Blue LED on Moto car charger...

[Droidood]

Any idea if this could cause battery issues? I usually drive my car every day but I've never had anything like this stupid charger with a light that is PERMANENTLY on. My cigarette lighter port is powered 100% of the time, even when the car is turned off, locked, etc.

This also seems like a theft issue to me... it's just a stupid charger but that won't stop them from thinking "OMG SHINY BLUE LIGHT, MUST BE FANCY STUFF INSIDE!!!"

Any way to turn it off other than breaking it?

 

[Redflea]

I had the same question, frankly...my moto charger has a small blue LED on it, and my cig port it hot all the time as well (yours a BMW too?).

I figured that a tiny LED light can't hurt the battery, but I was paranoid enough that I always remove it...my commute is about 10 minutes each way, so it would be sitting there being blue w/out any engine running about 23 hours and 40 minutes a day....

 

[mplevy]

My GPS has a blue led on the power plug, I haven't had an issue in 2 years, including when I had another charger with led plugged into another always-on cig lighter plug.

 

[barry99705]

Little black paint will fix that.

 

[jimdibb]

Any way to turn it off other than breaking it?

Electrical tape.

 

[PhishFunkadelic]

The charger is always on in my VW and i was paranoid about keeping something plugged into it all of the time. I didn't want my battery to die on me. But after having something (usually an ipod with a radio transmitter) plugged in all of the time for about a year and a half now, i have never had to jump my car. I've actually jumped at least 20 cars in my work parking lot in the past six months alone. As for the light, i agree that electrical tape would be the best way to go.

 

[Redflea]

Cool...thanks for the info. I guess I'll not be worrying about that any more...

 

[cb2000a]

Unfortunately, Honda, in their infinite wisdom made the power plug on my Element go through the ignition.

 

[bigbill25]

If you don't like it always-on or if you don't like it on with the ignition, rewire it! It's pretty easy to find switched or un-switched 12V lines almost anywhere behind a dash, and as the charger will only draw .2 amps, doesn't add a discernible load to what ever circuit you connect it to...

--Bill

 

[barry99705]

Unfortunately, Honda, in their infinite wisdom made the power plug on my Element go through the ignition.

I have no problem with that. I also wired in a plug in that storage compartment by the map lights. Kept my gps up there. Though that would keep it safer since you can't really see it from outside the car, I was wrong.... In 17 years of having a car in Alaska I never locked it, move to Ohio and in 6 months it gets broken into, in my own damn driveway!