OK, this is going to be a somewhat long post, so here goes.

My battery is draining somehow. I started to notice this problem when I was down in Florida (I live in Maryland) for a government class I had to take last March - May. I tried to start up the car one morning, and nothing happened. I thought it was the battery going bad, so I went to Autozone and replaced it.

It happened again with the same battery, but it started happening again when I got back to Maryland in May. I was mad because I thought it was the battery again. So I went to Autozone to have the battery tested, and it was fine.

Going back to February, I paid a kid at Best Buy $20 under the table to hook up two wires from my DVD player so my wife could watch movies. The two wires that I needed hooking up were a red wire(+12V lead) and a black wire (negative lead). The DVD/mp3 player is in the center console, under the radio.

Well this was making me mad because my battery was draining and I didn't know why.

Fast forward to May and June of 2005. I finally had had it, so I took it to my mechanic to see if he could figure out what the heck was going on. So he disconnected positive battery terminal from the battery. He then had a test light that he hooked up to the negative terminal of the battery. He said "if this light lights up, you have something installed that is draining your battery."

It lit up.

So we pulled the fuse cover from the fuse box under the hood. Then we started methodically pulling fuses under the hood. The light did not go off until we pulled the 32 Amp or the 40 Amp (I forgot which one) from the ACC portion of the electrical system. So I knew it had to be something with the ACC portion.

So I hooked up a simple ON/OFF rocker switch in line with the red (+12V lead) wire from the DVD player. That worked, until a week ago Sunday when my car would not start. I knew for a fact that there was no power going to the DVD player because the switch was not ON.

I couldn't understand this. I don't have anything else connected to the ACC portion of the electrical system except neon lights and the remote turn-on lead from my amp. The lights are connected to the two wires from the cigarette lighter adapter, and I added a switch there too. They only come on when I turn them on.

The amplifier that I have is hooked up to the 7.5 Amp fuse in the interior fuse block. I'm almost positive that it's the DVD player draining my battery.

I took apart the dash to find out what wires the red and black wires were connected to from my DVD player. The red wire was connected to a yellow/red wire in the back of the navigation system, and the black wire from the DVD player was connected to another black wire.

Can someone tell me what the yellow/red wire is for?

I have a number of questions.

1.) Is the new Accord (03-06), TSX, and TL running on a ground-switched system instead of a postive 12V system like the Suburus?

2.) If the navigation system is off, and the DVD player was hooked up to the back of the navigation system, then why is the DVD player draining my battery?

3.) I know some systems are constently "hot", like the driving lights, interior lights, door lights (when the doors are open), etc. Could the DVD player be hooked up to the same electrical circuit, or even concept, as these other lights? In other words, in order to keep the DVD player from draining my battery, do I have to turn it off with the ON/OFF button on the DVD player?

4.) If the key was not in the ignition, and it was still "Hot", why was my battery draining?

5.)Does anyone know of a website with detailed pictures that would help me hook up those two wires (red and black) so that I don't fry the unit?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Easy fix, uninstall the DVD player. Re-install correctly, by a professional if needed. By professional, I don't mean Best Buy or Circuit City.

 

I already uninstalled the DVD player.

I thought that you had to go to a trade school or something in order to be an installer at CC or Best Buy?

 

yes, they learn on your car. i worked at circuit city back in the day, non of them know their ass from a hole in the ground for the most part. easiest way to hook up your dvd player is ground it to something metal, just look for other black wires all coming together around the console and attach it there, and then take the red wire and run it to the fuse box and wrap the wire around a fuse that turns the radio on/off, the power windows, something with a few amps under it. done this with my radar detectors in 2 cars and my motorcycle, no problems. this way you don't need any switches, it turns on when the car is on, and off when you turn it off.