Question about Battery Drainage

[jrgolfpro]

Hi guy’s, I’m new to this forum and am really hoping I could get some help. About 2.5 years ago I purchased my friends 10 inch CRV kicker subwoofer for my 99 Olds Intrigue (3.8L V6) and purchased a small profile California mono block amplifier to power it. I can’t recall the model but I know it gives only out around 175 watts RMS at 4 ohms. Nothing huge by any means. Along with that, the vehicle already had an older alpine MRP-F257 amplifier in it to power the 4 speakers which I believe gives 75-100 watts RMS as a whole. (its an old model I know). Now I’m a college student and didn’t want anything fancy… just something that sounded descent and the 4 channel amp had been installed for close to 5 years and I didn’t notice any issues whatsoever with the battery until after I purchased the sub and installed it. Every winter from then on I’d notice that my battery would be very low or almost dead after a few days of sitting outside. At first I thought it was the crappy Walmart battery in my car so I purchased an Optima Red Top and I also had a 1.5 farad cap that I installed with the sub that was faulty which I replaced with a different model because the little LCD output wouldn’t turn off after I shut the car down so I thought that was where the battery drain was coming from. Well this past winter over this past month I’ve been experiencing the same issues again but with my Optima I purchased last year. My car normally sits in a parking lot during the week and I don’t drive it because I live on campus but on the weekends I drive to work which is in town about 7 miles away…. Now after I noticed that my battery was low or dead (which occurred about 2 weeks ago) I started leaving the face plate out so the amplifiers wouldn’t turn on and pull from the battery thinking that the car wasn’t being driven long enough to charge the battery up from sitting all week…. Well it seems like that is not the case because after only a few days of sitting outside, my battery will show obvious signs of being low when turning the car over to start it…. Now I’m curious what you guy’s think the problem might be? I know the vehicle has a 105 amp alternator in it so I’m curious if you guy’s think it’s not strong enough to keep the battery charged or what the deal might be? Is it the capacitor that’s keeping the battery from staying charged? You would think that by not turning the amplifier on that the battery would charge the cap with the vehicle on and then the cap would quit drawing power but that doesn’t seem to be the case? Everything is grounded properly….

Just today I pulled the fuse out of the holder to power down the cap so my battery could charge up but I’m stumped as to what I should do… I’ve put so much work into getting this thing to work that I don’t want to take the whole thing out but if I have to I will… Should I scrap the 4 channel amp? Or maybe remove the capacitor? Is it really useful on such a small system? I don't listen to bass heavy music or crank the music that loud... on rare occasions if at all... Any feedback would be much appreciated!

This only happens in the winter as well. During the summer I've left my car sitting for a week or more and it'll start up just fine! I'm certain nothing is staying turned on inside the car when it's off and the cables and battery are in great shape. The sub by the way has 2 gauge wiring from the battery to the cap & amp if that makes any difference.

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[DammitJames 10+ year member]

cold weather puts alot of strain on a battery and its efficiency goes down if everything is wired right the amps should not pull any power when the key is off or the radio is off. as for the cap take it out and use it as a paper weight

 

[ahole-ic]

