Ground Issue or Something Else?

[tommydh 10+ year member]

On that style terminal there is no need to use a fork or ring. Simply strip back the insulation so that you can insert conductor into lug without excess copper showing or insulation under screw. The forks may be causing loose connection.Also make sure to have properly prepped the ground spot. Wire brush to remove paint Not using sheet metal screw ETC. Also remote may need to be fed through relay and sep 12v source if HU cannot supply enough current to power Both loads.

 

[Zavenoa]

Yep I've ditched all the terminals. My ground points are all good, I used a wire brush attachment on a dremel and then polished it smooth with some of the other attachments, additionally, I've tried grounding my 4 channel amp in the other spots and I grounded my distrobution block (needs a ground for the digital display) and neither of those had any issues.

I'm gonna start looking into adding another batt. In the mean time, any advice on an upgraded batt, I've read that can help, but no idea what I'd be looking for.

 

[Zavenoa]

It was the power. FAR too much draw for the crappy stock batt and 100amp alt. Need to upgrade to 180amp alt and better batt.

I found out what the issue was though and why it was intermittent. After countless hours messing with the ground, I went out and bought a ac/dc converter that displayed how charged my batt was. I was at 13% when I first hooked it up, I charged it to 100% 3 days ago, drove less than 20 miles, granted pushing the system pretty hard the whole time, but still it happened again today. I checked the batt and it was at 20%. With my new dist block that shows how much voltage im getting I played around with it a little and it appears the batt is designed to drop the voltage below 12 when the batt life drops below 20%. When the voltage dropped below 12, the high power (both 1500w AP and 2400w Pioneer) failed to complete the start up sequence and shut down. I charged the car back up, amp worked exactly as expected.

So when it kept cutting in and out with no rhyme or reason, it was based on the batt charge. When the batt dropped below 20% the amp wouldn't start, without the draw from that amp the alt was able to charge the batt slightly and get it back over the hump and then the amp would work, it appears that the amp will only shut down if the voltage drops below 12 (meaning the batt is lower than 20%) when you start the car. If you start it at 20% and the amp completes its start-up cycle, it will continue working when the batt drops below 20%, but won't work the next time you start the car until the alt has charged it back up over 20%.

Lesson learned, don't try to push over 3k watts with stock Corolla power, you will fail.

 

[Zavenoa]

So I charged it up to around 85% earlier, then went on a half hour drive on the highway, pushing the system, just plugged it in and my batts at 24%.

God I hope the big 3 at least reduces this drain. I tried doing it the other day, but that POS jack that comes with the car scares the crap outa me, I'm never getting under the thing using that jack ever again, I picked up a 2 ton hydraulic jack today so I'll be able to get under there and get to the alternator at the right angle.

Will update, I know it's going to help a ton, but I just can't believe it will be enough on it's own. I really don't want to drop like $450 on a new alt, a high output batt is $220, but I'm guessing I will see minimal performance increase with the batt upgrade in comparison to the HO alt and big 3.

 

[Zavenoa]

I've confirmed that it's just too much drain. I did the big 3 upgrade, and that seriously helped. Now my battery will last a week or two, at least, before draining down to 20%, although I think it's taking a beating by getting drained down that low and then charged back up, it won't seem to go past the low 90% range without a lot of charging.

The corolla has 100 amp alternator and 390 amp battery with run down protection. The run down protection is what is causing the amp start up sequence to fail when the battery gets down to between 20-25%. To prevent the battery from draining itself completely, and thereby ruining the recharge potential, the lower it drops below 25% the less voltage it will actually output.

I don't want to just replace the battery and continue the issue, although it's possible that would fix the problem (I doubt it, still too much drain for the alt to handle). I'd rather just do it right and drop in a HO Alt and new batt at the same time. It's possible I may even need a 2nd batt, but I'd rather use that as a last resort.