Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
05-06-2008, 01:07 PM
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Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
2000 Vette
Sound system (pretty big sound system - 2 10s", 4 big bose speakers, and 2 amps) - the gaged wire is obviously connected directly to the + battery.
Went to vegas for 1 week
came back, car wouldn't start. First problem like this in forever for this vehicle that i know of.
--Found out the light in the pass. vanity mirror doesn't turn off...and i guess a week was long enough to drain the battery, as before i'd drive 1-2 days and no problems - alt. probably charged battery enough.
Jumped
Drove 3 hours...parked...disconnected van. light.
Next morning won't start
Jumped
Tested battery and alternator - look good
Unplug sound system, next morning, it's fine
next morning it's fine
next morning it's fine
Forget to unplug sound system for 1 hour, won't start
jumped
Next morning it won't start
jumped
Everytime I park I unhook sound system, even for 10 minutes
Was working for about 1 week, now everytime i get in the car, it needs to be jumped.
Problem = capacitor ?
SORRY FOR THE LONG EMAIL! Just wanted to paste what I had in word.
<3
Sound system (pretty big sound system - 2 10s", 4 big bose speakers, and 2 amps) - the gaged wire is obviously connected directly to the + battery.
Went to vegas for 1 week
came back, car wouldn't start. First problem like this in forever for this vehicle that i know of.
--Found out the light in the pass. vanity mirror doesn't turn off...and i guess a week was long enough to drain the battery, as before i'd drive 1-2 days and no problems - alt. probably charged battery enough.
Jumped
Drove 3 hours...parked...disconnected van. light.
Next morning won't start
Jumped
Tested battery and alternator - look good
Unplug sound system, next morning, it's fine
next morning it's fine
next morning it's fine
Forget to unplug sound system for 1 hour, won't start
jumped
Next morning it won't start
jumped
Everytime I park I unhook sound system, even for 10 minutes
Was working for about 1 week, now everytime i get in the car, it needs to be jumped.
Problem = capacitor ?
SORRY FOR THE LONG EMAIL! Just wanted to paste what I had in word.
<3
05-06-2008, 01:14 PM
#2
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Re: Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
need more info... what size are your amps? i've had two big systems... both ran two 1000 watt amps and in the long run wreaked havoc on my electrical systems... i ran off the main battery because i was a freakin idiot both times
when you go big, you gotta run a second battery... and at least 1.2 farads of capacitance per 1000 watts of power....
when you go big, you gotta run a second battery... and at least 1.2 farads of capacitance per 1000 watts of power....
05-06-2008, 03:17 PM
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Re: Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
Are the amps turning off when the head unit is off?
Disconnect the power wire to the amp, and put a multimeter inline with the power lead, while the head unit are car are off. This will measure the current that is being drawn by the amp when there really shouldn't be any. Use this method to track down where the power drain is coming from. If it's a lot of current, either something is keeping the amp on, or you have a bad power supply component. Either way, there is still a lot of troubleshooting that you can do to track this down. Finding the culprit and figuring out what you want to do to fix it are two different things. Mass produced amps are often more trouble than they're worth to get fixed, unless you can find a good repair shop or send it back to the factory for repair or replacement.
What are you doing when you "unplug the sound system"? What are you unplugging? Are you disconnecting power at the amps, pulling a maxi fuse or whatever, or removing the battery cable at the battery?
Disconnect the power wire to the amp, and put a multimeter inline with the power lead, while the head unit are car are off. This will measure the current that is being drawn by the amp when there really shouldn't be any. Use this method to track down where the power drain is coming from. If it's a lot of current, either something is keeping the amp on, or you have a bad power supply component. Either way, there is still a lot of troubleshooting that you can do to track this down. Finding the culprit and figuring out what you want to do to fix it are two different things. Mass produced amps are often more trouble than they're worth to get fixed, unless you can find a good repair shop or send it back to the factory for repair or replacement.
What are you doing when you "unplug the sound system"? What are you unplugging? Are you disconnecting power at the amps, pulling a maxi fuse or whatever, or removing the battery cable at the battery?
05-07-2008, 08:57 AM
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Re: Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
Hm.
I never looked at the amps ...i really didn't care about how powerful they were..etc..
i'll have a look this afternoon.
BUT it shouldn't be draining AFTER the fact that I keep unplugging my system from the battery right?
That is what doesn't make sense...The amps Were NOT turning off, that's what the problem WAS, so i started removing the gaged wire from the + battery end to solve that, because I didn't have a remote, and that seemed like the only solution.
When you say bad cell in a battery, should I literally just go and get that changed now then (the whole battery)? The battery is pretty brand new. I guess that doesn't change the fact that it could be a bad cell. BUT ...just trying to save 100+/- dollars if it's definitely not that (probably)
<3
edit: thanks for the help guys!
