clock loses juice/resets--

4just1don

This is more aggravating than serious. Once every couple months when I leave for work at 4:30 AM when I crank the car the clock loses time and resets. It happens as I crank cause it resets to 1:00 right then and then works fine when set and run for another month or 2. Why would it lose contact so seldom and consistently?And NEVER at another time just this early time.?

gregzoll

Is this clock integrated into the radio? What manufacturer & model of car, along with year? Aftermarket radio, or radio that came with the car?

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Billy_Bob

Electronics need a certain voltage to work. Below a certain voltage, electronics will stop working or reset/reboot.

Also when you place a large load on a battery, the voltage drops.

And when a battery is temperature cold like on a very cold day in the winter, it has less power.

With that said, it sounds like your car battery, when cold, and a large load is placed on it by starting the car, is going below the minimum voltage required to keep the clock working.

For example a fully charged car battery is 12.75 volts. When starting the car on a cold day, that voltage might drop to say 8 or 9 volts. And maybe the clock needs 9 volts to keep running?

A solution for that would be to make sure you have the correct size/capacity car battery installed. And to get a car battery which claims to have more starting power on cold days.

Another problem could be that there is something electrical always on - it drains the battery when the car is not running. And on that cold day that is enough to make it go below the voltage needed to keep the clock running. If that is the case, turn off whatever you have on (cell phone charger, etc.)

4just1don

Guess I forgot to include specs,,,97 Olds Shiloute,,has 100K aprox.

Yes only happens on coldest mornings,,,this morn was twice in a row it happened.

Cranks good, lites are pretty dim on start for a second or two then goes regular bright

The air ride shocks on the back pump up off and on all night plus the red blinky lock lite blinks all nite

Thanks for the replies,,,btw my battery is about 3 or 4 years old,,,is this first sign of going bad? Work has zero tolerance for late or absence so it has to go. and sets outside in a cold lot often down to zero or 10 less

gregzoll

Again, factory or aftermarket radio?

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DexterII

Could be the ignition switch; do you have many keys on your ring?

4just1don

sorry, factory radio, nothing fancy radio and cd player which dont use

And no, no extra keys just one

gregzoll

Batteries can go bad in 3 to 4 years. I had a problem with a Old's, that the battery connection was bad, and would create a problem with a open, that would cause the same situation. Replaced the ends on both the Positive & Negative leads, no problems after that.

It is a common problem with Old's of that generation, that GM even still had showing up in their later models from 2000.

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