Weird Issue with popping system?

[Lasherž]

Before you go through additional trouble it may be worth regrounding the amp. First try recreating the problem without the RCA cables attached to the amp. If it goes away it's likely EMP related and somewhere along the RCA path is switching high power like that solenoid or the power wire to the light bar. If it doesn't go away then unbolt the ground and try another spot or if it was loose scrape the metal and retighten it. Again, unlikely to help but you never know.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Yeah, sounds about right. Well boys, we may have found one of the few cases where an auto audio capacitor is actually a decent investment. I'd wire it parallel to the terminals on the amplifier.

If you know anyone with a good min/max recording multimeter like a Fluke 187/189 or an oscilloscope it would be useful in determining that peak for the best solution, the crowbar latching devices only work well if the voltage goes beyond what the car normally sees with voltage, so if it peaks from 12.2v to 14.4, well then it's not going to work very well because every time you're driving around with 14.4 it's going to be latched using up power or oscillating from its own voltage drop. If however the peak is at 16v you can be pretty certain that your vehicle's never going to get that high of voltage and it won't latch during normal use except during that spike. If you're not sure and have no equipment to test that peak on you're going to want to go with the capacitor because it will help regardless of the spike characteristics.

When buying an car audio cap it's buyer beware, a lot of the farad ratings are just outright false. I would check youtube videos of people checking their values or just buy maxwells or illinois power caps and assemble the proper capacitance myself. Once again you'd want the characteristics of that peak to know exactly what value you're looking for, but 1-2 farads should be plenty for minimizing the intensity of the pop if it doesn't go away entirely.

Your right on the capacitor 99% of the time they are useless and dont do anything for car audio ... unless your talking Maxwell caps ... or similar..

 

[ac19189]

Before you go through additional trouble it may be worth regrounding the amp. First try recreating the problem without the RCA cables attached to the amp. If it goes away it's likely EMP related and somewhere along the RCA path is switching high power like that solenoid or the power wire to the light bar. If it doesn't go away then unbolt the ground and try another spot or if it was loose scrape the metal and retighten it. Again, unlikely to help but you never know.

I know for fact that the RCA path is no where near the power wires for the amp or the light bar all my power cables run down the passenger side of my truck and all audio cables run drive side however I will try and disconnect the RCA and test it for giggles as for a grounding that would require me ripping out most of the inside of my truck I know when we went to ground it though we used a grinder and went to shiny metal before grounding after we had it grounded and solid we then painted over the area with the ground still in place then retested the ground. Reason for most of that work was due to the fact that we laid down sound deadening after that. e.e

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like a larger Battery is needed under the hood for power. Maybe get the Big 3 done if you havent done so already, and look into getting a 40 amp relay placed on the Remote for the amps and even the Light bar would prob. work.When I run more than 3 amps I use a 40 amp relay for the Remote.What size is your stock Alt? And what size and make of battery?Lead or AGM?

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Most RCAs are well shielded these days and can be ran close bye power wiring.Small system wiring up to 4 ga can usually lay on top or ran with RCAs as both are well shielded these days without much of an issue

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I know for fact that the RCA path is no where near the power wires for the amp or the light bar all my power cables run down the passenger side of my truck and all audio cables run drive side however I will try and disconnect the RCA and test it for giggles as for a grounding that would require me ripping out most of the inside of my truck I know when we went to ground it though we used a grinder and went to shiny metal before grounding after we had it grounded and solid we then painted over the area with the ground still in place then retested the ground. Reason for most of that work was due to the fact that we laid down sound deadening after that. e.e

Where is the ground located??

 

[Lasherž]

Sounds like a larger Battery is needed under the hood for power. Maybe get the Big 3 done if you havent done so already

I'm certainly not going to say that a larger battery wouldn't change things for the better, but the difference for the voltage spike is going to be minimal for a battery compared to a capacitor. The difference would be the difference in rate that the current battery can charge with its internal resistances compared to the new one. If you go from standard lead acid to AGM you will get a decent bump in the amount of power the battery uses, but I don't think it will be nearly as big of a difference as a capacitor which can charge at hundreds of amps in very short bursts. It would definitely help with the voltage drop like I mentioned earlier, but I don't know if I would need to have my car off while using any of those accessories. Even now I'm paranoid about playing music without the car being on and it drains over the course of like 30 minutes so it wouldn't be an issue for me at least.

