A119 SpyTech Dashcam Drained My Honda Battery

Ketan Patel

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Hard to believe but It did happen twice in a day.

1. I installed A119 in my card after coming from work around 6pm. I decided to use cigarette charger that is available 'under my armrest'. I tested that the dashcam is not turned on when the car is off and with that, I left the dashcam connected overnight.
2. Next morning around 10am, I see that the car is not turning on. Wondered and thought, It might be due to some light being kept on and gave a jump start. I drove around 10 miles to make sure my battery is recharged to avoid trouble again. (I still did not unplug the dashcam thinking there is no way that dashcam can drain the battery).
3. Around 4pm that day, I see my car is not starting again. After getting help for someone with a jump start, I decided to go to Honda dealer to check my Battery. and by the way, My car is only 3 years old. They checked and said, the battery is healthy and there is no issue with it.
4. Finally, I decided to unplug the dashcam from armrest cigarette charger to filter out the possibilities and left the car overnight.
5. Checked the car again in the morning and it did not drain the battery. It turned on right away.

Now, the question is, How come that armrest cigarette charger is draining a battery when my car is off. I read some online forums and people talk about in some car, the armrest cigarette charger is always hot even if the car is turned off but I do not see that. Tried charging my phone through that socket and it is NOT CHARGING when the car is off.

It's time to ask you, folks, to see if anyone can help me out here. I could plug the dashcam in one of the front cigarette charger but I want to use the one that is available under armrest if possible.

I own Honda Accord 2104 EXL.

Any help on this will be appreciated.
 
If cigarette lighter doesn't have power after car is off, it doesn't matter what you plug in.
Does the camera turn on when pressing the power button after the car is off for few minutes?
 
Thanks Sunny,

I just checked to make sure camera is not getting a power. Even cigarette charger led light is not turning on but somehow it has caused the battery drain. Sadly, the only option for me is to plug it on again overnight and see if that drains the battery :(
 
It's actually rather difficult to prove that a car battery is good. A simple voltage test won't do it. There are some very expensive testers that take a long time to do a thorough test, and the battery would need to be charged after using them. I assume they did not do that.
It's much easier to find out if a battery is bad. If it fails under normal use, it is bad! A circular definition, perhaps, but there it is.

I'm wondering if the socket stays powered after the ignition is off, but the voltage drops under load so much that the camera won't work and the charger LED won't even light. But current still flows through the charger. It's hard to believe the dealer wouldn't have diagnosed that, though.

Buy one of those cigar plug voltmeters, there are many dirt cheap ones on Amazon. That would confirm whether or not the socket is getting power, and also let you monitor the battery voltage. If power to all the sockets is turned off with the ignition, it might also be worth buying a basic, normal voltmeter to check the battery directly when the ignition is off.
 
yeah sounds like you have some electrical issue. I can see a dashcam draining a battery that bad. may it be a problem with the battery or the socket.
 
Just check the memory card to see if it is recording overnight.
 
Typical car battery life is 3-4 years depending on where you live and driving conditions.

Pointing it out since you said your car is only 3 years old.
 
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Something isn't at all right there. I accidentally left 2 dashcams plugged in via a twin socket into my cigarette 12v, they were on all night from roughly 2pm to 7am the following morning, on my 13 year old Audi. I had no starting issue at all, however the car battery is only just over 2 years old.

BUT.... My old battery failed miserably, less than 6 months after a "health check" came back as a good healthy battery
 
I think my Honda battery died after 2 years after buying the car brand new. My office was only 2 miles away so the battery didn't get charged correctly with all of my short trips. The Honda battery was still under full warranty so they just popped in a new one at the stealership.
 
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