joelk01

I leave my IPOD plugged into the cable in my car. It basically lives there. Is this bad?

JSpira

I leave it there frequently, but not in extreme temperature conditions.

Since I listen to a lot of podcasts, I update it at least once a week outside the vehicle.

Russ1974

Are you talking about security or environment conditions?

studavis

For what is worth, the BMW Service wonk here in God's country told me that leaving the ipod in the car was bad, because the car would not go into sleep mode, thus draining the battery. I never tried it, so I solved the problem by bagging the pod and listening to Sat radio.

jackstraw

I was leaving my iPod in my car all the time. Unfortunately last weekend, I forgot to lock my car when it was parked in my driveway at home. Came out the next morning to find the iPod was gone. The thief was kind enough to leave the BMW USB cable though.

I mentioned recently on another thread, I bought a 16gb USB flash memory stick. That works pretty well. 99% of my music is MP3 format, not purchased & dowloaded from itunes... so it plays fine from the memory stick. Even after buying a new iPod, I'll probably continue to use the memory stick. Seems like a hassle to constantly plug/unplug the iPod if I want to use it outside the car. That's my $0.02.

I never heard of there being any harm to the car to leave the iPod plugged in.

ITNurse

I've had my iPod in my car since Sept without any issues and have probably taken it out 4x to update songs. I worried a little on my 2 week vacation after leaving the iPod plugged in, but no issues when I returned.

I'd be curious if it was not a good thing.

Gene

i'd be concerned with extreme temperatures. Friend of mine left ipod in his X5 this past summer, ended up messing up the battery cells in the ipod (usb on passenger side of center console, not in it).... he found a place that could replace the ipod battery, now all works fine and he does not leave his ipod in the car anymore...


i make sure to at least unplug for the usb cord before leaving the car, so the ipod battery does not drain. I have been pretty good about remembering to take my ipod out of the car tho...

stanatl

I leave mine in the car pretty much all the time. I've taken it out a few times for long flights or for vacations. We don't get really frigid weather in Atlanta but it gets pretty hot and I've never had a problem either with the car or the IPOD. I don't believe having it plugged in stops the car from enterning the "sleep" mode because my car seems to go into it.

studavis

i'm sure apple broke all speed records replacing those batteries under warranty

ImolaRedM

I don't want to say for fear of having it stolen from my glove box. But if I did have it plugged in all the time I have never had to replace my battery (yet), in theory that is.

I'm fairly certain that the iPod itself will sleep due to inactivity so I don't think there would be a risk of draining the car battery any more than normal.