Draining battery prob

[mjg1988]

Hi there.

I've got a prob with the battery in my car. Amp keeps draining it, Know this cause when i take out my fuse, No power goes to the amp, No problem with my battery.

At first i thought it could have been my capacitor, possibly popped or grounding issue, Took out my cap and still had the problem. I then thought of it possibly being a grounding issue from the negative terminal on the amp to the chassis, So ran a new 4 gauge cable from the negative terminal on the battery to my amp. Still have the same issue.

I now think it could possibly be a problem with the remote wire from the Head unit to the Amp, Some sort of glich maybe that's not completely powering off my amp.

Just wanted some thoughts of what the problem could be.

Equipment that I am running:

12" 1400 W Pioneer 2ohm Sub

2500 W 4 Channel Starsound Digi amp

2 Farad Cap

0 Gauge Positive cable

4 Gauge negative Cable

Pure Audio Head Unit

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers

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[Flex68 10+ year member]

Regardless of what the problem turns out to be, lose the cap: it is worthless for car audio app's.

What is ur battery resting voltage? Sounds like it could possibly either be a weak batt or an alt charging issue, with the amp being enough of a drain to expose the problem...

 

[mjg1988]

Tested it with a multi meter. The reading which i get are: Resting site at 12 V and when the car idles it sits at 14 V.

Not an Electrician, so not to sure if that is good or bad

 

[Flex68 10+ year member]

With that resting voltage, I would lean towards your having a weak/dying battery that is presenting your alt with a constant load...adding the amp into the equation simply makes it more than the alt can handle.

What type of batt? How old? Recently deep-cycled/drained (playing music with your motor off, perhaps)?

You can try taking it out and trickle-charging it, then reinstalling....see if that makes any diff

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

I dnt think its a bad batt issue as stated above if he pulls fuse for amp "thus making it unable to draw power" issue goes away no more dead batt... That amp has no real draw 30-40amps max so assuming ur not playing it with the car off then almost any alt I know can keep up with such a draw. I would start with the harness behind the HU and check from there...

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

Hi there.
I've got a prob with the battery in my car. Amp keeps draining it, Know this cause when i take out my fuse, No power goes to the amp, No problem with my battery.

At first i thought it could have been my capacitor, possibly popped or grounding issue, Took out my cap and still had the problem. I then thought of it possibly being a grounding issue from the negative terminal on the amp to the chassis, So ran a new 4 gauge cable from the negative terminal on the battery to my amp. Still have the same issue.

I now think it could possibly be a problem with the remote wire from the Head unit to the Amp, Some sort of glich maybe that's not completely powering off my amp.

Just wanted some thoughts of what the problem could be.

Equipment that I am running:

12" 1400 W Pioneer 2ohm Sub

2500 W 4 Channel Starsound Digi amp

2 Farad Cap

0 Gauge Positive cable

4 Gauge negative Cable

Pure Audio Head Unit

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers

With fuse installed and car not turned on does amp still show to be on??? FYI ur ground and power wire need to be of the same size...

 

[mjg1988]

Have the battery out at the moment trickle charging, Will see if that makes a diff.

Battery is still the standard battery from when I bout the car, 1 and a half years old now. Was a brand new car, so doubt it would have been some crap generic battery. Will get my alt tested too, Might be that the alt is to small to handle all the power.

 

[mjg1988]

With the car off, and the head unit off, the power fan of the the amp switches off, which meaning as far as i understand that there shouldn't be any power draw from the battery, but, testing it with a multi meter shows that some power is still be drawn, Not sure if its just memory power left over in the caps of the amp itself.

Car is on every time i play sound due to the fact that I know and have had a battery drain on me like that once before. (learnt my lesson the hard way).

Will be checking behind the Hu today after the battery has been trickle charged. Hoping it is just the remote cable.

Thanks for the heads up on the Cable sizes, was told by the sound installer that it will be fine, but will have it changed.

 

[mjg1988]

Other thing I have heard about some people doing is installing a standard circuit breaker switch, and mounting it somewhere hidden, So effectively once your done for the day, you switch off the positive power to the amp itself.

Not sure if its a good idea or not, skeptical about trying it.

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

circuit breaker will work but only as a band aid. I would draw check at the battery with the power wire fuse in and see what you get with that amp connected and disconnected. Might just be a prob with the power wire.

 

[xSPLoder 10+ year member]

sounds like a bad remote or something along the lines of a remote connection. test it with the car on and off with a digital multi meter, that will tell you for sure. if the car is off and there is still power, the remote is bad.