Hi, Car is a Vectra SRi 2.5 V6 1998. Just replaced the (original?) battery today after it refused to turn the starter over yesterday morning. Tonight I noticed that the multifunction digital display is still on after the car has been standing for about 4 hours displaying: Outside Temp, Date, Time.
Is it supposed to do this? Does the backlight draw sufficient current to run the battery down if left like this?
Funny thing is I can't recall 100% if it did this before. Just it stood out in the dark when I went out for somethng. I have been back out and set up the date and time etc, just in case it was waiting to be programmed after removing the battery volts but it is still there glowing brightly.
I gather from what you say the display should go off but there may be some signal line from the stereo that keeps it active. Maybe shorted to ground, or floating about open circuit?
The previous owner replaced the original Vauxhall stereo with a Sony CD player plus an adaptor so that it would work with the steering wheel controls. The car got broken into and this setup was nicked, so he replaced it with a cheaper CD player which does not appear to respond to the steering wheel controls. It has a removable fascia which has been unplugged for some time. I am assuming it is therefore off. Don't know what has been done to the wiring during all of this. I have the original radio - complete with jammed tape. Maybe I can try and plug this back in and see if it has any effect.
In my experience, Vauxhall Vectras (not sure about all vaux cars) have a flashing LED on the front of their own brand stereo equipment. While the engine is off it flashes on every second or so, I'm assuming this is to pretend to be an immobiliser/alarm warning.
When I fitted my Panasonic MP3/WMA/CD-RW player in as a replacement I noticed that after fannying around with the wires, the device was "always on" - whereas on my old car when I turned the ignition key to
0 (or removed the key) all power was off. This means that the Vauxhall is always powering the stereo 24/7. I can use all functions of the MP3 player while the key is out of the ignition now - which will put a drain on the battery if used for extended periods of time, especially in cold weather.
I can turn the MP3 player into "Stand-By" mode, this means it should only power the dim LED on the bottom left (power button).
As soon as I press the power button (on) the dashboard time/temp light turns on too. This also happens when the car is off. The only way to turn that off is to put the MP3 player into standby mode (and/or remove the face plate)
While I'm sure leaving the stand-by light on for the MP3 player will not put excessive drain on the battery (after all, the Vauxhall one had a blinking LED) I still remove the face-plate when I'm going to be out of the car for more than a few minutes.
With regards to your time/temp light panel being on - it may be that your battery being disconnected has somehow reset the stereo and it's sitting on quiet mode or something similar. Try shoving the face plate on and mashing a few buttons, perhaps going into the setup menu, should it have one, and playing with a few options there.
IME the time/temp panel, when linked in with a Vauxhall or compat. stereo will show the track number or radio station name on the bottom line. My Panasonic MP3 player doesn't have this wiring (it has its own text display) so when the stereo is on it seems to toggle on the power to that panel which shows the time/temp and a blank bottom line where the track number/radio station name would normally be.
On the right hand indicator stalk do you have abutton marked R and S if so possibly it is jammed. I say this because on my omega at any time and without the keys even being in the ignition if you press S then the display will show date time and temperature as described in your user hand book. As a matter of interest i changed my omega stereo to a sony and fitted the adaptor for the steering wheel controls and it works perfectly OK apart from not showing what station your on. If the sony adapter is still in place remove it and see if this cures problem it should be behind stereo and be marked pc6 or 9 (something like that sorings to mind) hope this helps.
I put the fascia back on and went through the setup menu as suggested. The display now goes out when the key is removed. In this condition pressing the button on the indicator stork illuminates the display for a few seconds only. Looks like the stereo the problem. Could have been caused when the battery was removed as you say Nick. Alternatively, little fingers removing the fascia while the stereo is still on may be another possibility.
Thanks for the pointers guys. If I have any more trouble at least I know know where to start looking.
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