Amp possibly draining battery?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason
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Jason

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Well recently me battery died because i left the lights on, it was jumped and ran fine for a while, while i had a 250W amp and a single 10" sub. A few days ago i switched to a 1600W Amp and 2 12" subs and while driving my display and radio will shut off for a second or 2 every once in a while, and i had trouble starting the car.

I took the battery to Autozone and he said the battery is barely holding a charge. I'm driving a 2001 Sunfire and believe my alternator generates about 105 Amps.

The Amp is correctly grounded and the remote wire is connected and working. Is it possible the amp is draining my battery? and how can i fix this?
 
The reason your display flickers on and off is due to the large power requirements of your subs put a capacitor in and that should solve your problem but did the mechanic say the battery was done or just dead? because when you are running your car the battery hardly supplies power to the subs the alternator compensates for most of the power needs
 
if your battery is barely holding charge then thats most likely the issue, since you seem to draw heavily on your battery and also left the lights on, thats gonna take a toll on the battery,, otherwise there should have been enough time to have it recharge fully, have you tried driving around for a while without the sound system turned on?

other thought, since you have the dough for your new amp etc, just shell out for a new battery, if it barely charges it may soon become unreliable anyway
 
You will need a better battery. When buying your next battery make sure you get the highest grade battery that fits your car. You possibly need to upgrade the alternator on your Sunfire too so that alternator can continuously charge the battery while you are playing your music. Another thing which is probably the cheapest way to fix the problem is to buy a capacitor to match your amp. A capacitor runs from your amp to your battery in your car. The capacitor takes charge from your battery and basically charges itself up so it takes the load from your car battery and acts as a mini battery for your amp.
 
If your power is going out WHILE driving then you have an alternator problem. The extra strain on the alternator from your system could be putting a toll on the alternator. It could be going bad and not able to supply enough current to your system.

What is also going bad is your battery. If your alternator is not fully charging your battery the charge in your battery will get too low. If this happens again your battery will likely not hold a charge any longer. That means you will need a new battery.

If your battery dies you will need to replace it. While you are getting it replaced you can have Autozone or most automotive shops check your alternator for free. That may tell you if it is going bad or not.

If you alternator is going bad and you don't get it replaced you may have a problem with a new battery dying again. It is a problem you will want to fix before you get a new battery. If you are running a high powered system you may need a high output alternator instead of a stock alternator.

Good Luck!!!
 
A cap is not going to fix your problem at all. yes that is what is happening but the bottom line is that you first off need a "yelllow cap optima battery" $175-200 that are built for car electronics and can be drained and recharged without losing life. second its very likely that you've hurt your alternator, so if you're running 1600 im going to assume thats peak power and not RMS power? If its RMS power you FOR SURE have to get a high output alternator, if its peak power then you may be able to get away with a yellowcap and a 2.0 farrad capacitor- just make sure you wire it correctly so it doesnt explode.

*EDIT*
If you replace the batt with another regular batt, you're going to fry through that batt as well, you need an optima yellow cap, ask any car audio installer, its a must for a system.
 
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