Amp draining battery?

[Conley 10+ year member]

Okay, I'll try to give as much info as possible.

Car: 2002 Pontiac Grand Am

Amp: Kicker 400.1

Sub: Kicker 400 CVR

Okay, I've had the amp/sub combo for about 6 months with zero problems until 2 weeks ago. I went to my car and the battery was dead. Thinking I left the lights on, I got a jump and went about my business. Next morning battery was dead again. Bought a new battery and things were perfect for a week, then another dead battery last night after work. I took the car to Pepboys for a parasitic draw and they could find nothing except tell me it was prob the amp, being as it's the only thing large enough to drain my battery that fast. I have the remote turn on wired into my wiper fuse since they only turn on when the car is on. Could this be a problem or should I check the amp ground? Not sure what to do for now so I'm disconnecting the negative terminal while I'm at work so I can get home. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Conley

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[Stalin-ohaulic]

Okay, I'll try to give as much info as possible.
Car: 2002 Pontiac Grand Am

Amp: Kicker 400.1

Sub: Kicker 400 CVR

Okay, I've had the amp/sub combo for about 6 months with zero problems until 2 weeks ago. I went to my car and the battery was dead. Thinking I left the lights on, I got a jump and went about my business. Next morning battery was dead again. Bought a new battery and things were perfect for a week, then another dead battery last night after work. I took the car to Pepboys for a parasitic draw and they could find nothing except tell me it was prob the amp, being as it's the only thing large enough to drain my battery that fast. I have the remote turn on wired into my wiper fuse since they only turn on when the car is on. Could this be a problem or should I check the amp ground? Not sure what to do for now so I'm disconnecting the negative terminal while I'm at work so I can get home. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Conley

Do you have any lights lit up on your amp when the vehicle is off? If you do, then yeah that's the problem. If not, your alt is not charging. That is what I suspect to be the culprit here. Take a dmm and measure your power wire to ground vdc with the engine off and with it on. If there is not a variation of around 2v then your alt is bad.

 

[Conley 10+ year member]

The lights on the amp are off when I turn my car off...and I'm not electrically inclined so some of that stuff went over my head...are u talking about measuring the ground wire from the battery with the car on and off?

 

[Stalin-ohaulic]

The lights on the amp are off when I turn my car off...and I'm not electrically inclined so some of that stuff went over my head...are u talking about measuring the ground wire from the battery with the car on and off?

It's pretty much a sure thing that your alt is bad. You would put the red lead on your power wire and the black lead on your ground. Measure both with the engine on and off. (This is probably safest done at your amp.) See if there is a difference. You're measuring for Volts DC. NOT AC volts. NOT ohms. That's what I meant by VDC. I'm betting you'll find that your alt is not charging your battery.

 

[Conley 10+ year member]

Just want to make sure I get everything correct. I've never owned a DMM but I've needed one in the past so I'm going to Sears to buy one shortly. If I understand correctly, I set the DMM to Volts (DC), the put the red probe on the positive terminal of the amp and the black probe on the ground bolt I used for the amp? Thanks for all the help.

 

[Stalin-ohaulic]

Yep that should do it.

 

[Conley 10+ year member]

Okay, I have the numbers.

With the engine running - 14.21 steady

With engine off and key set to on - 12.88 and continued dropping .01 every 5 seconds (tested til it dropped to 12.84)

With key to off - 12.89 steady

Hope this helps.

 

[finkster 10+ year member]

sounds like you may have another thing draining your battery. check all circuits with your dmm from the fuse box.

 

[Conley 10+ year member]

I'm an idiot when it comes to electricity. Any chance you could give me some more detail as to go about doing that? Thanks.

 

[smoka 10+ year member]

Here is one way to test the amp.

Leave the car off. Unhook the ground connection at the amp. Take one DMM lead and attach it to the empty ground terminal at your amp. The other DMM lead touch the ground wire (or the bolt the wire runs to). DMM set to DC, IF you see a small voltage, then your amp is messed up.

 

[Conley 10+ year member]

I've already done that, the results are above. I was referring to checking the circuits and fuses. Can I be in voltage mode on the DMM while I do this? And what readings are normal when the car is off?

 

[batmanwb 10+ year member]

A bad ground will drain your batt.Quick.

 

[smoka 10+ year member]

I've already done that, the results are above. I was referring to checking the circuits and fuses. Can I be in voltage mode on the DMM while I do this? And what readings are normal when the car is off?

You checked the voltage from power and ground. I'm asking you to check from ground to ground. If you amp is actually bad and draining power with the car off, you should see some voltage present between the amp ground and the chassis ground.

 

[Stalin-ohaulic]

He observed the voltage of his battery dropping at a pretty steady rate. I would suggest disconnecting aftermarket equipment one at a time until the rate slows or stops. Then you know that the last thing you disconnected is what was causing the parasitic drain. If you get to the point where ALL aftermarket equipment is unhooked and you still see the drain, you'll have to pull your fuses 1 by 1 until you figure out where the drain is coming from. It's nearly impossible to fix a parasitic drain unless you can isolate it to a specific circuit.

If you're unhooking your power wire and your car still starts with it unhooked but is dead when it's connected, that's a pretty strong indicator that it's your amp. When you measured the voltage steady at 12.89 with accessory off, how long did it stay there? If you left it and came back in 30 minutes, was the voltage still the same? Was your amp still hooked up? If so, that is sort of odd.

 

[smoka 10+ year member]

He observed the voltage of his battery dropping at a pretty steady rate. I would suggest disconnecting aftermarket equipment one at a time until the rate slows or stops. Then you know that the last thing you disconnected is what was causing the parasitic drain. If you get to the point where ALL aftermarket equipment is unhooked and you still see the drain, you'll have to pull your fuses 1 by 1 until you figure out where the drain is coming from. It's nearly impossible to fix a parasitic drain unless you can isolate it to a specific circuit.
If you're unhooking your power wire and your car still starts with it unhooked but is dead when it's connected, that's a pretty strong indicator that it's your amp. When you measured the voltage steady at 12.89 with accessory off, how long did it stay there? If you left it and came back in 30 minutes, was the voltage still the same? Was your amp still hooked up? If so, that is sort of odd.

Sounds like he measured right after turning the car off. It can take 15-30mins for a batts voltage to settle.