I just got a new radar detector a plugged it in to the powerpoint above the radio. I turned off the igniton and locked the doors. The detector is still powered up. What a pain. Now I have to remember to power off the detector everytime I turn the car off.

What possible reason could there be for keeping the powerpoint hot while the car is off and locked? Am I missing something?

 

so you can use it to charge your cell phone overnight.

 

If you charge the phone overnight, doesn't that present a risk of someone breaking into the car to steal it??

 

I almost always charge my phone overnigth in my car! I am however parked behind a large gate! B)

 

The power points are always hot.

This way smokers don't have to fire up the car to light up

 

I will just hard wire my detector to a point that is powered with the ignition. Makes for a much cleaner look as there are no wires dangling around.

 

If you're worried about someone stealing your cell phone out of your car, do you really think you should be parking the car there? Just me, but I could care less if my cell phone got stolen. If someone stole my car I'd be looking to kill.

 

It is silly that Ford still has unswitched accessory outlets. I had my '00 Mustang at the dealer three times while they tried to figure out what the battery drain was. Turned out that my cell phone killed the battery after about 36 hours. And I figured that out; it never occured to the mechanics that it might be my cell phone.

I feel your pain about the radar detector. I finally just tossed mine in the trunk, since I could not possibly remember to turn it off.

Here is the right thing to do: Switch the accessory outlet that's on the dashboard. Make the one in the console box optionally switched, settable by a button next to the outlet.

~~ Paul

 

Funny, my 99's battery drain came from the amps. I took it to several stereo places, and they all denied it was my amps, yet, when unplugged my battery did not die over night. So, for a few weeks I was unplugging them as I left the car, and plugging them back in as I got in... you think unplugging your powerpoint in the cabin of the car is a pain? I had to practically crawl into my trunk twice a day!

When the clutch died in her, I had them check my power drain issue. They found it to be a short somewhere in the amp system, replaced my amps, and now all is good again.

Of course nothing went wrong, and I mean NOTHING until the week following her 5 yr birthday. Figures.

There have also been problems with battery drain from the keyless entry systems. Those batteries are powering quite a bit of stuff when the car is not on.

I always use my powerpoint to charge my phone overnight... course, my car is in a locked garage. I agree I would be more POd about my car getting stolen, then my phone. Heck, its all insured, but, its my CAR.

 

I wonder how hard it would be to switch the dashboard accessory outlet. Would it just be a matter of tracking down the hot wire for the outlet, cut it, and splice it in with a switched hot wire or is that a cheesy way to do it? Does anyone have a reccomendation for the "right" way to do it?

 

If I were the Ford engineer I would have made the power point that's in the center console always hot and the one on the dash only hot when the ignition is on. Then you and I would be instead of :angry:.

 

thats good news to me i hated my GF honda for that reason alone you couldnt leave you almost dead phone to charge while you went into a store becuse the power stops with the key.....

 

You either had one VERY weak battery or one heck of a powerful cellphone My cell phone will run (standby) on its little internal battery for a couple of days. Hard to understand how yours could drain your large car battery in about the same time.
The always hot power point is very useful for me. On trips, we leave the GPS on when we stop for gas, food, or overnight. Saves having to power it up and reset everything each time. Never had a problem with the car battery running down.

The Boss Hog

 

Just get another gf

 

I guess since you guys had your cars delivered, you now have to find something else to complain about.

 

I asked my dealer about doing that to my '00. He talked to Ford and said he would charge $100. I never did it.

Quote:

Originally posted by "Boss Hog"@
You either had one VERY weak battery or one heck of a powerful cellphone My cell phone will run (standby) on its little internal battery for a couple of days. Hard to understand how yours could drain your large car battery in about the same time.

It happened with the OEM battery and with a replacement battery. It was a fairly old cell, so maybe that was part of the problem. I'll try it with my '05 and the modern cell that I have now.

<!--QuoteBegin-"2Slack"
I guess since you guys had your cars delivered, you now have to find something else to complain about.[/quote]
Not me, baby. I'm pre-complaining!

~~ Paul

 

Chrysler has the power point hot or not at the fuse box. Put the fuse in slot 1 and 2 its hot, put it in 2 and 3 and its hot with the ignition only.

 

I found that out about Chrysler when I was searching the web about this topic last night. I got real excited when I found it. I was out under the glove box after midnight last night with a pen light hoping Ford did the same thing. No such luck for the stang though.