What have you done to your car today?

No car charger I've ever had has even been able to keep the battery level never mind charge it whilst in use. After the last one broke I haven't even bothered getting a new one.
 
My cheapo 12v to USB plug works fine and it is about 10 years old, I used it in my Dads car when I was younger to charge MP3 players and things. :p

My car constantly powers the USB socket as well, I leave the USB adapter and a micro-USB cable plugged in always, have done for well over a year, nothing bad has happened yet. :p
 
mrk said:
Thing is the E46 and other BMWs still power the lighter socket when the car is off so there'd be some minor drain on the battery constantly with that in :p
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My old Mondeo's lighter socket was permanently live and I could leave both a USB socket and a dash cam active for days with no ill effects. The current draw is so insignificant it'd take a very long time to drain a battery.


shauncr91 said:
How long have you had it? Every USB charger I've ever had has shorted out after a few months :/
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A while. I'm not entirely sure :p

I went looking for a decent quality one after owning a couple of cheaper ones, not because they broke but because they gave off RF/EM interference which buggered with my radio reception. This one doesn't.


Clarkey said:
No car charger I've ever had has even been able to keep the battery level never mind charge it whilst in use. After the last one broke I haven't even bothered getting a new one.
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This one can charge an iPad and a phone at the same time quite happily, whilst they're both in use.
 
How efficient are these cheap USB things though, or more importantly, any chance of one failing while the car is locked up one and catching fire? Tiny tiny risk I admit but can never be too sure?!

Installed upgrade bulbs today:

Xenons.jpg


Tell you what, if you thought normal E46 Xenons were a pain to install then the M3 is pain++.
 
You don't want blue look Halogens dude, they will look chav! You want neutral white. Osram Nightbreakers are great and Philips do some X-Treme Visions too.
 
Howard said:
Here is your solution.

I have one plugged in to my 12v socket and it sits pretty much flush, so my ashtray closes and boom, permanent USB sockets. :D
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Already have one of those (albeit a Griffin one), but still can't keep the ash tray closed with the cable poking out :( The adapter does live permanently in-situ however.

mrk said:
How efficient are these cheap USB things though, or more importantly, any chance of one failing while the car is locked up one and catching fire? Tiny tiny risk I admit but can never be too sure?!

Installed upgrade bulbs today:

http://robbiekhan.co.uk/root/temp/Xenons.jpg[img]

Tell you what, if you thought normal E46 Xenons were a pain to install then the M3 is pain++.[/QUOTE]

Have had one in (decent brand) for over a year now with no issues :) Also if you think they're a pig, try doing the passenger side dipped beam on a mk3 MX-5! Fuse box is in the way so the only solution is to jack the car up, take off the front nearside wheel, detach the arch liner, then do everything by touch. Several hours to replace, most of which was spent swearing.

Edit:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/xvAF9yB.jpg
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Low battery warning on dash? Did your car have Bluetooth with the stock HU?

Just as a warning in case you did have BT, I had the same problem with my wife's S-Max after I'd swapped the HU out albeit it took a day or two for the low battery warning to come up. Later that day the car wouldn't even start and it had some weird oddities like alarm randomly going off which was obviously a result of the battery being flat. I replaced the battery with a new one as it still had the original 6 year old one in there but that went flat after a few days too so I knew something wasn't right.

Long story short, it was the stock Ford Bluetooth module causing it. Since I'd obviously removed the stock HU and we didn't care about the voice control I just located the module and disconnected it. No more battery drain issues.

May or may not apply to you but just a heads up in case you see a similar thing :)
 
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mrk said:
How efficient are these cheap USB things though, or more importantly, any chance of one failing while the car is locked up one and catching fire? Tiny tiny risk I admit but can never be too sure?!

.
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About as likely as anything else on the car catching fire really! I'd imagine the fuse will be the first thing to pop if it does start melting.
 
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