1995 Corsica Radio on Power Drain?

Did you hook a current clamp up and pull fuses to see what circuit is giving you the drain? The clock may have enough to drain the battery. They are suppose to go out but the radio can fail and needs to be sent out.

Im an old car stereo installer with 15 years exp. and will give this a shot.

No clock readout will kill a good battery in a few days , i suspect that there is another problem drain in the system.

Do you mean the clock readout stays "illuminated" when ignition key is removed ? If so check the head and parking light circuit for a power drain .

A digital car radio has three power sources 1) acc. power to supply switched power to the radio when the key is turned on, 2) constant battery power that keeps the radios clock and preset stations alive, and 3) a switched power source from the head lamp circuit to illuminate the radios face when you turn on the lights.

If your radio clock stays " illuminated" after key removal i would look for a dead short in the lighting circuit as described earlier. To do this pull the computer and radio fuses and then disconnect the pos. battery cable from the batt. Use a test light or better still a multimeter and connect pos. probe to the batt. pos. terminal and the neg. to ground , look for current on the meter or a dim light with the test light . Be sure your meter is set for DC . If you detect voltage with this test you have a parasitic short that is killing your batt. Give me a shout if you need more help as i am going by the limited info. you provided .

I think you are correct about the battery drain from the redo. My feeling that the radio display is a result of another problem, rather than the problem itself. Does this car have a relay that allows the accessories to stay on until the driver's door is opened? What about a high speed blower relay that is sticking, allowing the battery circuit to feed the HVAC blower circuit backwards.

I think he should test the fuse box to see which circuits are not turning off. From there, disconnect fuses till only one accessory circuit is live. Then get the wiring diagram out and try to find what could cause battery power to cross over to the accessory circuit.

How old is the battery? If it's near the end of its useful life or has a bad cell, it will only last a couple of days before it gives the symptoms you speak of. Take it to an auto parts store and have the battery tested first before looking for a problem that may not be there.

Hey my name is Russell, I'am haveing the exact same problem as what you desribed, and sorry to say i havent fuigured it out yet.. But traced it down to found out the drian is gone on the battery when the radio is disconted, tried a differnt radio from a junk yard, still happens, So dont no if that radio has the same problem or not. but I have been trying to find ut prober ways to test, but found ut that it is the orange wire is the power wire with the key off,

So any ways i no that might not help you, but i do understand what you going threw, So just wondering if you have found out any more about ur clock staying on, thanks and please update me....if you can....thanks

Is the radio an original GM radio? Have you measured the current draw when the car is turned off? Is it the same as the current used by the radio? If not, you have an additional problem. Does your radio display stay lit when the key is out of the ignition and the door open.

Test the radio on a bench. Connect the ground wire, (black) the dash light circuit(grey) the ignition circuit (orange) and the memory feed (red, or pink). Read current in the ground wire. Connect the memory wire first, then the light circuit wire, followed by the ignition wire................ NOTE!...........Keep the volume as low as possible. You are not trying to destroy the out power amps. If the power does not drop off when the ignition wire is removed, the radio is probably bad. If it does, look for a relay that is not killing power to the radio. This can be tested by testing the orange wire to the radio when you turn the ignition switch off. Good luck.

Hello Bob and thanks for ur repley,

Yeah I'am its in the radio or the somthing related to the radio, and yes it is the OEM radio...

SO I went looked into it more, found there is no pink or red wire, the 2 main power wires are a light yellowish one, and the orange one, then there are 2 for when the light are swicth on... one dirct power and one the dimmer wire.... Now with the 2 power wires...the yellowish one goes off with the key off and the orange is the ONLY one that has power with the key off and everything else off.. and radio clock will stay let..so yes it is full power power.....

But sorry to say I dont no much on the GM wiring side, But you did bring up a good point about the relays, SO happen to no which one? if not I will try to find out, and test and check them out, as soon as i find info on them .....thanks angain bob

Russell

It appears that some wire colors are not as I recalled. Yellow should be the ign feed, the orange is now memory.

"then there are 2 for when the light are switch on... one dirct power and one the dimmer wire." Can you tell me the colors of these? I have a small manual for this vehicle. I will try to research why 2 wires are used.

Here is the wiring info. for 94-97 Chevy Corsica factory radio.

Battery constant power - orange

Accessory / switched power - yellow

ground - black

illumination - gray

dimmer - brown

power antenna trigger signal -pink

All other wires are for speakers .

As stated before , have your battery checked out , a battery nearing the end of its usefull life WILL go dead after even a few minutes with the engine off.

Ok BOb, yeah the wires are the same has noted.... thanks

But yeah it is a good battey bc i'am dealing with the problem that i got from 2 other guys that could not figure it out, and slot didnt want to touch it..lol.. bc they all tried battery and it will kill new ones.... But what i have found with the good battery in there and with radio and everthing pluged in over nite batter would drop down to like 12.3 volts, from 12.6...and with the radio unpluged it stays the same over nite

SO I was able to get a look up info on alldata yeasterday, and that the range power feed comes sraight from Multi Function alram Moudle, which controls the parstic draw of acc. So as soon as I can i'am going to test it out and possabley try to find a good one in the junk yard and try it out...and let you guys no...thanks