leaving the key ON for an hour

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I spend my lunch hour in the car. On a hot day, I have the door opened, key to ACC (for the radio), but of course the "darn" door chime rings.

Are there any repercussions to placing the key in the ON position for an hour? Only thing I can think of is the initial spritz of raw fuel washing down the cylinders, which makes me shudder a bit. What about the electronics?

Assuming of course a good battery, and no, I don't want to rip the sound maker out.
 
if it's on ACC (with no warning lights on the dash) the fuel pump should not be activated. That's the purpose of the ACC setting on the ignition.

But no, you won't break anything except wear down the battery a bit
 
The fuel injectors won't spray fuel until you crank, so no worries there. The fuel pump will run briefly. More stuff turns on in the run position, but that's it. Older cars with distributors had bigger problems because the ignition coil would be constantly energized, which ran the battery down faster and could overheat the coil.
 
Can you wedge a marker into the door latch to make it think the door is closed?
 
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You will drain more juice in the ON position, but no problems with the fuel like you thought. You will be turning on all your computers and fuel pump, which could be a good stress test for a healthy battery. If you short trip it could easily drain the battery over a few days.
 
Originally Posted By: Dave Sherman
Older cars with distributors had bigger problems because the ignition coil would be constantly energized, which ran the battery down faster and could overheat the coil.


Was going to say the same...they could get really really hot !!!
 
Originally Posted By: Nayov
I spend my lunch hour in the car. On a hot day, I have the door opened, key to ACC (for the radio), but of course the "darn" door chime rings.

Are there any repercussions to placing the key in the ON position for an hour? Only thing I can think of is the initial spritz of raw fuel washing down the cylinders, which makes me shudder a bit. What about the electronics?

Assuming of course a good battery, and no, I don't want to rip the sound maker out.


why not just close the door, and roll the windows(plural) down...that's what i do....
 
What kind of car?

My Acura MDX (overloaded with electronics) will draw down its battery after 30-45 minutes.
 
You can also rig a switch in the door sensor circuit. Way back in the day I used to eliminate the door switches as I did a lot of camping and fishing and wanted the doors to my rig open. Worked great for drive in movies too.
 
Thanks everyone, my car passed the test today: one hour with the key on!

(Door open it lets in more of a breeze, and at the risk of looking trashy, I put my feet up on the top door hinge area.)
 
Wife left her car in the "on" position overnight when her ignition was acting up and it was [censored] to turn back on if she turned to key to off. It doesn't seem to have hurt anything, though we put a battery tender on it to make sure the battery didn't die.
 
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