Electric gremlins revisited

[list@cemetery.homeunix.org (Andrew Basterfield)]

On Thu, 13 Feb 2003 17:36:12 -0500
"Elijah R" <nicadimus@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Has any body had experience with blaupunkt stereos?? 

My Scirocco factory-fit was a blaupunkt

> I have isolated
> the drain on the cars battery, it stops draining when I have the
> "radio" fuse pulled. Now I have re-wired the stereo once, and it still
> drains. blk- to gnd, red- to ign, and yel- to batt, as the
> installation instructions describe, and still it drains??? 

Drains how bad? It should drain a little to keep the insides live and
the so the presets/time in memory.

> Now the
> radio has a strange feature, it can be turned on with the car off and
> no key in the ign,

This is the way my Scirocco came from the factory, the stereo is
independent from the key. Yours may be different.

> this feature has a 1 hour auto-off stated in the
> manual and no apparent means to disable the function (using a hammer
> is tempting). If I flip the wiring ( red to yel, yel to red)the result
> is normal function but no radio memory for presets or clock, while
> annoying it does solves the problem for me, however the girlfriend
> likes presets and a clock soooooo. Anybody have any advice on how to
> get my memory and no drain??

Test the wires with a meter or a bulb, see which is ignition switched
and which is permanently live, Wire as per the manual.

You will not be able to keep the presets/time without _some_ drain,
unless the stereo has it's own internal backup battery. 

Maybe you should be looking at a new battery or alternator? My Scirocco
will start after a month or two, with the stereo connected and presets
retained.

--Andrew