I never looked at the amps ...i really didn't care about how powerful they were..etc..
i'll have a look this afternoon.
BUT it shouldn't be draining AFTER the fact that I keep unplugging my system from the battery right?
That is what doesn't make sense...The amps Were NOT turning off, that's what the problem WAS, so i started removing the gaged wire from the + battery end to solve that, because I didn't have a remote, and that seemed like the only solution.
When you say bad cell in a battery, should I literally just go and get that changed now then (the whole battery)? The battery is pretty brand new. I guess that doesn't change the fact that it could be a bad cell. BUT ...just trying to save 100+/- dollars if it's definitely not that (probably)
<3
edit: thanks for the help guys!
05-07-2008, 08:57 AM
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Re: Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
Are the amps turning off when the head unit is off?
Disconnect the power wire to the amp, and put a multimeter inline with the power lead, while the head unit are car are off. This will measure the current that is being drawn by the amp when there really shouldn't be any. Use this method to track down where the power drain is coming from. If it's a lot of current, either something is keeping the amp on, or you have a bad power supply component. Either way, there is still a lot of troubleshooting that you can do to track this down. Finding the culprit and figuring out what you want to do to fix it are two different things. Mass produced amps are often more trouble than they're worth to get fixed, unless you can find a good repair shop or send it back to the factory for repair or replacement.
What are you doing when you "unplug the sound system"? What are you unplugging? Are you disconnecting power at the amps, pulling a maxi fuse or whatever, or removing the battery cable at the battery?
Disconnect the power wire to the amp, and put a multimeter inline with the power lead, while the head unit are car are off. This will measure the current that is being drawn by the amp when there really shouldn't be any. Use this method to track down where the power drain is coming from. If it's a lot of current, either something is keeping the amp on, or you have a bad power supply component. Either way, there is still a lot of troubleshooting that you can do to track this down. Finding the culprit and figuring out what you want to do to fix it are two different things. Mass produced amps are often more trouble than they're worth to get fixed, unless you can find a good repair shop or send it back to the factory for repair or replacement.
What are you doing when you "unplug the sound system"? What are you unplugging? Are you disconnecting power at the amps, pulling a maxi fuse or whatever, or removing the battery cable at the battery?
05-07-2008, 03:40 PM
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Re: Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
So it could be something other than the amps, because you're disconnecting everything in the car's electrical system when you disconnect the cable at the battery.
What did you mean about not having a remote? Does that mean you don't have a remote turn on wire going to the amps? If you're using the factory head unit, you could use the turn on wire that would ordinarily go to a factory amp or power antenna, or worst case use the ignition switched power as a turn on. I think I remember that there are also modules that tap into the stock speaker wires and sense an audio signal, which is then turned into a remote turn on signal.
If that's your problem though, there are a few ways to easily solve it.
What did you mean about not having a remote? Does that mean you don't have a remote turn on wire going to the amps? If you're using the factory head unit, you could use the turn on wire that would ordinarily go to a factory amp or power antenna, or worst case use the ignition switched power as a turn on. I think I remember that there are also modules that tap into the stock speaker wires and sense an audio signal, which is then turned into a remote turn on signal.
If that's your problem though, there are a few ways to easily solve it.
05-07-2008, 03:44 PM
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Re: Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
So it could be something other than the amps, because you're disconnecting everything in the car's electrical system when you disconnect the cable at the battery.
What did you mean about not having a remote? Does that mean you don't have a remote turn on wire going to the amps? If you're using the factory head unit, you could use the turn on wire that would ordinarily go to a factory amp or power antenna, or worst case use the ignition switched power as a turn on. I think I remember that there are also modules that tap into the stock speaker wires and sense an audio signal, which is then turned into a remote turn on signal.
If that's your problem though, there are a few ways to easily solve it.
What did you mean about not having a remote? Does that mean you don't have a remote turn on wire going to the amps? If you're using the factory head unit, you could use the turn on wire that would ordinarily go to a factory amp or power antenna, or worst case use the ignition switched power as a turn on. I think I remember that there are also modules that tap into the stock speaker wires and sense an audio signal, which is then turned into a remote turn on signal.
If that's your problem though, there are a few ways to easily solve it.
I have two bolts on my Positive battery end, One for the power to the entire car, and one bolt that screws in INSIDE that bigger bold and bolts down my gaged wire only (for the system)....i have been leaving the + end connected, but just removing the GAGED wire ONLY
...It's an aftermarket head unit.
And by no remote, I mean i have no small remote that normally comes with amps/head units.
05-07-2008, 03:46 PM
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Re: Battery Not holding charge (or capacitor?)
The remote control has no bearing on this issue at all; amps are turned on and off by the head unit. If that isn't happening, you need to find out why. Is the remote turn on wire not connected to the amps?