New system causing power loss to my battery?

[TREpaNaTion]

I have hooked up a aftermarket radio and amp set up. Im currently running a 300w amp to 2 12's and have a 1/2 farot cap that is in good condition and is fully charged. Now when I leave my car sit for 2 days I got to start it the battery is drained to the point it wont power the car enough to turn over.

Im more sure then not that it has something to do with the way its been wired up but I believe that its set up correctly. My deck was professionally installed and I even made a second check to assure that is was when first assessing this problem to check that the MEM and power wires were connected securely and not leaving the deck running hot at all times causing me to shut it off manually.

I as well when hooking up the amp line assured that they acc wire was hooked up and secured to the amp making sure that they amp shuts off as well when the car is turned off with out having to put a toggle switch in to shut it off.

My conclusion is that it is possibly the capacitor is old and not keeping up the charge it used to and is feeding more then it should or that i may have a bad connection somewhere inbetween. Any help would be greatly appreciated. or could it be that my cap is not large enough and that i need to get a bigger one?

*note - the cap that i have does not have the digital read outs like the newer ones so im having to do all my wattage testing with a voltage reader.

Or would you suggest that i just get a new one?

 

[gonetimestwo]

I have hooked up a few systems in my day, im running about 900w but never used a cap (unless your headlights are dimming on every bass hit, but I have found this to be speaker ohms not set up best for the amp, that actualy causes that, thats my case though, with solobarics) from what I understand about caps, is they do use power to charge, but it take only nanoseconds, like between bass hits. after it is charged, what would they be doing with the power? In short I guess i would say take the cap out, and give it a try. but not sure on that being the problem. the only time i seen a system with a drain problem was, the amp stayed on, but you checked that already. ps, ive also seen hood and trunk lights staying on, check them. good luck, i hate electrical problems.

 

[SlowHeavyObject]

the problem should def be in your cap from the way you wired it. is the cap new or used? also did you use the right resistor to drain/charge it? the 2 problems i can think of could be: 1- that while your car is off the cap is still drawing power off your batt and 2- that while your car is off something is consuming power off your cap and then your cap is compensating by drawing replacement power from your batt. first thing i would do is definitely check the connections at the cap. if you wired the input side to one of the 2 output sides instead that usually causes the draining problem. also if you mounted it to metal something could be grounding it or one of the wires is grounding it.

 

[traxster]

It's not your cap. I have installed 100's of stereos and all a cap does is holds a charge so if your battery drops below 12v when your bass hits the cap will give the amp a extra jolt. And from the stereo you described you dont need a cap. Unless you are running atleast 1000 watts there is no need to cap your system. It sure sounds like your HD or amp is draining the battery. And like gone said it could be a simple light or anything. i would try disconnecting the amp for a few days and see if the problem is still ocurring.

 

[K-Dawg]

First, throw out the capacitor. You have absolutely no need for it. Second, use a multi-meter to find where the current draw is coming from. If the problem started after installing the stereo, begin by checking those components first.

 

[95mtxSHOowner]

i have run a 2 farad cap now for 2 years and have never had a problem with the battery going dead. i found in my car though that the hood light decided to stay on even when the hood was closed causing my battery to drain. so i disconected itand never had a problem since.

 

[30footSHO]

Like was said before, throw out that cap. Put it on eBay for some kid to buy. You don't need it at all.

 

[TREpaNaTion]

Okay so I have taken out the cap and so far I haven't noticed it. Since I need a feel pump in it yet till im able to drive it Im going to let it sit for a couple days and see if that could be the cause for having the cap. Though I will as well check to see if a light is staying on in the trunk or under the hood as you guys have said. Cause it could be a very good possibility of that.

I also forgot to mention as well that when they switched out my HU they said that the 2 factory amps i have in my car and my 2 factory subs were running off my deck. Now If they by chance were wrong when doing so would it be a possibility that they may be causing my power loss? I really dont know to much about how the factory set up amps are run and so on. And if thats the case Ill just rip them out and just run what i have right now.

Currently I have two 5 1/4's under my dash, my two door speakers, 2 2 inch tweeters for my highs my 2 6x9's, 2 factory subs, 2 factory amps, 2 12's and my amp with the cap which is no longer connected for the time being.

So i guess all i can do at the moment is wait a couple days to see if this problem changes, but i am going to get the car in the garage again and see if i may have a live wire somewhere that might be grounding out on something. Ill be sure to let you know what i find so that if the cap wasnt the problem you guys could help me further on this. The help is GREATLY appreciated.

 

[K-Dawg]

Currently I have two 5 1/4's under my dash, my two door speakers, 2 2 inch tweeters for my highs my 2 6x9's, 2 factory subs, 2 factory amps, 2 12's and my amp with the cap which is no longer connected for the time being.

Holy crap that must sound like shiat.

 

[traxster]

That is a little bit of over ****. all you need is a good set of 6.5 components and some nice 6/9's in the back with your subs.

 

[30footSHO]

If that... some will argue that you need only the front components and your subs. I am only running 6.5" JL coax up front, stock 6x8" until I get more cash, and a single 12". Last SHO I had a system in housed two 6.5" Alpine coax, two 6x8" Kenwood coax, and two 10" Kicker Solos. Plenty loud and clear.

I recommend you bypass the factory amps, and either look into a multi-channel to run all your mids and highs, or start trimming down until all you have is a nice set of 6.5" comps or coax up front (doors), 6x9" or 6x8" in back (or nothing), and your two 12" subs. More is not always better when it comes to car audio. Try hitting up some sites like elitecaraudio.com, caraudio.com, or even sounddomain.com.

 

[TREpaNaTion]

So I have It working full force. and what was happening was actually that my trunk light was staying on for some reason so i just pulled out the bulb and I haven't had a problem with it. It is as well working just as fine as far as not having the cap in there so im not using it anymore.

For the current set up it is very full for sound. Overkill I would agree but till i get cash im working with what i can afford at the moment as far as decent components. As well Im trying to work out a layout for my trunk as to how i want my custum box thrown together so that its all in there and not having to worry about the speakers getting broken from when i have to put my tools in the trunk. Was thinking about going with 2 12 inch memphis mojo's and as far as all around i really dont know beyond that what i want for the rest.

As far as HU's go what do you guys think is best as far as it goes for equalization and control with out having all the fancy touch screen stuff? I want really no visualization stuff, but I want full sub control more so then what i have at the moment.

 

[SlowHeavyObject]

good to know it was just the light. for the head, go for an alpine or kenwood. alpine has "bass engine" or "bass engine plus" that gives you an eq with plenty of frequencies to adjust, bass control, and tons of other stuff. also you can download a setup that was already custom made that is optimized for the sho stock speaker locations from their website or do your own profile using their "i-personalize" feature. kenwood is also good with individual speaker setups using their "system q" feature that lets you choose speaker sizes and optimizations and has some features the alpine doesn't have. it's sort of a tradeoff, each has features the other doesn't. just look them up on their websites.

 

[K-Dawg]

The new Kenwood eXelon decks are pretty good. I picked up a XXV-01D and love it. I, and others, think that Alpine has really declined in the past couple of years.

 

[TREpaNaTion]

Ive always been a big fan of both of the brands Kenwood and Alpine though I would have to agree that alpine has taken a dive recently. However I haven't checked out thier stuff from the past year or so. A friend of mine was going on about how well his Eclipse Deck was but I really dont know much about them and so on. I will as well have to check out that site above and have myself a looksee. Thanks for the help guys its greatly appreciated.