Hi guy’s, I’m new to this forum and am really hoping I could get some help. About 2.5 years ago I purchased my friends 10 inch CRV kicker subwoofer for my 99 Olds Intrigue (3.8L V6) and purchased a small profile California mono block amplifier to power it. I can’t recall the model but I know it gives only out around 175 watts RMS at 4 ohms. Nothing huge by any means. Along with that, the vehicle already had an older alpine MRP-F257 amplifier in it to power the 4 speakers which I believe gives 75-100 watts RMS as a whole. (its an old model I know). Now I’m a college student and didn’t want anything fancy… just something that sounded descent and the 4 channel amp had been installed for close to 5 years and I didn’t notice any issues whatsoever with the battery until after I purchased the sub and installed it. Every winter from then on I’d notice that my battery would be very low or almost dead after a few days of sitting outside. At first I thought it was the crappy Walmart battery in my car so I purchased an Optima Red Top and I also had a 1.5 farad cap that I installed with the sub that was faulty which I replaced with a different model because the little LCD output wouldn’t turn off after I shut the car down so I thought that was where the battery drain was coming from. Well this past winter over this past month I’ve been experiencing the same issues again but with my Optima I purchased last year. My car normally sits in a parking lot during the week and I don’t drive it because I live on campus but on the weekends I drive to work which is in town about 7 miles away…. Now after I noticed that my battery was low or dead (which occurred about 2 weeks ago) I started leaving the face plate out so the amplifiers wouldn’t turn on and pull from the battery thinking that the car wasn’t being driven long enough to charge the battery up from sitting all week…. Well it seems like that is not the case because after only a few days of sitting outside, my battery will show obvious signs of being low when turning the car over to start it…. Now I’m curious what you guy’s think the problem might be? I know the vehicle has a 105 amp alternator in it so I’m curious if you guy’s think it’s not strong enough to keep the battery charged or what the deal might be? Is it the capacitor that’s keeping the battery from staying charged? You would think that by not turning the amplifier on that the battery would charge the cap with the vehicle on and then the cap would quit drawing power but that doesn’t seem to be the case? Everything is grounded properly….
Just today I pulled the fuse out of the holder to power down the cap so my battery could charge up but I’m stumped as to what I should do… I’ve put so much work into getting this thing to work that I don’t want to take the whole thing out but if I have to I will… Should I scrap the 4 channel amp? Or maybe remove the capacitor? Is it really useful on such a small system? I don't listen to bass heavy music or crank the music that loud... on rare occasions if at all... Any feedback would be much appreciated!

This only happens in the winter as well. During the summer I've left my car sitting for a week or more and it'll start up just fine! I'm certain nothing is staying turned on inside the car when it's off and the cables and battery are in great shape. The sub by the way has 2 gauge wiring from the battery to the cap & amp if that makes any difference.

It's your alternator. It's not charging your battery. BTW your battery does not charge your capacitor. Your battery never gets to the vehicle's charging voltage which should be ~14v. That is the only advantage of the cap is that it does charge to the system voltage.

Get a new alt. Observe the new, higher voltage reading your cap's display reads. Now take it out.

 

[supermaxx123 10+ year member]

i'd say take the cap out and check at your battery, the amp drain while the car is off. Can't remember but should not have anymore than 1 amp being drawn, actually i think even having one amp is a lot of drain so less than that. if it is a lot start uplugging one amp at a time and see if that makes that draw go away. It's pretty simple to do and will fix your problem. The cold does effect your battery, hence all batteries have a cold cranking amp rating, i still dont think that leaving the car for a few days should drain the battery. how cold does it get?

 

[supermaxx123 10+ year member]

It's your alternator. It's not charging your battery. BTW your battery does not charge your capacitor. Your battery never gets to the vehicle's charging voltage which should be ~14v. That is the only advantage of the cap is that it does charge to the system voltage. Get a new alt. Observe the new, higher voltage reading your cap's display reads. Now take it out.

you can't blame the alternator without testing it first...

 

[DammitJames 10+ year member]

i'd say take the cap out and check at your battery, the amp drain while the car is off. Can't remember but should not have anymore than 1 amp being drawn, actually i think even having one amp is a lot of drain so less than that. if it is a lot start uplugging one amp at a time and see if that makes that draw go away. It's pretty simple to do and will fix your problem. The cold does effect your battery, hence all batteries have a cold cranking amp rating, i still dont think that leaving the car for a few days should drain the battery. how cold does it get?

you are close but 1 amp is way to much of a parasitic draw max should be 50 milliamps( .050 Amps) anything more will kill a battery

 

[supermaxx123 10+ year member]

you are close but 1 amp is way to much of a parasitic draw max should be 50 milliamps( .050 Amps) anything more will kill a battery

i used the one amp reference to know that it's too much, couldn't remember what it should be.

