Well my new system is in but now my battery maintainer will not charge the battery completely? The amp must be drawing power when car is off anybody else have this problem?

 

If your amp is drawing power I'd say you wired it wrong.
Maintainers are for keeping a battery charged, not charging it

 

I don't think it's wired wrong..4G from +battery to amp ground and the amp wire from h/u to amp. I know what a maintainer does, i don't know why i said not charging sorry...it works fine without the amp wire connected to the battery.

 

Needs to be wired to 12v that is not live with key not on

 

I'm going through an issue with my setup too. I installed an amp, sub woofers, 1.2F capacitor. I currently have two weird issues:

- when running audio level high, heater turned high the car will cut off while driving!
- the battery will drain after two days of none use

When I disconnect the audio system the car keeps charge and does not shutdown while driving. I tried disconnecting the capacitor and just run the amp and sub, it will still cutoff while driving and drop the battery voltage after a couple of days.

When i get the chance I'm going to place a multimeter in series (current mode) with the +12 volt amp voltage and see if it is drawing current with the stereo head unit remote line OFF. I checked the remote lines voltage with the stereo off and I'm not getting any leakage voltage.

Have you checked your remote line for any voltage with the head unit off? I've heard of guys having a frayed wire bridge between the +12V and remote line causing the amp to be on. Do you have a light indicator on the amplifier showing its ON state?

I may look into seeing if there is a beefier alternator/battery option. I don't think I'll continue using the large capacitor unless I get one with a remote ON/OFF capability.

If I find anything on my setup I'll let you know.

Cheers and ride safe!

 

no amp light! And when I check my battery voltage with the key in the run position the on board display shows 12.5 volts.

 

If you disconnect your amp from the battery will the battery drain after a few days?

Most setups are the same as you have it wired. I've heard of guys installing a relay between the battery and amp and have it remotely energized when the head unit is turned on to complete the circuit. I don't want to have to go that route. When I was a teenager I used to run a lot of power using Zapco amplifiers and didn't have the issues I'm experiencing now.

 

my battery never died!! I was stating that I finished my install hooked up my battery maintainer and noticed the green light never came on. The battery was charged up because I did run the car a few times. When I take off the wire on the battery to the amp the green light on the maintainer comes within 10mins. I just thought there might be a problem.

 

You might be okay. If this is not your daily driver I'd let it sit a couple of days and see if it will fire up. I have a battery charger so I'm able to bring life back to my battery if needed.

Let us know how it goes.

 

REPLY TO QUESTION FROM 2015



2015 Post by CebuRyda-This post was in 2015 and I do not know what became of the poster or his problem. This reply is in 2023. 05JUN2023: I have designed some of the winningest car stereo systems in this country. The car's battery, which is a large capacitor, are all inadequate to run a large hi-power stereo system in a car. This was discussed at length in the 1980"s with the advent of Hi-power amplifiers using 12VDC electronics. Many people shoved huge alternators into the cars in an attempt to put more charge in the battery being used by the huge draw from Bass notes on their systems. The method was pretty much a failure and very costly. I finally figured out if the system had a very large capacitor between the battery and the stereo system, was isolated from the alternator and only allowed power to flow one direction: from the battery, to the large capacitor, to the amplifiers, as the Bass notes sucked the power out of the large capacitor, the now known as Mega-Capacitor, would recharge from the battery in 1/15th of a second and be ready for the next Bass note. Using a 1 farad capacitor for every RMS 1000 watts of amplifier power creates this assist. Using more capacitance will reduce the load and time to recharge even more. The regular alternator would continuously recharge the battery and the system would be able to produce these loud Bass notes. A 1 farad capacitor is the size that works. 2 of them in a series will allow the battery to recharge from the alternator faster without the car or system noticing the drawdown. Today, there are 3 farad capacitors being used for this application. This is common knowledge amongst the best Hi-End Car Stereo Installers. A former instructor at the very first Autosound Installation Certification, held in Raleigh, NC in 1989, sold the technology to the Installer Institute in Florida: An installer Certification Program now called MESA, which he helped start there in the early 1990's. His was the first car that I tried this technique on in Raleigh, back in 1989. You can buy these online from electronics parts stores and Autosound Electronics companies. Let me caution you severely though: A 25,000 µF, MFD, or mFD (microfarad) capacitor will throw you across a room quite nicely if you touch the + and - poles when it is charged. A 1 farad capacitor is 4 times more dangerous and can kill you in a microsecond. Be very careful handling these or allow a professional to install them and set-up protection for you from them. DS (AUTOSOUND SPECIALIST from 1979 to present).