Radio sometimes dies, but no flat battery issues?

mmxx55 · Postby **mmxx55** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 9:36 am

Hi all,

Something peculiar has started to occur and I'm not sure if it may potentially be early signs of the alternator not holding charge.

Car spec: NB8B, OEM Radio, Aftermarket Alarm, OEM ECU

Twice since I've owned the car (about 1 month now), the radio has reset itself overnight. Clock defaults and I lose channels etc.
However, I've never had any cold start issues so I assume the battery is holding charge relatively well.

Could this be early signs of the alternator going a little pear shaped? I do have a Hydra Nemesis but I'm yet to install it. I will need to see if it logs alternator voltage and perhaps collect some data.

What's everyone elses thoughts?

Cheers
Kevin

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 9:33 pm

I have the same problem in my ancient Suzuki.
Car was hard to start (had to crank it), thought it was battery (radio reset). Car stopped and the alternator was checked and putting out only 12.4V. Replaced alternator. Car fine. This morning it was slightly hard to crank and the radio reset.
I'm now thinking it's also a bad battery too (around 5 years old).

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:30 pm

Has the radio reset prior to starting the car or after?

I've had problems before where the power it takes to start the car is enough to cause the radio to reset. Always been due to the battery close to it's end ...

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:16 pm

If the car is hard to start the radio resets. If it starts easily, no reset.
With the new alternator it has only been hard to start once. Before the alternator it would take a few cranks to start everytime and the radio would reset.
I don't know why the radio resets? It indicates power is cut to the radio when cranking.

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Sat Sep 28, 2013 10:40 am

Dodgy connection to the radio?

CaptainNate · Postby **CaptainNate** » Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:39 am

I had this issue. Turns out I had a speaker shorting out. Maybe check your speaker cables?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Sat Sep 28, 2013 12:38 pm

Given it's an NB8B, if it still has its original Panasonic battery then the usual approx 12 year life span is up.

mmxx55 · Postby **mmxx55** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 12:19 am

Thanks for the reply everyone. In the morning, the car does take a few cranks to get going. I attributed this to the OEM ECU with maxim works headers, custom catback and axle back causing difficulty at cold start.

It is indeed the Panasonic unit, so I assume the wiring should be OEM. I'll pull it apart to make sure there hasn't been any dodgy wiring re-joining etc. as it did at one stage cut out whilst hitting a decent bump in the road the other day.

I'll keep an eye on the battery voltage but it seems to read as it should.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:48 pm

mmxx55 wrote:I'll keep an eye on the battery voltage but it seems to read as it should.

Cranking Amps are probably more of concern than voltage.

I can't say how to test it though, the last time I used a multimeter in the car it caught fire.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 6:56 pm

Whilst running, battery should show over 14 volts.
I read on the interwebz, that at 'off', even if the battery shows something like 12.2 volts, it's no good (with 12.8 being a good battery).
I've had some front speaker problems too (I fitted splits). I wonder if there's some sort of power drain going on?

RJ45 · Postby **RJ45** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:28 am

I had this problem a while ago, and in my situation the problem lay with the wiring connector on the OEM head unit.
Most likely it's a dry joint, from pulling the stereo many times to try different BT car kits which is relevant to my day job.

Couldn't be bothered pulling the stereo apart to confirm and re-solder the joint to repair this, and I'm always worried about breaking something in the disassembly process.
So I jammed some chopped up business card pieces to force the connector down & I've not seen the problem again, it's been about 18mths.

mmxx55 · Postby **mmxx55** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 12:05 pm

So this problem continually creeps up and the other day the car died and required a jump start.

I took the car to the local Kmart tyre and auto to test the battery.
According to their digital unit, my battery is carked. CCA = 225. It's the original panasonic unit.

What would be considered low CCAs?