 

[jrgolfpro]

The temps drop to around -5 below at night at the coldest right now and during the day it'll creep back up to around 20 or so above.... I would think that the Optima would be able to start the car just fine though if its only been sitting out for a few days but I know there's a definite decrease in cranking power to the point where I'd be afraid it'd be dead by the following the Saturday if I let it sit for the whole week... I never had this issue during the summer or up until January when the temps really got cold...

Well I'm going to connect the sub wire straight to the amp and bypass the cap to see if that makes any difference. Before I do that though, When get out of work tomorrow I'm gonna go for a drive with the faceplate out like always so the amplifiers are not being powered on and also with the fuse out of the sub wire so the capacitor isn't drawing anything and I'll see how that holds up from Sunday when I get out of work till Thursday afternoon next week when I leave to drive home for spring break.

I never had this issue before I installed the sub and back in the day when I just had the 4 channel amp and walmart battery I'd leave my car at home and return home from college a month later after it'd be sitting for extended periods of time and it'd start right up.... I'm almost convinced it's the cap that's causing my problems but I just don't know.... I swear its somehow pulling from the battery when the car is shut off but everything including the amps and stuff power down completely when the car is off so I don't know... My friends got a little 4 cylinder Kia with an 80 amp alternator and he's powering two 12' subs with cap and amp and he's never had any issues starting his car..... he doesn't have an amp for the speakers but my stuff combined doesn't seem to be as powerful as the draw of his subs....

 

[DammitJames 10+ year member]

im not quite following why your taking the faceplate from your head unit out? everything should go off if you just turn the head unit off....

 

[DammitJames 10+ year member]

i used the one amp reference to know that it's too much, couldn't remember what it should be.

its all good just figured i would throw the right numbers up

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

too many words //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[DammitJames 10+ year member]

too many words //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

i thought the same thing but im bored:banghead:

 

[jrgolfpro]

I know I'm sorry, this has just been an ongoing problem and I'm running out of ideas.... I'm about ready to pull everything out but I'd feel like I wasted a ton of time and money.... You're right though I could just leave the power off on the head unit... the reason I say leave it out is because I'm in college so I pull it out when I'm not in the car so my car doesn't get broken into and then I'll just leave it at my place if I have to drive somewhere...

 

[jrgolfpro]

I just want to let you guys know that I really appreciate all the help. I'll leave everything disconnected this weekend and make sure I give it some highway miles to charge the battery back up fully and if it starts up on Thursday next week without trouble I'll pull the cap out of their and hook it up straight to the amp..... Thanks for clearing up how the cap works by the way.... seems to me like it's either drawing too much from the alternator so the alternator isn't giving enough current to the battery or the cap is losing its charge throughout the week when it's sitting somehow and in essence, is drawing from the battery and slowly draining it.... I don't know how or why that would be happening but that's the only thing I can think of. I wish I could test the draw on the battery while the vehicle is shut off but I don't have a tester so I'll try this and as a last resort purchase one if I really have too

 

[DammitJames 10+ year member]

I just want to let you guys know that I really appreciate all the help. I'll leave everything disconnected this weekend and make sure I give it some highway miles to charge the battery back up fully and if it starts up on Thursday next week without trouble I'll pull the cap out of their and hook it up straight to the amp..... Thanks for clearing up how the cap works by the way.... seems to me like it's either drawing too much from the alternator so the alternator isn't giving enough current to the battery or the cap is losing its charge throughout the week when it's sitting somehow and in essence, is drawing from the battery and slowly draining it.... I don't know how or why that would be happening but that's the only thing I can think of. I wish I could test the draw on the battery while the vehicle is shut off but I don't have a tester so I'll try this and as a last resort purchase one if I really have too

well some people think different and some the same as me but to me a cap is completely useless