Secret Power Drain??.....

[BenBrausen]

My battery died the other day and I had to jump the car to start it. I died the next time I tried to start it. I unhooked my sub power wire and had the battery checked. The battery tested all good. I tested the battery while the car was runnin. 13.4V I brought the car to the shop to have my alternator swapped cause I thought alotta the noise from my stereo was from the alternator bein' bad. The shop tested it and said the alternator and battery are both good. It's been runnin' fine til today. I hooked my amp wire back up, this time to the side terminal with a new connector. I put some funky red gel (conductive/anticorosion stuff) on the connections like my mom's husband suggested. The fuse in my amp (40 amp) had blown while tryin' to jump it with the 15A boost settin' on the box so the amp shouldn't have been able to suck any juice. My power cap (1 Fraud) was connected but shouldn't have drained the battery should it? It shoulda been full. Well I tried to jump the car and nothing. You can hear the starter start a lil' then all the lights and power go out. I charged the battery for about 20 min on the fast charge and tried to start it with the boost setting. Same thing happens. I tried to jump it with another car. Same thing. On a side note, man do all the lights get bright when the box is on the boost setting. It's like a UFO or the comin' of God... I pulled the battery out and put it on the charger (where it'll stay overnight) and noticed when it was outta the car chargin, the meter is at Fast Charge but when it was in the car and hooked up chargin' on the same setting, it was on Low. What could be causin' this drain and could it be something other then my stereo drainin' it? I've had the system in for a lil' over a month and haven't had any problems up until the other day. Help me!

 

[rendyx]

First, disconnect the cap when you hook the battery back up. Charge the battery on slow charge too. Next, make sure the battery cables are very clean - on both ends. Crawl under the car and remove the cables from the starter and clean them well. This is what gave me a problem. Finally, if all else fails, try clicking the key to start rapidly. When my battery cables corroded badly, this got me one decent start.

 

[masho95]

Does the noise coming out of the stero sound like a whine? Turn the stereo on with the volume all the way down and rev the engine, and you'll probably hear the noise as the RPM's increase. This noise is caused by a bad ground in the stereo system. Clean and retighten the battery cable connectors and disconnect the stereo equipment and see if the battery will hold a charge that way. If it does something is abnormally draining the battery. How did you run the amp and powered sub?

Edit: The altenator should be charging the system while running ABOVE 14V.

<small>[ June 15, 2003, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: masho95 ]</small>

 

[Silky_Smoooth_02]

I had the same problem, my cap got wet (Leaky trunk seal) and partially shorted my battery. Does your cap have a Digital guage on it?? If so take it off and conect it without the guage. Or just unhook it all together to see if it is in fact the cap at all.

 

[BenBrausen]

Ya the noise in the stereo system is from the alternator. I need a ground loop isolator for it. It gets louder the higher the RPMs and goes away when you let off the gas and slowly comes back when you get back on it. I charged the battery overnight and it started fine this morning with the stereo unhooked. I'll check my sub hookups. Then never talked about any kinda trouble shootin' like then when I got Rockford certified. But then again Rockford certification SUCKS!