.
I installed an after market radio and after a week of this, suddenly one day it didn't start.
I figured out it was the radio it was draining the battery. Had to have the battery charge and checked at Autozone. They charged it and said it was OK, so i took it to the place they installed the radio and they even replaced the radio for a new one and installed it again, they checked everything and say it was fine.
So 2 days later, the same problem!. Car wont start, battery it's in 12.02 volts when start and it has remained like this more of less since it has the radio.
The radio seems to be installed well, it turns on and off with the ignition and i even remove the
face just in case that keeps it on and still keeps draining the battery(supposing that's the problem).
Don't know what else to do since im pretty sure the radio it's fine and i made sure they checked all the connections and everything. I have installed other radios at that place and this is the first time i have this problem.
Any ideas or suggestions of what else should i do?
So basically the car it's parked and won't start. Battery it's 2 years so shouldnt be that bad.

 

[jfoj]

Disconnect the radio and/or pull the fuse for the radio and see if the problem goes away.

The issue may or may not be with the radio install?

Do you know if the car has a Monsoon amp in the trunk?

Also the way these cars are set up you can turn the radio on when the car is turned off and I believe there is a 20 minute count down to put the radio and other modules to sleep.

You should also read this link - http://newbeetle.org/forums/questio...0356-how-test-parasitic-drain-new-beetle.html

 

[red99]

I believe that replacing the stock radio with an aftermarket one will cause the battery drain issue if you have a Monsoon amp. There is something about the stock radio that turns the amp off and the aftermarket radios don't have it so the amp stays on. Maybe someone who has experienced this can jump in.

 

[DeathVW]

Hey thanks for the answer!,
Well, i do think my car has the Monsoon system since all Turbo S came with that.
Not sure where is the amp, but i guess it has one.
But if that's the case why this happened just until now? the car already had another after market radio
when i bought, although it was missing the face but it was hooked up and the light on the reciever used to blink
so i supposed all the connections on the back where there and radio was just missing the face.
So how can i keep the radio without having this problem?

 

[red99]

I've searched around a bit and lots of people have had the problem but I don't find much on fixing it beside replacing the Monsoon amp. Here is one of the best threads that I found:

http://newbeetle.org/forums/car-audio/49117-aftermarket-head-unit-draining-battery.html

and this:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=261130

 

[DeathVW]

Thanks for the links!
I did the voltage drop test measuring the current amps with a Multimeter and like i
expected the problem is the radio. The voltage goes all the way to 1.3 volts change when the car its off and drops to 0.12 when i removed the 2 fuses from the radio. Fuse 37 and 42.
So now i know the problem is the radio, so how can i solve this? The radio was professionally installed and checked twice but didn't have the evidence until now that is draining the battery.

If i removed both fuses the battery its fine, but now i dont have a radio.
It has to be a solution to this besides just removing the fuses and staying without a radio.
And also, why the radio need two fuses? does anybody knows what controls what? Im sure fuse 42 will be problem since is 25amps.
I attached a fuse diagram for those that need it.

 

[red99]

The larger fuse is for unswitched power and the smaller one is for switched power to the radio.

From reading about it, the Monsoon amp detects the status of the left front speaker output from the radio to make its decision about being powered on or off. Different radios leave the speaker lines in different states when turned off. Your new radio apparently leaves the speaker line in a state that is not being detected as a "power off" state by the Monsoon amp.

From what I saw people have fixed the problem in two ways: replacing the Monsoon amp with a new Monsoon amp or replacing the Monsoon amp with a different brand amp. Apparently sometimes the problem can be a failed Monsoon amp (or maybe the newer ones do a better job of detecting "power off").

Oh, and more ambitious people have added a relay in the power line to the amp.

 

[DeathVW]

Thanks for the reply,
so can i just disconect the amp?
and if i do, so my speakers will still work?
it has to be a way to make this work, because obviously at some point when the car was new it was working fine.
I just spent money on a new radio and installation and now i can't even connect the radio because i know it will drain my battery.
Apparently the installation it's fine and the radio turns on and off with the key.
I also disconnected a CD Changer that it has on the trunk that im not using and im not sure if it is original or came with the car, but i disconnected anyway but that didn't seem to affect the battery.
Everybody says the problem is the after market radio, but there is very litle information about how to solve this problem once you found out is the radio and obviously you want to keep having the radio some how.

 

[red99]

As I tried to describe earlier, the problem is an incompatibility between the Monsoon amp and your new radio. The amp is depending on the radio to signal it to turn power off using the left front speaker input. Your new radio is not designed to do this. The original radio and the previous aftermarket radio (apparently) were designed to do this.

You can try disconnecting the amp, but I doubt that you will get any sound if you do.

Since everything is working the way it is supposed to but is just not intended to work together you can replace the radio, replace the amplifier or add a switch or relay to remove power from the amp when the car is off.

 

[DeathVW]

Ok, Thanks for that.
i'll have to figure out what i will do with this. Wish it was less complicated and that i dont have to replace the radio(that is new) or the amp.
I also found this cable disconnected on the driver's side of the trunk, not sure what it is,
if someone knows, let me know.

 

[red99]

That is the connector and bracket for the CD changer that came with your car. Looks like the previous owner removed it.

 

[DeathVW]

Ok, thanks.
I wasn't sure about that but makes sense.
I disconnected the cable that is connected to the CD changer but then i noticed this other connection on the
left side of the trunk behind the carpet but it was already disconnected, i though this is was draining the battery but then i checked and didnt make any diference with the battery voltage.
Im still on the process of solving this problem by checking the connection on the radio and trying to find a way to keep the radio without draining the battery. i might have to take it to a place where possible they can fix this or at least let me know what can i do.
For now i recharged the battery and removed fuse #37 and 42 and so far the battery it's ok, but have no radio anymore.
I'll post the solution for others with the same problem if i can fix it, in the meantime if someone has more ideas let me know.

 

[Cheerupkhiddo]

Has this been fixed?? I'm having the same problem & can't find much about it :worried:

 

[jfoj]

Has this been fixed?? I'm having the same problem & can't find much about it :worried:

Explain what year, model audio system you have.

If you happen to have a Monsoon audio system, the trunk amplifiers have been known to drain a battery when the car is turned off if the Amp proper control circuit goes bad.