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I've had the new head unit installed for a few weeks now. I did not drive the truck one day and boom - next day the battery is dead. I have done a TON of troubleshooting and testing and this is what I've discovered:
Inserting my multimeter between the negative battery lead and the battery and reading amps, I am seeing a reading of 0.55 A (about 10 times what I would expect) after letting the truck sit for over 45 minutes.
By pulling fuses, I was able to narrow it down to the Radio circuit. I then opened up the center console and looked at all the wiring for the Head Unit. I pulled the fuse from the Head Unit itself but still measured the same battery drain. I then disconnected the Maestro RR and the measured Amps went down to 0.01. I tested a bunch of other things like the GPS antenna, backup camera, microphone, USB and HDMI cables, but nothing made a difference except disconnecting the RR module. I also verified that the connector going into the RR with the Yellow, Red, and Black wires had 12 volts on the yellow wire when the truck was off, with no key in the ignition.
The only thing I can think of is that the Maestro RR is just drawing too much power from the battery when the engine is off.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Here's the kicker - I have a buddy who also has a Maestro RR module. I flashed it with the firmware for my Truck, connected it all up, and basically measured the same battery drain with it.
Am I missing something? Can battery drain occur if a wire doesn't have a good connection or there is a short in the system? The head unit has been working perfectly for me for almost a month and has been working fine during my battery drain testing as well.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Could it possibly be a grounding issue? What is the condition of your battery?
Could it possibly be a grounding issue? What is the condition of your battery?
I am by no means an expert, but from what I've read, a grounding issue most likely wouldn't cause battery drain. Have you heard/read/experienced differently? My battery was just barely tested by the Ford dealership and they said it was good.
The only thing I can think of trying, that I haven't already, is to cut the tape of the T-harness that came in the K-150 kit and to see if any of the wires are exposed and/or touching each other. It doesn't seem likely though. I guess I could also put the factory radio back in and verify that Sync isn't draining the battery.
Any help/advice/suggestions would be appreciated. Perhaps this would be asking too much, but it would be nice if I could have a few other people measure the amp draw on their battery after they have left their truck sit for 30 minutes (pop the hood before letting it sit). I measure 0.55 Amps when I do it.
Here's the kicker - I have a buddy who also has a Maestro RR module. I flashed it with the firmware for my Truck, connected it all up, and basically measured the same battery drain with it.
Is the Maestro hooked up in your buddies truck? Does it have the same draw? Double checked all your wiring for the Maestro?
I would call them up and see what they have to say. Find out if that is a normal draw.
Is the Maestro hooked up in your buddies truck? Does it have the same draw? Double checked all your wiring for the Maestro?
I would call them up and see what they have to say. Find out if that is a normal draw.
My buddy has a 2014 Subaru Forrester, that isn't quite hooked up with the Maestro RR, but that is a really good idea to test, so thank you for the suggestion. I did call ADS and after I had explained all the testing I had done, he suggested that I return the Maestro RR for a replacement. That was actually before I had tried my friend's Maestro RR so I'm not super hopefully that a replacement would fix the issue.
I am by no means an expert, but from what I've read, a grounding issue most likely wouldn't cause battery drain. Have you heard/read/experienced differently? My battery was just barely tested by the Ford dealership and they said it was good.
The only thing I can think of trying, that I haven't already, is to cut the tape of the T-harness that came in the K-150 kit and to see if any of the wires are exposed and/or touching each other. It doesn't seem likely though. I guess I could also put the factory radio back in and verify that Sync isn't draining the battery.
Any help/advice/suggestions would be appreciated. Perhaps this would be asking too much, but it would be nice if I could have a few other people measure the amp draw on their battery after they have left their truck sit for 30 minutes (pop the hood before letting it sit). I measure 0.55 Amps when I do it.
Thanks.
You are correct. I am just trying to offer any ideas. That perhaps your battery was failing. This is the first I have heard of this problem.
I installed the maestro k150 kit, idatalink, Kenwood DDX573BH etc, today and everything seems to be working correctly. My only question is can you still use the factory USB port on the lower dash? I have the deck connected to one of the USB ports on the kit and the deck will read my flash drive (takes about 30 seconds though) in it but when I plug it into the factory port it doesn't detect anything being plugged in.
It would be nice if I could use both so thatI can leave the flash drive in one port and hook my phone up to the other.
As posted a few pages back my truck also uses the Metra 40-EU10 antenna adapter so the one had was wrong. When I went into town to pick one up I discovered that with the HVAC controls disconnected it defaults to defrost, fan on high, and temp set to hot. It was a warm drive.
I got one a few weeks ago. It lags a little bit with the AC controls, but overall it's wayyy better than factory. I don't like how the temp control and fan speed ***** don't have indicators on them- you have to have it set up to where when you adjust the temp or fan speed the stereo screen overrides to show the AC control menu. So if you're watching a DVD or its on navigation, the screen switches to the AC controls every time you adjust the AC.
I went with the new Kenwood DNX893S deck. I ended up spending about $2300 on it all. I could've saved some if I went with a cheaper head unit, but I wanted nav built in, because Apple CarPlay sucks.
I had to buy the iDatalink kit, an XM tuner, antenna adapter, reverse camera, HDMI cable, plus installation and whatever else- just be ready to spend more than you think you're going to spend on it.
Last edited by Hollie J. McCaleb; 08-06-2016 at 11:23 PM.
Because the ***** on the kit don't have indicators as noted above. I was planning to get a Pioneer head unit when I got around to this, but I can't do AC controls from that head unit. I'd like to be able to see the settings on the *****.
05-27-2016, 01:11 PM
