New HU = Dead Battery

[vince@performancecarstereo.com (Vince Royer)]

Guys, I strongly suggest that you don't hook the radio up to that seatbelt
buzzer.  That's just not a good idea. Rather, run yourself a wire from the
back of the fusebox.  There's a dozen or so unused metal pins on the back of
the box, at least one of them will be a switched ignition.  Stick a female
connector on the end of your wire, hook it up, and make sure you put an
inline fuse on that wire.  Run it right up to the deck following the same
route as the factory wiring.

Tapping into other circuits is just going to make a mess under the dash and
risk drawing too much current out of them.  Drew is correct in saying that
new head units don't draw very much current from the accessory lead.
There's still no replacement for doing it properly, especially when it's
about the same amount of work.  Just break out that test light and dig right
in.

Vince

-----Original Message-----
From: scirocco-l-admin@scirocco.org
[mailto:scirocco-l-admin@scirocco.org]On Behalf Of John Erickson
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 9:01 AM
To: drew; John Erickson
Cc: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
Subject: Re: New HU = Dead Battery


Thanks, Drew!

I think I'd rather grab that wire on the back of the fuse
block, but I'll stick my head under there and see what the
easiest chice is.

Will this lead have power on it when the car has turned
off, but the key is still in the ignition?  That was a
feature I liked in my 2000 Jetta.  The radio would stay on
until I pulled the key out of the ignition.

John


drew <drew@dyermaker.cs.uoguelph.ca>
|
|You can use the hot lead for the seatbelt warning buzzer
|out of the
|ignition circuit to provide a low-power(!) acc. switch
|for your head unit.
|Any recent unit I've worked with has a low power (.5 amp)
|switched power
|lead and a high power battery lead.
|
|You want to splice into the seatbelt warning circuit at
|the ignition
|switch - damed if I can remember the colour of the wire,
|but I want to say
|black with a red stripe for German built VW's - it's a
|light guage wire -
|perhaps someone with a wiring diagram can post the
|colour.
|
|Any VW with a seatbelt warning circuit will have this
|wire - up until late
|A2's and early A3's when VW actually was kind enough to
|provide a switched
|lead in the stereo wiring harness.  It will be hot when
|the key is
|inserted in the ignition (but not necessarily on.)
| Again, it is for LOW
|CURRENT applications only - drawn too much juice and you
|run the risk of
|melting down your ignition switch.
|
|Drew
|
|
|
|
|
|On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, John Erickson wrote:
|
|> I appear to have committed a fatal error with the
|> installation of my new head unit.  I tied the “Battery”
|> and “Accessory” leads on the HU together and hooked
them
|> to a single always-hot power source in the car.  I let
|>the
|> car sit for a couple days and the battery is almost
|>dead.
|>  I guess I’ll take the “Accessory” lead and hook it to
a
|> switched 12v source.  We don’t really have an
|>“Accessory”
|> position on the ignition switch, do we?  If so, is
|> anything connected to it?
|>
|> John
|> 87 16v
|> Long Beach
|>
|> _______________________________________________
|> Scirocco-l mailing list
|> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
|> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
|>
|
|Drew MacPherson - '84 Wolfsburg Edition Scirocco
|TurboDiesel
|
|


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