Technical Radio Fuse (2014)

[purplepanda64]

Another one from me after being inspired to try and fix some problems myself!

I've been having issues with the radio (we think). My car kept dying and having to be jump started, turns out the alternator was bad so got a new one + a new battery, but the car would still die occasionally. I always turned the radio off before leaving the car as my mum thought this might be draining the battery, even though the radio turns off when the car is turned off - this didn't stop anything tho.

We found that if you sit in the car, everything turned off, you could still hear the radio spinning the disc inside it, so I have began removing the CD anytime the car is being left for more than 5 minutes and since doing this it has stopped dying. I'm happy to keep doing this, but more happy to fix it!

My guess is a bad radio fuse - does this seem like a decent idea? My next question is, which is the radio fuse? I've found all the fuses and what they do, but none are listed as radio and 5 are listed as nothing, is the radio one of these? Or am I completely wrong and there is no radio fuse?

Thanks!

 

[AnthonyH]

The Grande Punto has the same problem. If anything is using the battery with the engine off then the battery drains dramatically fast and you need to jump start the car. I've had this problem in 2 Grande Puntos and an EVO -so it's a fiat design fault.

Your radio is faulty or it's wiring because with the key out of the car the radio should be off. Your proposed solution won't work however, changing the fuse won't make any difference.

I'd suggest you put in a new radio or look for a wiring fault.

The first thing you should do is disconnect the radio or take it out. Then recheck to see if the battery is draining quickly as before. This will tell you if the radio is faulty or the wiring.

I'm almost certain it's a faulty radio and you could just leave the radio disconnected and your problem will be gone - as long as you don't miss the radio.

 

[purplepanda64]

The Grande Punto has the same problem. If anything is using the battery with the engine off then the battery drains dramatically fast and you need to jump start the car. I've had this problem in 2 Grande Puntos and an EVO -so it's a fiat design fault.

Your radio is faulty or it's wiring because with the key out of the car the radio should be off. Your proposed solution won't work however, changing the fuse won't make any difference.

I'd suggest you put in a new radio or look for a wiring fault.

The first thing you should do is disconnect the radio or take it out. Then recheck to see if the battery is draining quickly as before. This will tell you if the radio is faulty or the wiring.

I'm almost certain it's a faulty radio and you could just leave the radio disconnected and your problem will be gone - as long as you don't miss the radio.

Ah I see.

I will try removing the radio soon, however I do use the CD player of the radio all the time since my car doesn't have a bluetooth/aux. Is there any way to either fix the wiring (if its not the radio itself) or install a new CD player/unit that can use an aux cord?

 

[AnthonyH]

I use a portable Bluetooth music player sat under the handbrake and plugged into the cigarette lighter for power. I don't need fancy speakers and lots of decibels.