I have a 3yr old Honda FRV. I have recently had the AA out to it twice, when the battery became drained whilst I was sat waiting in the vehicle, engine off. I took it to the Honda garage and they have told me if I am sat in the car, I need to take the key out of the ignition or the power would drain.
I explained that whilst waiting in the car I do sometimes listen to the radio and was further advised that if I want to do this I should do so with the engine running. Very Green-minded of them. The garage say this is due to the sophisticated electronic systems in the car, that whilst I am sat in it I am sending a message to the car to be ready to go.
All I want to do is sit and wait for the kids to come out of school with the radio on, or be able to operate the electric windows. The Honda dealer says this problem is common with some Honda makes.
Honda Customer Care are unaware, but investigating. Have you heard of any other vehicles with similar problems?
P Dore
Answer
Hi,
Car manufacturers are in a sort of Space race. They want to se who can load their car up with the most totally unnecessary gadgets.
Its like when the Americans spent millions on developing a space pen that can write in 0 gravity (ink won’t come out of a conventional bic when there is no gravity). It was totally unnecessary of course; the Russians just took a pencil.
Honda have told me that this the norm with their cars. So I dare say there are other cars with this sort of issue, but it can’t be that common. For a key transmitter and radio to be draining a car battery they must use a phenomenal amount of current. I would be worried that your transmitter is going to distract aircraft overhead its that strong.
Ford cars are intelligent enough (since Focus) to close systems down that are not essential if it detects the battery is going flat. So perhaps you should swap the FR-V for a Kuga or a C-Max?
Keywords:
honda, ford, battery-drain,