Really hope someone can help with a battery issue.....

BigDeddie

Junior Member
I have recently installed a new Kenwood DDX374BT head unit in my son's 2014 Dodge Avenger. Everything was working fine, but on the second day the car wouldn't start and the battery was dead.

I used Metra's vehicle specific install kit with the digital signal converter for the power application. After taking the radio out and reinstalling it several times, i finally replaced the converter box thinking that it was a bad unit.

After reinstalling, I had the same results....battery was dead after two days.

So, I bypassed the converter and wired the power wire directly to the cigarette lighter....guess what?!?! Yep...two days later the battery is dead again.

Each time the radio killed the battery, I would put the factory radio back in and I wouldn't have the problem.

I have rechecked my wiring several times. I have even taken the harness up to the local Best Buy (only installer in my area) and asked them to verify that it was correct....they also said it was correct.

To the best of my knowledge, the car does not have a factory amp that could be pulling down the battery - I have looked in every imaginable place it could be.

Anybody have any kind of idea what might be going wrong here??? I am at a loss.....

 
I have recently installed a new Kenwood DDX374BT head unit in my son's 2014 Dodge Avenger. Everything was working fine, but on the second day the car wouldn't start and the battery was dead.
I used Metra's vehicle specific install kit with the digital signal converter for the power application. After taking the radio out and reinstalling it several times, i finally replaced the converter box thinking that it was a bad unit.

After reinstalling, I had the same results....battery was dead after two days.

So, I bypassed the converter and wired the power wire directly to the cigarette lighter....guess what?!?! Yep...two days later the battery is dead again.

Each time the radio killed the battery, I would put the factory radio back in and I wouldn't have the problem.

I have rechecked my wiring several times. I have even taken the harness up to the local Best Buy (only installer in my area) and asked them to verify that it was correct....they also said it was correct.

To the best of my knowledge, the car does not have a factory amp that could be pulling down the battery - I have looked in every imaginable place it could be.

Anybody have any kind of idea what might be going wrong here??? I am at a loss.....
is cig lighter switch power? needs to be wired to something that don't work unless key is turned..

 
you need to power it properly.. there's 3 things required to power a headunit

+12v on the constant power

ground, usually the black wire

Remote turn on, switched 12v. this needs to be tapped into a source that has ~12v ONLY when the key is on.

Verify this is what you're getting with a multimeter. Something is wired incorrectly with the harness you're using

 
Yes - cigarette lighter is 12 v and switched. Some install harnesses do not include the digital converter box and instruct you to wire the power to the cigarette lighter.

Also - I had the same results when I was going through the digital converter.

 
What you need to do is while the key is off in the head unit is installed try to turn the head unit on if it turns on while the key is off something is wrong with the head unit if it does not turn on then there is a problem elsewhere the head unit itself should come with the wiring diagram to tell you what is 12 volt constant 12-volt accessory which means only gets 12 volts while key on and ground if those three wires are hooked up right and you're 100% sure that they are right then it's possible that the factory head unit was controlling something else and now that something else is not turning off when you turn the key off

 
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BigDeddie

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