What I will say is if you're going to get a battery swap of any sort you may want to see how it responds to that before a cap, but I wouldn't expect much so that's more to address the voltage drop you were talking about earlier than this pop sound.

Most RCAs are well shielded these days and can be ran close bye power wiring.Small system wiring up to 4 ga can usually lay on top or ran with RCAs as both are well shielded these days without much of an issue

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious what RCAs you're using that you can do that to? The ones that came in my first rockford fosgate wiring kit couldn't prevent the hum from the engine for me, but maybe there's better RCAs out there. More recently I've been using the rigid ones which claim to have better shielding but at the same time I got those I also got an active LOC so it kinda nullified any need for super shielded cables with like 7-9v signal input.

 

[Lasherž]

I know for fact that the RCA path is no where near the power wires for the amp or the light bar all my power cables run down the passenger side of my truck and all audio cables run drive side however I will try and disconnect the RCA and test it for giggles as for a grounding that would require me ripping out most of the inside of my truck I know when we went to ground it though we used a grinder and went to shiny metal before grounding after we had it grounded and solid we then painted over the area with the ground still in place then retested the ground. Reason for most of that work was due to the fact that we laid down sound deadening after that. e.e

If you went as far as using a grinder and it was nice and tight then that's good enough for me, just figured I'd mention it as popping can occur from funky grounds. Most electrical problems are down to grounding issues. RCAs may as well test if they're easy. Any word on being able to test the peak with a max hold multimeter or oscope?

 

[ac19189]

Gonna test it later today can't rattle away at 5am haha. I'm sure my ground is solid it was direct to cab and the cab has a direct ground to engine block. Planning on trying a cap on the lead to the amp as my friend said mostly because when we disconnected the amp from the battery the pop was not auditable that I could tell. Will throw some tests up later today.

 

[Squirrel!]

When buying an car audio cap it's buyer beware, a lot of the farad ratings are just outright false. I would check youtube videos of people checking their values or just buy maxwells or illinois power caps and assemble the proper capacitance myself. Once again you'd want the characteristics of that peak to know exactly what value you're looking for, but 1-2 farads should be plenty for minimizing the intensity of the pop if it doesn't go away entirely.

My capacitor introduced pop.

 

[Maverick38344]

Sounds like a larger Battery is needed under the hood for power. Maybe get the Big 3 done if you havent done so already, and look into getting a 40 amp relay placed on the Remote for the amps and even the Light bar would prob. work.When I run more than 3 amps I use a 40 amp relay for the Remote.What size is your stock Alt? And what size and make of battery?Lead or AGM?

His alternator was just replaced and is either a 110 or 115. As for battery, I didn't look. Given the vehicle, I would say it would be a 600+

 

[ac19189]

His alternator was just replaced and is either a 110 or 115. As for battery, I didn't look. Given the vehicle, I would say it would be a 600+

I believe its closer to 700 or 800 I went overkill on it.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I'm certainly not going to say that a larger battery wouldn't change things for the better, but the difference for the voltage spike is going to be minimal for a battery compared to a capacitor. The difference would be the difference in rate that the current battery can charge with its internal resistances compared to the new one. If you go from standard lead acid to AGM you will get a decent bump in the amount of power the battery uses, but I don't think it will be nearly as big of a difference as a capacitor which can charge at hundreds of amps in very short bursts. It would definitely help with the voltage drop like I mentioned earlier, but I don't know if I would need to have my car off while using any of those accessories. Even now I'm paranoid about playing music without the car being on and it drains over the course of like 30 minutes so it wouldn't be an issue for me at least.

What I will say is if you're going to get a battery swap of any sort you may want to see how it responds to that before a cap, but I wouldn't expect much so that's more to address the voltage drop you were talking about earlier than this pop sound.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious what RCAs you're using that you can do that to? The ones that came in my first rockford fosgate wiring kit couldn't prevent the hum from the engine for me, but maybe there's better RCAs out there. More recently I've been using the rigid ones which claim to have better shielding but at the same time I got those I also got an active LOC so it kinda nullified any need for super shielded cables with like 7-9v signal input.

