Will leaving my ipod hooked up drain my battery?

I would think no. Or at least not enough to cause a problem. I have an integrated kit in my Z and have never noticed adverse

It could do. Mine is the Mazda kit and it definatly stops charging once the ignition is off however reading other threads it appears not all of them do. If when you wired it up it simply connected into the socket on the back of your head unit then it will be switching off because it is drawing its power from the stereo like a USB. If you did it some other way then you could be buggered.

If you leave the car without starting it for a extended period the draw from the Ipos will eventually drain the battery. Also if you have a weak battery the drain from the Ipod may be enough to kill it....

If you leave the car without starting it for a real long time the battery will eventually run down, Ipod or not. The clock and probably several other electronics of the car don't ever completely shut down. But they draw extremely little power. Once the Ipod is charged, the current draw is even smaller than when it is charging.

The current draw of a USB port is really small. It would take weeks to drain the battery even if it was getting old. The current necessary to start the car is many orders of magnitude more than the Ipod.

You would have more issues with acid buildup in the engine oil than with the battery being dead if you waited that long.

Oddly enough if I leave my iPod plugged in in my Honda when the car is off it kills the iPod's battery

In your Honda, the port probably turns off, but the Ipod is probably still trying to communicate with it. The Ipod battery is not very big, so even that small current draw will discharge it in day or two.

I've been leaving mine plugged in for about 8 months now with no problems.

I wish the backlight would turn off though.

[quote author=geewhizbang link=topic=66052.msg1132826#msg1132826 date=1167931510]
In your Honda, the port probably turns off, but the Ipod is probably still trying to communicate with it. The Ipod battery is not very big, so even that small current draw will discharge it in day or two.
[/quote]

Right, but it sure is annoying!

My ipod automatically switches off when i turn the car off, and yes, I plugged it directly into the back of the head unit. but the ipod says that it is charging w/ the backlight off and everything.
I was just concerned.

i have my ipod plugged for about 6month and had no problem at all...

started my car at -15 C without any problem even if the ipod was connected and charging for about 10 hours.

the ipod doesnt need a lot of power to charge and the usb wire is way to small to transport enough electicity to uncharge your batttery rapidly.