If I don't drive my smartcar cabriolet for 2 days the battery is dead. This has happen 3 times. I took it to the dealer and everything tested fine. They had me disconnect my scangauge and that solved the problem. Has anyone else had this trouble? I am going to investigate the power draw with and without the scangauge plugged in. The scangauge goes to sleep after I shut off my car. The light goes out and all seems good. I don't understand how a little gauge like this could drain my battery.
Replies to This Discussion
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Most weird.
I agree with you not understanding how a little gauge could drain your battery.
I bought my SGII (ScanGauge II) a few months before my smart was delivered. It ran for a few months on my Subaru which had a four year old battery... any problems should have shown themselves. The SGII has been on the smart for three months now. No problems. The SGII should have very low power consumption at all times; certainly should not be able to draw enough amperage to flatten a battery in few days without melting itself in the process...!
When it goes to sleep it should have no drain. However, that doesn't preclude you having a fault in the cable or connector. I cut a cable shorter and spent an hour mapping the wires to the OBD pins and fiddling with a new RJ-45 plug... The OBD plug is fairly robust and carries 12V across the pins. A faulty cable or plug could cause a short.
When you unplugged the SGII did you leave the cable connected?
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do you have automatic windshield wipers or automatic lights???? these are Known to cause the dead battery syndrome and Smart has started to recommend the light sensor be turned off... once again they are trying to hide a fault by making US compromise the proper use of the vehicles optional equipment!
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I turned off my auto wipers and lights and reinstalled my scangauge. The car has sat 3 days and no battery drain.
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I use Scan gauge since March of 08 and so far no problem what so ever. Do you have an after market radio or lowjack in the car? They might be wired improperly. Also tell us more about beatiful windshield holder for you scangauge that I saw on homepage. I would love to get one for myself.
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No aftermarket equip.
The windshield mount I got at Frys electronics store. It's for holding a GPS. I just shaved off the mounting hooks with a dremel and attached the scangauge. It works great.
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Something else you might want to consider. MileagePros.com has an X-mount specifically designed for the ScanGauge that is extremeny easy to mount without any modifications. It uses a heavy duty suction cup to stick to the windsheld and an adjustable coupling to allow positioning of the gauge. I purchased this mount and have used with great satisfaction. A very neat and easy to use item for the ScanGauge. Hope this helps.
Dan
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I took amp readings today and couldn't find anything that would cause my battery to go dead. With or without Scangauge I was drawing approx 40ma with the car just sitting there. It went up to 50 ma with the intermittent wipers set to on.
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So eliminate the SGII and other accessories and what is left?
I'm in Australia, so there may be some differences. With parking lights on there is a low "beep beep" with the engine off and key removed. The lights will stay on and are not very noticeable... they could draw enough to take the top off a battery in a couple of days? Headlights ("brights" in US lingo) will not stay on with key removed. Rear hatch not closed fully will keep the interior light on (if the switch is in the rear position). These may not be noticed in an illuminated garage and may drain the battery enough to be a problem??
The battery is 42ah... would need a standing drain of about an amp to flatten it in 2 days.
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Permalink Reply by smarttask on -
You should connect it so that the scangauge is only operating when the key is turned on, for once I tend to agree with Ian,
it has to be somethig else.................................
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my car has been at dealer for a week! no scan gauge in car same problem dead battery. i think its the radio comes on when car starts up!
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Nope, John - they all do that. However you can turn it on when the key is off - and if the volume was down you may not notice it and drain the batt that way.
I think that it's gotta be something else, too.
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A week! I'd like to know what they find.
My dealer did tell me that they found some body grounds that were not tight on other customer cars but mine was fine. They never found anything that would cause the drain on mine. Since I've had mine back it's been ok but I haven't driven it in two days so I'll check it today.
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