Battery timer

M

monsta

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Contributor
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06 5 Touring, 07 Sport
Most cars have a battery saver feature that allows you to use the radio and stuff for a preset amount of time after you turn off the car. Plus, it shuts off the lights after a preset amount of time thereby saving the battery.

This was a stupid oversight on Mazda's part by not having it. My wife has drained the battery three times now by not turning off the lights. In her defense, she drives to town where it will be raining and uses the lights. When coming home to the sunny side of town she forgets they are on. (shrug)

Does anyone know of any after-market source for a product that will accomplish the same thing?
 
Just set the lights on auto and forget about it.... It will turn on the headlights when it gets dark and shut off when its senses light. Its been on AUTO ever since I got it from the dealership.
 
wmzda5 said:
Just set the lights on auto and forget about it.... It will turn on the headlights when it gets dark and shut off when its senses light. Its been on AUTO ever since I got it from the dealership.
Click to expand...

Only the Grand Touring in the US (Hawaii included of course) gets that option I believe :(. The rest of us are just stuck with the obnoxious "beeeeeeeeeep".

Wife could use one :D
 
I think because we always leave the keys in the ignition that the beep doesn't always work for her. :) It's absurd really...there IS a timer for the interior dome lights but not the rear hatch or the headlights. Is it really that hard to run a couple more wires?

rweatherford, do you have a source?
 
wmzda5 said:
Just set the lights on auto and forget about it.... It will turn on the headlights when it gets dark and shut off when its senses light. Its been on AUTO ever since I got it from the dealership.
Click to expand...

The auto feature will not turn on the headlights when it rains. If you live in Canada and have daytime running lights, note that your tailights are not on with the DRL.

BY the way, one of my biggest driving pet peeves, are the ignorant drivers who allow themselves to be inivisible in rain, fog and snow.
 
Battery Brain is the closet product I can find. It will shut off the battery if the voltage gets too low but won't allow battery power after the key is removed.

So one down...one to go.
 
monsta said:
I think because we always leave the keys in the ignition that the beep doesn't always work for her. :) It's absurd really...there IS a timer for the interior dome lights but not the rear hatch or the headlights. Is it really that hard to run a couple more wires?

rweatherford, do you have a source?
Click to expand...

How hard is it to remove the keys from the ignition? Why on Earth would you leave the keys in the car?
 
There are many, many times and places where normal people wouldn't remove the keys from the vehicle. Most people in the country these days live in medium to large cities, and it appears that most people in the country don't consider that there are circumstances other than the ones they live under.
 
monsta said:
Most cars have a battery saver feature that allows you to use the radio and stuff for a preset amount of time after you turn off the car. Plus, it shuts off the lights after a preset amount of time thereby saving the battery.

This was a stupid oversight on Mazda's part by not having it. My wife has drained the battery three times now by not turning off the lights. In her defense, she drives to town where it will be raining and uses the lights. When coming home to the sunny side of town she forgets they are on. (shrug)

Does anyone know of any after-market source for a product that will accomplish the same thing?
Click to expand...

The 5 has this feature already!! My lights turn off automatically when I stop the car. Just leave your lights set to "Auto" on the control stalk and they go off automatically. It also turns off the fog lights. though I have to admin that I have left the interior lights on a few times, though even over night is not enough to drain the battery.
 
Mazda5wannabe said:
How hard is it to remove the keys from the ignition? Why on Earth would you leave the keys in the car?
Click to expand...

Whether or not they are in the ignition won't solve my problem. There is no accessory delay power and no timer for the battery shut-off...unless you go to a Grand Touring, I guess.

I leave them in the car or the ignition so that I don't lose them. :D
 
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I don't view theft of my car as a "problem" here, so I don't do much to prevent it. You'd have to move my locked Excursion, open the locked garage, get in the car, back it out all the while hope like hell my German Shepard doesn't see you and you can get past the security guards at the front gate of my community.

Plus, where the hell are they gonna go anyway? (boom05)
 
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monsta said:
I don't view theft of my car as a "problem" here, so I don't do much to prevent it. You'd have to move my locked Excursion, open the locked garage, get in the car, back it out all the while hope like hell my German Shepard doesn't see you and you can get past the security guards at the front gate of my community. Plus, where the hell are they gonna go anyway? (boom05)
Click to expand...

LOL, I just had a good laugh here at work, thanks for the narration monsta (lol2)

I was about to say the that farthest they could go is to the next island, but last time I checked the Mazda5 is not amphibious like this one :D

nc3.jpg
 
Beware of these motorized garage door openers. At one time or another you must have witnessed them open by themselves. either caused by power glitch or maybe a neighbor was opening their garage door when you were programming your remotes for the garage. .. Anyway it happened to ours. So I now have another remote that controls the power to the extension cord leading to the garage opener motor. So we not only close the door, we also turn off power to the door opener remotely.
 
Battery brain is similar to what I have seen. The one product I have seen had a yellow box and a battery cable so that the weight was not supported on the battery post. I can see where that might be hard on the post and could damage it over time.

Perhaps you could use this model for a few circuits?

http://www.smgy.net/batterybrain/products/devisolator.html


I'm don't have time for something like this, but some of you might be up for the challange.

http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/926
 
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miwhite said:
The auto feature will not turn on the headlights when it rains. If you live in Canada and have daytime running lights, note that your tailights are not on with the DRL.

BY the way, one of my biggest driving pet peeves, are the ignorant drivers who allow themselves to be inivisible in rain, fog and snow.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the headsup....I immediately went to the garage and checked.

1. start the car with wheel chocks, in neutral / no handbrake. and lights closed.
2. With lights on auto and wiper on auto.
3. step out of the car and hose down windshield till wiper works.

Findings.

I still have tail lights meaning the car headlights are on and not DRL.

FWIW I am driving an 07 GT. Is yours 06, GS? Better get it checked by the dealer...
 
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