Help! With power drain..

[mp5spicyorange]

I just got two ten inch RF Subs and an 800 WATT AMP.
I have massive power drain, such as headlights and all lit up electronics are fading in and out.
What would be a quick fix for the problem please help...

Thanks.

 

[Poseur]

quick fix#1 would be to simply upgrade your primary groundwire from your battery. Think about it. It's VITAL to have the same size ground on your amps as supply wire, whythen should that not be the case for your battery as well? The best solution is to get a full grunding kit.(mine did me WORLDS of good) Either talk to 1sty, or just make one yourself (tehre's a how-to inhere somewhere) But definately do the short ground that goes from your neg terminal to right next to the battery on top of the wheelwell That's a good start. Make it atleast 4g. you shoudl see an improvement.

 

[MisterT]

quick fix#1 would be to simply upgrade your primary groundwire from your battery. Think about it. It's VITAL to have the same size ground on your amps as supply wire, whythen should that not be the case for your battery as well? The best solution is to get a full grunding kit.(mine did me WORLDS of good) Either talk to 1sty, or just make one yourself (tehre's a how-to inhere somewhere) But definately do the short ground that goes from your neg terminal to right next to the battery on top of the wheelwell That's a good start. Make it atleast 4g. you shoudl see an improvement.

I tried those and upgrading the power wire going to the alternator and even upgraded the battery and that didn't work. Xstatic makes a batcap that claims to work. I purchased one on www.carsound.com , but it was a dud so I can't tell you for sure if it truly works or not. GotWake was going to make one and sell them cheaper than what Xstatic sells them for. I don't know if it ever happened yet though.

 

[Poseur]

Didn't work at all??? I serisouly had a HUGE night and day kinda change from the grounding kit. Bare minimum it's a fairly inexpensive place to start. Better yet it can't really harm anything and kinda looks cool in the process.

I'm still kinda unsure about any kind of caps, nevermuch been my bag. At anyrate, 1.6kw daily for 8months now. the grounding kit went in atlike 5months and I'm doing WAY better now.

 

[Greg S]

Let's try something even more simple. What size power and ground wire are you running to the amp now? It should be at leats 6-ga if you are drawing 800 watts RMS, 4-ga would be even better especially if you have another amp for your mids and highs. If the power wire is too small you will see significant dimming due to the amp trying to draw more current through the smaller wire. If the power and ground wires are big enough then try the main powers and grounds in the engine compartment, then a capacitor.

 

[MisterT]

It didn't help with the dimming, but I am sure it helped with the electrical system a bit. I mean I don't know how long my stock battery would last if I didn't get one with over 1K of CCAs. I added a groundkit and use 4 gauge throughout.

MP5, I would still recommend doing what Poseur suggested so that it won't hurt your electrical system more. Someone here just left the stock battery in and woke up with an unpleasant surprise of a dead battery do to the amount of strain his system was putting on his stock battery. I used wires from www.knukonceptz.com and like the look and quality of them. What gauge wire are you presently using?

 

[mp5spicyorange]

I am currently using 4 gauge wire for the power and 4 gauge for the grounding from the Amp to the body. I figured a CAP would be the solver, but I wanted to see if anyone had another way of approaching this matter.
Thanks for the info...

Let's try something even more simple. What size power and ground wire are you running to the amp now? It should be at leats 6-ga if you are drawing 800 watts RMS, 4-ga would be even better especially if you have another amp for your mids and highs. If the power wire is too small you will see significant dimming due to the amp trying to draw more current through the smaller wire. If the power and ground wires are big enough then try the main powers and grounds in the engine compartment, then a capacitor.

 

[mp5spicyorange]

ok another large problem my battery finally died out completely no cranking power at all.
Mazda just replaced my battery with a Mazda High Performance one not more than a year ago. What should I do now? I also jumped my car drove it for thirty minutes with no stereo on stopped turned car off then tried to turn it back on and nothing at all. My lights come on, but no turn over.

 

[Poseur]

optimas are prettymuch just tougher batteries alltogether. though blue or redtops are better suited for car applications unless you're playing extended periods with your car off.

As far as caps are concerned, I'm not really a fan of them. In the end, they're still a component that doens't make power, so it takes some, Sure it'll possibly smooth things out a tad, but what happens once you drain your cap, it's pulling power while your amp asks for another shot. That and they just plain scare the piss outta me. with a plain battery, disconnect your cables and you're good. with that cap in there, you've gotta short the biotch and that scares me everytime.

There'squite a few of us pushing well over the Kilowatt range daily with no caps doing just fine. hell wakey's running up to 3kw and nocap over there either.

 

[MisterT]

As far as caps are concerned, I'm not really a fan of them. In the end, they're still a component that doens't make power, so it takes some, Sure it'll possibly smooth things out a tad, but what happens once you drain your cap, it's pulling power while your amp asks for another shot. That and they just plain scare the piss outta me. with a plain battery, disconnect your cables and you're good. with that cap in there, you've gotta short the biotch and that scares me everytime.

LMAO I too have had bad experiences with caps. I had a 1.5 farad cap which I thought was dead. I touched both ends with a pair of pliers and sparks flew every where. It melted some of the metal on the ends! (poke)

 

[sndsgood]

first thing is to find out what is causing the drain. go to an auto parts store and have them load test your alternator, first find out how many amps your car is putting out with no accesories on. then turn all your accessories except the stereo on. now take a reading, now take a reading with the stereo blasting, this will let you know how much draw you have on your alternator, and this will decide what the best route for you to take is. come back when u have the numbers, and i can suggest what to do next.

 

[got wake?]

sounds like a combination of a bad battery and poor ground.

 

[Thug541]

Yea i have a cap from my first system in my 92 corolla. (har har) i was young and bought a cap thinking it would help my dimming. IT actaully did a lil bit. But yea, since i still had it, I just threw it in my protege for looks i guess. No power problems, I'm pushing just about 1000 watts.