Right wildebus, now you have really confused me. Which is which? I attach photos of the wires that go into the stereo. Although I have never experienced a problem with what I have done already, I will fit a switch into the relevant circuit, I have several, once I know which is the correct wire to switch and which one to leave permanent. You may wonder at the fact that my insulation to the repair is self-amalgamating tape rather than a shrink down sleeve. I slid the unshrunk sleeve onto the wire in preparation for sliding it back prior to shrinking down but the soldering got it too hot and one end shrank so I had to cut it off.
There are TWO +12V lines going into a Radio, as mentioned.....
The standard colour coding is:
YELLOW = Permanent +12V. That is the line that provides the main power to the radio to drive the speakers, drive the electronics, keep the presets pre-set, etc.
RED = ACC +12V. That is the line that is essentially the remote ON/OFF and is typically connected to the ignition switch.
I see in image "_110350.jpg" that you have disconnected the RED wire supply on the vehicle side and on the radio side have looped the RED onto the YELLOW so it is always ON (regardless of what the Radio "ON" button says).
The impact on the
battery varies depending on the radio fitted - the fancier the radio, the more it will consume when you think it is off but it isn't really.
This is a common problem on VW T5 and T6 Transporters, where the standard radio is a Canbus controlled one, and owners swap it out for a standard (ISO) aftermarket radio. The problem being VW don't supply an ACC +12V in the radio Loom (this is one of the functions of the Canbus) so when you lose the Canbus, you loose a way to drive the ACC +12V into the radio - and the typical owner just connects up the ACC +12V to permanent +12V and fixes the issue
(until his
battery drains away after a week or so of sitting on the driveway
)
Relatively recently I had a chap who called me about his Starter
Battery draining away and wondered if his B2B was stuck on? He had sent it back to the manufacturers and it was tested good and returned. Put it back and same problem. Spoke to me as I sell the same B2B and wondered if I had any ideas of the problem? Put it this way ... It was a VW T5 and he fitted an Aftermarket radio ......
I have made and sold literally hundreds of those Drive/Camping switch kits I mentioned previously to VW Transporter owners
(there is an optional extra on them that includes a fused cabled to get the Ignition supply to the Radio Loom as well) so they can choose between
Drive (radio on Ignition) or
Camping (radio on always). First thing I fit to my own campers as well (including the current Ducato based one).
PS. I said what the standard Colours are ... Depending on the vehicle, and this is generally applicable to older German vehicles, you might have to swap the Red and Yellows over as the vehicle maker reversed the ACC+12V and PERM+12V wires in their loom. This is the precise reason why those two wires on a radio loom have bullet connections, so they can be swapped without the need for any tools.
