I removed the keys from my ignition and the radio did not turn off. How does this happen? I just recently installed a new battery. I noticed that the ground wire from the - terminal broke off at the end and is no longer attached to the car body. Could this be a reason?
On my 2003 Cavalier, there is a switch in the door. Normally,when the ignition is off and the key is removed, the radio will keep playing until the door is opened, but sometimes the switch sticks, and the radio fails to turn itself off. When that happens, I can manually operate the door switch to turn off the radio. Maybe you have something similar?
I’d suspect it had more to do with your ignition key switch, If the lock switch is loose you can remove the key without actually shutting off the electric. It’s the same as if you were in the first key turn position where the electric is activated but the engine does not turn over. This can also drawn down the power and wear out the battery over time.
I just remembered. I pressed the power button a few times and it still wouldn’t turn off. It only turned off when I ejected to faceplate. Does this change things?
This would indicate that something, somewhere, is broken. What, specifically, I have no ideas. I’d have to be there and take my meters to things to diagnose it.
I ordered a digital multimeter from Amazon a few days ago. Is this all I need to invesitgate? Any suggestions about using to figure out the problem?
Unfortunately, no. Not without seeing with my own eyes what you have there. It sounds like a problem in the radio, itself, rather than in the car wiring. But I don’t do this for a living, and so don’t know any radio models, and what can go wrong with them. I’d be doing it from basic principles and knowledge of electronics. All I can say is what you ordered is what I’d start with to investigate. I think you’re probably going to be buying a new radio. But don’t quote me on that.
without details on which ground wire is involved it is hard to comment on that. there are dozens of ground wires around the auto.
it depends on the radio though you would likely have a power wire to the radio which would always have 12V on it to power the clock and radio memory (if the radio had either), you would have a wire that would have 12V on it only in the accessory and run positions. one wire should connect to the auto electrical ground.
I have no idea what this means.
But my car is similar to Oakminster’s: When I turn the car off, the radio keeps playing for 10 minutes, or until I open the door, whichever comes first. It is very possible that there is a way to change this so that the radio goes off when the car goes off.
If so, then my guess is that when you changed the battery, the computer got reset, and the radio went back to its original setting, to stay on. Have you looked in the car’s manual?
Power always wants to find its way back to ground, and bad grounds can cause all sorts of head-scratcher problems in car wiring.
My long-distance guess is that whatever was grounded by the broken wire is now finding its way to ground through the radio. If you re-connect the broken ground wire, does the radio turn off?
My 2008 Jeep is similar to Keeve’s, with the “delay time” adjustable using the display settings system; as was advised, see your manual.
However, once upon a time in the dim and distant past (like back in the early 60s) I recall some cars having their radios wired independent of the key switch. Us kids could play the radio all we wanted while we were waiting in the car for our parents to return, and there was no key required in the ignition. Had there been, I am certain one or another of us would have taken the car for a drive. I suspect this resulted in enough dead batteries that manufacturers made key switching the default technology.
It goes directly from the negative terminal, about 10 inches, to a bolt on the body of the car. Well, it did until it broke.
Crap. I mean when I ejected the faceplate. When I took the removable faceplate off the stereo.
I can’t reconnect it yet. It’s an odd wire. I can’t strip the end of it. Now the bolt its grounded to is stripped and I can’t get it off. I went to 2 Autozones and both were out of the part. Man this is frustrating.