Interesting...I did NOT try the start button a second time with the door open... That might be the key... Will try and advise...

 

Bakesonaplane can you tell me a bit more about the drain on a battery when you have an acessory outlet wired directly to the battery and nothing is plugged into the outlet, what is drawing on the battery. I have done this for years without problems. You have raised my curiosity, i must know. And i am not trying to be a smart ***, i am open to learn whenever i can, thanks.

 

Whenever you have something plugged directly into your battery with no way to turn it off, the outlet is always "hot" meaning that it is always charged and ready to give power to whatever you plug in. In order to stay "hot" it has to constantly pull energy from the battery, slowly draining it. Your car battery will naturally die anyway if you let it sit for long enough time simply because of the way it is made up, but this will speed the process along.

It certainly won't kill your battery in a couple days. It would probably take a couple weeks to do so, but the life of the battery is lessened by this change.

 

So all i need to do is put an in line switch and turn it off when the outlet is not in use, this should stop the draw, correct. thanks

 

"Sokath.. his eyes open!" Thx everyone for putting me on the right path....

Just figured it out.... I knew there was a trick... here it is...

No need to insert fob...No need to start the car.. With the door OPEN...
1. Press the start button once ..you'll have power to the radio, dash lights, etc..
2. Press the start button twice .and you have power to the accessory sockets.
3. Press the start button 3 times and it'll start..
4. Press the start button 4 times and all power is off . .

 

Yes. Just light a light switch, if you turn the switch off, it will not be "hot" anymore. Because just like a light switch, even if you don't have anything plugged in, if the switch is on, it's drawing power.

 

Sorry, but I don't think that's correct. A cigarette lighter without an accessory connected should have no current draw, and will not be able to drain your battery. Installing a switch just relocates where the end of the wire from the battery is.

 

A cigarette lighter that bypasses every off switch (even the intial press of the start button that turns on accessory power) will constantly be drawing power from the battery.

I could care less if you believe it or not. I welcome you to try it out for yourself. It's not immediate...but if you've ever had a car sit for a couple weeks at a time with no battery tender, it will be dead no matter what is or isn't plugged in to it. The direct connection with the socket will simply speed up the process.

 

Im not trying to say anyone is wrong but I was thinking the same thing. If nothing is plugged then how can it draw current? I can understand if it has a led light or you have a phone charger with a light on it plugged in. I also disagree with the theory that if you have a car sit for a couple of weeks the battery will be dead. That would probably depend on the car and size of battery. On my boat I have not touched it for 8 months and it fired right up.

Don't take this as a flame.

 

An outlet will not draw any power from the battery even if the outlet is "hot" or "live". The only time it draws power is if something is plugged into it and drawing power. An outlet is merely a means of accessing power from the original power source (ultimately the battery in this case), it does not utilize power when nothing is connected to it (unless it is some special kind of outlet that has to indicate that it is live by lighting up or something).

 

I'm not pretending to be an electrical engineer here or anything...but my family does own more cars than people. and I've been around show cars and cars that end up in storage for months at a time my whole life...I promise you. If you leave a car sitting there for long enough time without ever being started and with never being on a battery tender...the car will be dead eventually. it's just the make up of the battery. Depending on the battery it can take way longer than others, but every car battery, given enough time, will die without something recharging it, be it a battery tender or the cars generator when you drive it.

As for the socket, hey, I'm open to anyone who can concretely prove my statement wrong. I'm always open to be proven wrong so I can live with the correct information. But from what I have been taught, or electrical classes I have taken, that without a cutoff switch or something to block the current from being "hot," that power will constantly be pulled from the origin of the power source.

 

If you can prove me wrong...fantastic. but ask yourselves this:

If there is no need for an "off" switch on these sockets because they don't pull any power without anything plugged in...why put one in place? If it didn't pull power until something is plugged in...then there would be no need for a cutoff of power between the battery and the socket. but there is.

But sure...I'm sure there is no reason for it.

If you plug your phone charger into a socket, even without your phone plugged in, it draws power. plugging your laptop charger into the wall, even without it being attatched to your lap top...draws power. LED light or not, it will be drawing power. Because it completes the circuit.

Putting this socket in place in your car is essentially the exact same thing.

 

Think about it this way. If you take away the actual physical part of the outlet (the socket) but you leave the wires that come from the battery, do you still believe that power is being drained? Its just wires at this point. Next, if you add that outlet to the end of the wires, it is just rerouting the positive and negative into a different form... a cigarette outlet:

A cigarette outlet is just a fancy and easy way of connecting wires to other wires. On one end is the socket and on the other end is the plug, they both have wires connected to those pieces and they only draw current when those connections are made.

There may be other systems that run on your car that may be draining your battery, but cigarette outlets do not draw power unless they are of some special sort.

 

...because those outlets have cutoffs. Go plug something into your cigarette outlet right now without hitting the start button or turning the key....nothing will happen.

This is all about bypassing that system and wiring a cigarette outlet directly into your battery. It's not a normal situation. A normal cigarette outlet will not draw power unless the accessories are turned on

 

Gentlemen, gentlemen.. before somebody resorts to blows... the problem is solved if you go back a few posts... I figured it out.. I no longer need a cigerette lighter plug... I'm good...

 

Why put an off switch place on these power outlets in your car? So your radar detector, phone charger or GPS will turn off when you leave your car so it won't eventually drain the battery. Outlets with nothing plugged in do not drain batteries.

Plugging your charger into an outlet (be it a phone/laptop charger and into wall/car outlet) will always drain your battery because there are transformers in those chargers to step down the voltage. It takes power to even step down voltage. The power drain will increase if you have a device connected to that charger. I don't understand why you mentioned this, though, because it just shows that you acknowledge that something has to be plugged into the outlet to create a drain.

Maybe I am missing your point... Sorry for the confusion.

 

My bad... I'm glad to see it's solved. I just was trying to clarify basic circuitry.

 

Your 2nd comment is not true. A socket does not draw any power with nothing being used (plugged in). Same as an outlet in your house. However if the outlet has a built in LED then some power will be drawn all the time.

 

Yes!!! Thank you. Not sure why people don't understand this.

 

Sorry I did not notice the 2nd page of posts before I replied. I see this has been beat to death.

 

as long as the OP got what they needed...that's all that matters.

 

Thanks to all who responded to this, saved me from pulling a few hairs out, this is the first car I've worked with that didn't have power at the outlets with the car off. I went as far as testing the outlets with a meter and going through every fuse checking for blown ones. was about to pull up the console and trace wires back and figured I'd check and see if anyone else had a similar issue and came across this thread.

On a side note: pushing in the key fob and pushing start without clutch did give me outlet power with the car off, even after opening doors.

 

Well I slogged through this whole thing.

Here's what I learned.

Outlets don't draw amps, loads do. Our's turn off so that if you left a load plugged in, it won't kill the battery.

Bakesonaplane's family owns more cars than people. And here I thought owning people was against the law... lol

Almost nobody has actually read the owners manual. Where it tells you, that to energize the outlets, insert key and push the button twice. In my case with comfort access, I don't even need to put the key in, just have it in the car.

 

I learned about the same, lol. Weird now a non-completed circuit can run a battery down even though, well the circuit is open and no load is being drawn.

Owning people, thought that was outlawed here in the US a little while back.

Glad we all learned how our power outlets work in our 2nd gen MINIs.

 

It's been such a long time since I've read through this... but, I am curious: my Cooper's outlets provide power even when I merely hit the unlock button on my fob. Is this not normal?