Ive always used and use Stinger RCAs. These here alot or if I can match the Zero Noise sets I use. Ive ran then in My 90-240,-93,and 92 Integras next to 2 runs of 4 ga from engine bay all the way to the hatches Zipped Tied together and never had any Issues.In my Truck, CRV, CTS, with 2 ga. up to 2k on subs and 500 on 4chs.Never any issues. I deff dont have them next to my 0.ga wiring. I run the RCAs down the middle after deadening and run the larger wiring on either side or up under the vehicle in wire loom zip tied. I dont Cheap out on Fuse blocks or distro blocks either.ANL under the Hood and Either ANL or Maxi at the amps and Solid Multi-blocks for grounds

Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay

Buy & sell electronics, cars, clothes, collectibles & more on eBay, the world's online marketplace. Top brands, low prices & free shipping on many items.

rover.ebay.com

Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay

Buy & sell electronics, cars, clothes, collectibles & more on eBay, the world's online marketplace. Top brands, low prices & free shipping on many items.

rover.ebay.com

Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay

Buy & sell electronics, cars, clothes, collectibles & more on eBay, the world's online marketplace. Top brands, low prices & free shipping on many items.

rover.ebay.com

Never had any issues or failure with Stinger Products or Monster.
Xscorpian is Made by Stinger as well

 

[Lasherž]

Ive always used and use Stinger RCAs. These here alot or if I can match the Zero Noise sets I use. Ive ran then in My 90-240,-93,and 92 Integras next to 2 runs of 4 ga from engine bay all the way to the hatches Zipped Tied together and never had any Issues.In my Truck, CRV, CTS, with 2 ga. up to 2k on subs and 500 on 4chs.Never any issues. I deff dont have them next to my 0.ga wiring. I run the RCAs down the middle after deadening and run the larger wiring on either side or up under the vehicle in wire loom zip tied. I dont Cheap out on Fuse blocks or distro blocks either.ANL under the Hood and Either ANL or Maxi at the amps and Solid Multi-blocks for grounds

Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay

Buy & sell electronics, cars, clothes, collectibles & more on eBay, the world's online marketplace. Top brands, low prices & free shipping on many items.

rover.ebay.com

Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay

Buy & sell electronics, cars, clothes, collectibles & more on eBay, the world's online marketplace. Top brands, low prices & free shipping on many items.

rover.ebay.com

Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay

Buy & sell electronics, cars, clothes, collectibles & more on eBay, the world's online marketplace. Top brands, low prices & free shipping on many items.

rover.ebay.com

Never had any issues or failure with Stinger Products or Monster.
Xscorpian is Made by Stinger as well

Thanks, I'll save those in my favorites the next time I need some full length RCAs. I don't like Monster as a brand but Stinger is pretty good stuff from what I've seen. Pretty impressive if you can run it next to a 4 gauge power cable without issues, kinda curious how high the voltage was inside of them though. Was it a regular head unit or one with particuarly high preouts? Like with my LOC you easily get 7v signal output and I'm sure I could run any old rcas next to the power wire, but 1v? Eh I'm doubtful on that one.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Thanks, I'll save those in my favorites the next time I need some full length RCAs. I don't like Monster as a brand but Stinger is pretty good stuff from what I've seen. Pretty impressive if you can run it next to a 4 gauge power cable without issues, kinda curious how high the voltage was inside of them though. Was it a regular head unit or one with particuarly high preouts? Like with my LOC you easily get 7v signal output and I'm sure I could run any old rcas next to the power wire, but 1v? Eh I'm doubtful on that one.

Eclipse CD 3000 HU (Still run this one from time to time Simple use)and a couple 8 v older Hu by Eclispe I had like the 7100. and couple others 5v I sold on here couple years back. May have been on MAF.com. Monster cables are pretty lagit, If sitting in place for quite a while, almost impossible to remove them generally have to pry them off, only thng i didnt like about them, But if you have an Off Road vehicle They arent going to come loose