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So this started a few weeks ago. I will shut my car off, get out, lock it, and the radio will be off. Well it has started to turn itself back on when the car is off. It's very stressful it has drained my battery quite a few times making me late to work. It's a 2013 and it only has 45,000 miles on it. This car should still be reliable. Chevy said they can do a diagnostic for $90 just to see if they can figure it out. F that. Has anyone else encountered this problem or may know what the problem is?

I have also tried powering the radio down before exiting the car. The powered down radio will turn on and just show the giant clock that it shows when it's off and still drain my battery. So frustrating! Help!

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I did a quick search and it this looks to be quite an issue with the Chevy Sonic's. Most have had to have the dealer replace the MYlink. i did find a couple of posts that said disconnecting the battery for a bit and then hooking it back reset the system and fixed the issue. Easy enough to do and see if ti helps.

If not then you will have to either replace it with an aftermarket unit or bite the bullet and have the dealer look at it. It can't be replaced with a used one unless you can find somebody to reprogram it. Chevy says its not possible but one person on here found somebody who after many attempts was able to.

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If it is draining the battery, there is a bigger problem involved here.

The Spark is supposed to have a battery saver feature that is supposed to keep any accessories from draining the battery.

Also worth mentioning is that if you disconnect the battery or pull the fuse for the radio, you will lose all of the presets on the radio.

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What happens is the BCM is programmed to put everything to sleep after a certain amount of time in a certain order. If something interferes with that order, as in this case the Mylink coming back on, then it won't go into monitoring for for battery discharge and it runs the battery down.

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If you leave the radio on and shut off the key, the radio will only stay on a few minutes before shutting off automatically.

If it is coming back on and staying on, there is a more to it.

The battery saver is supposed to make sure that the voltage of the battery never goes lower than a certain point - which is why even you leave the interior light on, it will shut it off unless you start the car.

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The battery saver is nothing more then a program. When the radio comes back on, which according to the Sonic forums is caused by a bad circuit board on the radio itself, it interferes with the battery saver program because it thinks it was commanded back on. The Mylink is tied to other systems which I am sure are being powered on also. The battery saver program thinks these are legitimate commands and allows them to run. Which in turn runs the battery down.

i went through something like this with my wife's 2012 Impala. That's where I learned how the electronics work. its a pain in the rear to troubleshoot because so much is tied together. Have you ever noticed how sometimes the Mylink comes on instantly and then sometimes its slow to boot up? Thats because when you unlock the doors with the remote the Mylink is commanded on. It is commanded back off after a certain amount of time so if you take your time getting in the car you have to wait for the Mylink to boot up.

I figured this out when I installed my sub. i am using the high level inputs and couldn't figured out why my sub was always on when I unlocked the hatch. i got to watching the behavior and finally figured out what was going on.

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So if its a program, it has to be programmed to shut things off when the key is off and the engine is not running.

Since the key is not on and the engine is not running, there has to be an issue with the program not reading that the key is off and engine is not running.

Whether or not it is part of the MyLink radio, I do not know, but there is something wrong with it if it is allowing the battery to die, since the whole point of it is to prevent the discharge of the battery.

If it is part of the MyLink radio, a damaged board may override the function as you say, but the point I was trying to make is that if the radio is coming on and draining the battery, then the radio coming on is not the only problem. There is also a problem with the battery saver whether it is a program or not and whether it is a part of the radio or not.

The interior light was left on in my Spark and my battery did not die, and as I have mentioned in other posts I too have been having issues with the radio having a mind of its own.

Although, as far as I know, my radio has not come on after the car was turned off. :)

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  • 2 years later...

The same thing has been happening to my 2012 Ford Focus. About one month ago, the dealer updated my Sync system (like your MyLink). This solved the problem until today. I went online and downloaded new software. I installed it and hope it will work. I'm ready to pull the fuse. I just purchased a new battery and I keep getting low battery indications. Good luck folks. At least the dealer updated my system at no cost.

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