I purchased and installed a Kenwood KDC-998 through CarToys about 3 months ago and my car died a few weeks after. No lights on dash, nothing. Battery was completely dead. Replaced battery through dealership and everything was fine until a few days ago when car died again. Took it to the same dealership and they pulled the fuse for the radio saying it was drawing around 500mA when it should've been around 50mA. Ookay. I take the car to CarToys and the same installer tested it saying it was drawing the proper amperage and that it may have something to do with 'the keyless or backup'. Huh.

So now, I'm at a loss as the car is running fine. Map lights actually work now surprisingly and it seems to idle around 900-1000 RPM when warm which seems lower than it was before (which is a good thing, I think).

Any ideas on what may have caused the dead battery? I'd hate for the car to randomly be unable to start again.

 

You need someone to do a parasitic draw test --- to isolate what component(s) is drawing current, with the car's power off. I'd have Car Toys do this diagnosis. They should know how to do it, since they installed your Kenwood and the battery issue happened after this installation. Mis-wiring of these items can lead to the that dead battery.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gijj03_0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gijj03_0
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LOL! Saw this and said oh.....I just watched Eric the Car Guy do this not long ago and I need to do that! Well I did exactly what he said in the video and found my stereo is drawing about 4 milliamps alone. So after about 2-3 weeks of just sitting it drains the battery to far.

Granted my stereo consists of HU, 2 amps, 1.5 farads of capacity, crossover, XM box. Not sure exactly what's pulling the power but it's 15 years old now so I will just let it be for now.

 

dealership said the draw is supposed to be about 50mA but the service guy at cartoys said it was tested at 1A which was normal.. What's normal and what's not? Also, if neither place figured the issue out, how is my car running perfectly fine right now?

 

I think this is what they did at the dealership and they said it was the radio fuse, which they pulled. I took the car to cartoys without the fuse and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. So what are the issues with that fuse pulled out while driving? Radio still works and everything else is working as well.

 

My car dies after 2 weeks of not starting with no stereo. 1 year old battery too. Its always been that way for me no matter what

 

" I took the car to cartoys without the fuse and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. "


I'd take the car back with the fuse in & see if they find a problem.

 

This confuses me. The dealership pulled the radio fuse because they said that was the problem circuit, but you took it back to cartoys with that circuit disabled? If the problem circuit was disabled they weren't going to find a draw. Also, how is the radio still working with the radio fuse pulled?

It sounds like something is wrong with the install, but it may not be on the radio circuit. If they pulled a fuse and your radio still works either they didn't pull the radio fuse OR the guy installing it did the wiring improperly and the power for the radio is coming from another circuit. You need to figure out what fuse they did pull and work backwards. If it is the radio fuse then you know the power for the radio is on a different circuit, and possibly not a switched source (which would cause a drain). Good luck.