USB Drained Battery!!

[Canuck-Ottawa]

The power to the USB connector does NOT turn off automatically when you turn off the car.
I put my music USB in the USB slot in the car 5 days ago and have not driven the car since. I went to start it this morning and it wouldn't turn over. It's being trickled charged for the rest of the day.
I checked the USB (San Disk Cruzer with a light) and, sure enough, it still had juice going into it. I had closed the cover, so I couldn't see the light on the USB.

 

[StarPower]

That's good to know! I know that the power outlets turn off when the car is off, but I never thought about the USB port. I also didn't realize that a flash drive would draw that much power. I'll start disconnecting mine if I plan to park for more than a couple of days.

Edit: On second thought, are you sure it's the USB drive that drained your battery? You might have an electrical or computer issue causing your car to draw excessive power when off.

 

[kn5owa]

The car has a normal parasitic "vampire" drain of something like 30-50 milliamps. anyway.

Hard to see how see how a flash drive alone could match that. The beauty of a flash drive is that it normally draws zero current, except for the transitory drain when the light is flashing.

Perhaps the presence of the flash drive is enabling something else?

 

[Analog]

Not saying you're wrong. You certainly experienced what you experienced. For a point of reference I've had an old iPhone plugged into the usb port for ~9 months and never had a problem. It usually doesn't go 5 days without being driven but it regularly goes 2-4.

Though I wonder if the AWD version has a beefier battery due to the heated rear seats and steering wheel? Is yours AWD or RWD?

 

[TroyK]

fwiw...just got back from a 15 day trip to Italy, car started just fine despite USB drive inserted the entire time...

 

[srobak]

Sorry I gotta disagree here. You have something else drawing the juice - and quite a bit of it. Even a spinning hard drive wouldn't drain the battery through the USB port that fast... and every time I shut off the car the phone beeps to signify it has lost power. The times I left a USB in there - even while killing the car mid-song - the light on the drive goes dark.

 

[mikec]

To the OP: what multimedia system does your car have - Tech package, etc? I'm assuming you have a 2G based on the model year... much of my answer is based on my 1G experience. May or may not apply...

On the 1st gen Genesis sedans with the Tech package the entertainment system goes to a "standby" mode when the car is first shut off... around 15 to 20 minutes later the entertainment system goes into full shutdown. So it may have been in the mid-power "standby" mode when you checked the light on your memory stick. I leave a USB stick in my 2009 Tech all the time with no battery drain issues. If you can park the car with a window wide open, and the center console left open so you can see the stick's light without opening the door, wait about half an hour after parking the car and re-check the light. If it's still ON, something is keeping your multimedia system in the half-awake "standby" mode which will chug the battery.

Things that have been known to suck down the battery on Genesis sedans over a few days:

1: the electronics on the car go to a partial wake-up/standby mode whenever certain things happen that make the car think "owner is nearby - get ready for a drive." Open doors, trunk, or hood will do this, as does certain operations with the little black buttons on the doors, and things with the key fob including having the fob within sensing range of the vehicle interior. A problem with early cars was a small rubber piece on the underside of the hood... this piece pushes a switch to inform the car (and mostly the alarm system) "hood is closed." When that piece was mis-adjusted or went missing, the alarm never armed AND the electronics never went from "standby" to full-off mode which would discharge the battery in just a few days. There is a TSB on this. With the hood open, you'll see two big rubber pads (about an inch or slightly larger in diameter) near the front corners and (hopefully) a smaller one (about half to 3/4 inch in diameter) along the edge half-way between the windshield and front corner of the hood. (driver's side of hood). There is a button switch in the plastic next to the fender for this rubber piece to push. Make sure both are present and that the rubber part is long enough to actually push the button. The TSB installs a longer rubber bit.

2: not having the trunk closed properly has happened to a few folks, killing the battery quickly thanks to the lights inside the trunk. A busted switch near the trunk latch would leave the lights on full-time as well. With the trunk closed, use the rear-seat pass-thru to see if there is any light visible inside the trunk... obviously there should not be any.

3: a key fob left inside the vehicle, or inside the trunk, or even laying in the windshield wiper bay, "wakes up" some of the electronics leading to discharged batteries. One person long ago mentioned his Genesis came with only 1 fob because the dealer couldn't find the second one and his battery didn't last long... eventually the second fob was found in the plastic area by the wipers!

4: haven't read about this on Genesis forums but I know folks that had dead batteries because the overhead map light was left ON. The passenger side map light isn't obvious to the driver on some cars...

mike c.

 

[amartz]

2: not having the trunk closed properly has happened to a few folks, killing the battery quickly thanks to the lights inside the trunk.

Or, as happened to me once, I must have bumped the button on the door, or more likely, accidentally pushed the fob trunk button while the fob was in my pocket. One of the few times I hadn't started the car for a couple days. And the light in the trunk got me. Fortunately, 5 minutes on a battery charger was enough to get it started. All good after that.