LS1 TA Static Battery Drain
Found out that the sony audio amp recently installed by a local shop had the remote wire connected to the wrong ignition power source and was staying on when the car was off. Should have checked that first, thats what i get for trusting that other people know what they are doing. 
Staging Lane
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 78
Likes: 0
From: West Chester, PA
USA-SPEC IPod adapter I know guys, thread back from the dead, but I had a long standing problem with my 98 Trans Am with a draw. This draw is an evil draw. Im a Master Tech for Benz and I don't deal with failing to fix my own car very well.
I have a USA-SPEC Ipod Adapter in my car and have long suspected this to be the problem. The only issue was I could never catch the draw. My car would go for weeks.. Heck it could sit for 3 weeks and start right up but other times it would die in 8 hours, obviously it had to be pulling over 1.5amps to do that, but I could never catch it with the meter on it.
I called USA-SPEC and explained the situation, told him what I did for a living, just so I wouldn't get blown off. And they flat out denied they had an issue or every heard of an issue with this unit. It acts like at times it doesn't shut down. Ive noticed this while sitting in my car a number of times after the bcm shut the car down after the 10 min mark, somehow my Iphone would still be magically charging. That was my first tip off, then an hour later it would still be charging, then 2 and so on. After I talked to a different company tech from usa spec, he admitted to a problem with the unit with out saying it. Told me I had to rewire it but didn't give me any diagigrams to do anything about it.
After searching for hours online I came across these quotes.
I can't find that quote that J-Train is refering to.
And finally this!
Bingo, Im not going to be able to rewire anything for the next week but for the guys who have, using the pdf supplied in this thead did it work?
Im so sick of this draw Im always ready so sell my baby and upgrade to a SS/RS Camaro, which isn't a bad thing.. It just would be a lot slower. l suspect it might power the remote cd changer, but I did't go that far.
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Problem Solved
Now for the tricky part, and if you do it in the wrong order your going to have to restart the process while the draw happends, and with my case it came and went.
What you want to do is go to fuse #7 and measue the current drop cross the fuse in the interior fuse box, it should be 0mAH but I measured .256 mAH. That is equal to 256mAH wich is way over the average of 30 mah for the whole vehicle. This technique is used by high end cars so you don't have to ever pull a fuse, sometime doing that will end up reseting a module and essentually shoot you in the foot.
On the Harness coming out of the radio for the cd/ipod intergration kit there are two yellow wires, one I belives goes to the amp and the other I believe goes to the charging circuit for the ipod when the car is not on. If you download the pdf. eairlier in the link it will tell you wich wire to cut and rewire. One interesting thing I found while testing was it your catch the draw in action, and unplug the Ipod adapter from the radio the 256mah continues, almost like its keeping a circuit alive in the radio. Kinda odd, but rewiring the yellow wire out of the radio will solve this issue.
USA-Spec tells you to wire it all the way to the fuse box. I said heck with that and back probed the raido harness itself and found the key off/key on signal 12v. I tapped into that circuit, cutting soldering and installing a 15amp mini fuse. Problem gone! I would like to thank one of the member on the site for the Picture and which wire to cut becuase, although I knew what the problem was I wasn't sure which wire to rewire.
I know most people have switched there stock radio, but Im bit on have a stock looking interior with upgrades that are hard to see... In my case, Ipod intergration with steering wheel controls and Pandora, and Heated seats!
Yes my car has Headed Driver and Passenger seats under the OEM Seats. So nice.
Thanks for everones help.
I have a USA-SPEC Ipod Adapter in my car and have long suspected this to be the problem. The only issue was I could never catch the draw. My car would go for weeks.. Heck it could sit for 3 weeks and start right up but other times it would die in 8 hours, obviously it had to be pulling over 1.5amps to do that, but I could never catch it with the meter on it.
I called USA-SPEC and explained the situation, told him what I did for a living, just so I wouldn't get blown off. And they flat out denied they had an issue or every heard of an issue with this unit. It acts like at times it doesn't shut down. Ive noticed this while sitting in my car a number of times after the bcm shut the car down after the 10 min mark, somehow my Iphone would still be magically charging. That was my first tip off, then an hour later it would still be charging, then 2 and so on. After I talked to a different company tech from usa spec, he admitted to a problem with the unit with out saying it. Told me I had to rewire it but didn't give me any diagigrams to do anything about it.
After searching for hours online I came across these quotes.
And finally this!
Im so sick of this draw Im always ready so sell my baby and upgrade to a SS/RS Camaro, which isn't a bad thing.. It just would be a lot slower. l suspect it might power the remote cd changer, but I did't go that far.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem Solved
Now for the tricky part, and if you do it in the wrong order your going to have to restart the process while the draw happends, and with my case it came and went.
What you want to do is go to fuse #7 and measue the current drop cross the fuse in the interior fuse box, it should be 0mAH but I measured .256 mAH. That is equal to 256mAH wich is way over the average of 30 mah for the whole vehicle. This technique is used by high end cars so you don't have to ever pull a fuse, sometime doing that will end up reseting a module and essentually shoot you in the foot.
On the Harness coming out of the radio for the cd/ipod intergration kit there are two yellow wires, one I belives goes to the amp and the other I believe goes to the charging circuit for the ipod when the car is not on. If you download the pdf. eairlier in the link it will tell you wich wire to cut and rewire. One interesting thing I found while testing was it your catch the draw in action, and unplug the Ipod adapter from the radio the 256mah continues, almost like its keeping a circuit alive in the radio. Kinda odd, but rewiring the yellow wire out of the radio will solve this issue.
USA-Spec tells you to wire it all the way to the fuse box. I said heck with that and back probed the raido harness itself and found the key off/key on signal 12v. I tapped into that circuit, cutting soldering and installing a 15amp mini fuse. Problem gone! I would like to thank one of the member on the site for the Picture and which wire to cut becuase, although I knew what the problem was I wasn't sure which wire to rewire.
I know most people have switched there stock radio, but Im bit on have a stock looking interior with upgrades that are hard to see... In my case, Ipod intergration with steering wheel controls and Pandora, and Heated seats!
Yes my car has Headed Driver and Passenger seats under the OEM Seats. So nice.
Thanks for everones help.
Last edited by Steve83ta; Feb 23, 2013 at 09:58 PM. Reason: USA-Spec Causing Drain, Firmware causes the radio to not fully shut down
