For the past month I have been dealing with something draining my new battery. I have a 2003 vert with 86000 miles. I put my volt meter in series between the negative battery post and negative cable and after the car "went to sleep" (about 10-15 mins) I had a 0.2 amp drain. After some detective work pulling fuses I located the culprit and isolated it to my auto dimming rear view mirror. I disconnected the power cord to it and the amp draw is now reading between 0.01 and 0.02 amps. I am assuming the auto dim function is staying on as the lights are not lit. Also, my seat belt light on the instrument cluster and the chime for it are not working. The only mod is an aftermarket HU. I installed a Pioneer AVH-W4400NEX and used the Metra Axxess XSVI-2004 wiring interface. All of the connections are correct and I followed the initalization procedure in the instructions. The HU and all speakers work fine. The first issue I noticed with the new HU is now when I put the key into the ignition switch. I don't turn the key and the HU powers up and the antenna raises up. When I crank the car the HU powers down and then powers back up. When I turn the car off the HU powers down, antenna goes down and then the HU powers back up and the antenna goes up until I remove the key and open the door then it shuts down. I contacted Metra and was told they have seen this before and the problem is my ignition switch. My question is, could all of these issues be related to the ignition switch? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Wish I had a suggestion! There do seem to be a lot of problems cured with the ignition switch. Might be worthwhile to do a proactive replacement. About $60 at Rockauto, $90 at Amazon.
Currently installing a new stereo, and paying attention to see what you find.

 

If it's .02 amp draw then it's a normal when the car is in the sleep mode. Make sure you have a high CCA battery with very good RC amp. Look at getting a very good AGM battery.

Mike

Mike.

 

Just ordered a replacement ignition switch and will install it this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I would imagine the amp draw should be in the milliamp range not 0.2 amps. But this is my first C5 and I know it does have several modules that may require that much power.

 

GM bulletin 02-06-03-010A says MAX parasitic drain should be 30 mA (0.03A).

 

There are two ignition circuits, one stays on while starting (large pink wire) and the other (large orange wire) goes off when starting to reduce non-essential loads such as the wipers. Try the other ignition circuit (large pink wire) from the ignition switch.

 

The correct current draw is right around 20 milliamps. That would be written as 0.02 amps.
The GM stated 30ma draw is fine. I've check numerous C5 and they average around .020ma-.025ma.

The ignition switch has a small thin button inside and at the bottom of the key cylinder housing part of the switch. The end of the key contacts the button and that "SWITCH" tells the BCM that the driver has inserted the key into the ignition. Then the BCM does all the entry related functions.

If you remove the lock cylinder, you can easily see the button.

Bill

 

So, in other words, it seems as if your new headunit is always ON... Can you turn the headunit OFF with its own switch while the car is running? If yes, does this change anything when you shut down/start the car? Does the headunit still behave the same as before?

 

Yes, I can turn the headunit off while the car is running; however, when I turn the car off and leave the key in the ignition the headunit powers back up. If I then open the the door (with the key still in the ignition) the headunit turns off

 

Even when you just turned off the headunit before shutting down the car?

The headunit turning off when you open the door seems like the part of the RAP function, however, RAP should only kick in to keep the headunit ON if you shut down the car while listening to the headunit.

If the headunit is OFF before the car is shut down, RAP shouldn't activate. Could it be that something was not 100% fine during the programming sequence of the Metra adapter?

On the other hand, all that weird stuff happening by just inserting the key might be related to the ignition switch, as Metra told you. Bill Curlee just gave you a good clue:

 

Installed new ignition switch and the battery drain appears to be resolved. Checking the amp draw, I noticed the following. After about 1 to 2 minutes the draw is 0.2 amps, after 15 minutes it is down to 0.08 amps and about 1 minute later it shows 0.02 to 0.01 amps. No change in the behavior of the headunit. I believe I am going to ditch the XSVI-2004 and go with the ROEM-VET1 and get a better battery.

 

 

AE Guy The ignition switch is a fairly inexpensive ($63.00 on Amazon) part and is a surprisingly easy install. I followed the directions posted by Bill Curlee and they are the best of any I've seen. If you decide to replace your ignition, look up his post. For me, it was about a 90 min job. As for the radio, I believe I can exist without the RAP feature and ordered the ROEM-VET1 harness.

 

 

Here ya go:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1571067145-post107.html

It should be the third post in this thread.

 

It seems your system is working as it should. Leaving the headunit always ON makes it a slave of the ignition switch, and the RAP will kick in accordingly.

In the case of chem041 I was trying to verify if turning the headunit off would keep it off until turned on again, as yours. I have the feeling his is probably fine as well.It seems that's your culprit. Your front camera is probably the cause of the drain of your battery.

I would leave the rear camera connected to the reverse lights and only change the front camera connection. It should tap an Accessory-switched source, as your radar detector.

After doing that, fully charge your battery and have it load-tested at an auto parts store.