Amps too much power for car to handle?

eloplayspolo

sorry for making another post...

K unless im going 40 + mph my amps go into protect mode... wtf

eloplayspolo

its a new CAR QQ

eloplayspolo

would an aditional battery in the trunk work? and how would i go about connecting it to my set up

lightman1

Try a battery isolator. It keeps each battery from drawing one another down but lets them both charge from the alternator.

eloplayspolo

yeah i was just looking that stuff up,what would be the cheapest thing for me to do? and if i used 8 gage from the dist block would that work?

lightman1

Depends on the current demands of your amps. It's best to keep the same gauge as the factory charge lead to the second battery set.

eloplayspolo

no i mean currently if i go 8 age from the distribution block would i be good?

lightman1

Not recommended. Basically your alternator will still be trying to run your amps AND charging the battery at the same time. Leading you back to square one with your charging problem. Look into an alternator with a higher amperage output and an isolator. Many RV and marine dealers carry these items.

eloplayspolo

will it void my waranty?

Jstas

If the car is not producing enough power until you reach 40 MPH, if you have a tach, figure out what RPM you are at in which gear at 40 MPH. An alternator rated at 60 amps will not put out 60 amps at idle. It will put out enough juice to charge the battery but your current draw for all things electrical comes from the battery. That's why you wire your amp to the battery and not the alternator.

What kind of car do you drive? A second battery will likely not help any and tax your charging system. If you want to put in a second battery, you will need to upgrade your alternator most likely. You should be able to get a battery with more amperage available that will fit where your stock battery fits.


If you are going to use stock parts and run big power though, you really need to watch your current draw. Every amp has a fuse or at least a rated draw. The fuse is the easiest way to tell because the amp cannot continuously draw more current than the fuse is rated at. So essentially, if you have two amps and one draws 40 amps and the other draws 20 amps, your total current draw is 60 amps. If your alternator only supplies 60 amps then you have very little headroom to draw those 60 amps for your amplifiers.

Thankfully, under normal listening levels your amps will not draw the maximum current. But, you also have to consider that most new cars have quite a few advanced and high powered electronics systems like the ABS computer and valvebody and the ignition systems and even headlights at this point. They all draw power and if the car manufacturer cut costs by giving the car the bare minimum in power production capabilities, you will eventually hit a wall like you have.

Changing power wire gauge is not going to help and if you have something like a Honda Civic, I highly doubt that any RV dealer will have anything that will fit. You are better off going to a company like Powermaster and picking up a high current alternator and grabbing something like an Optima yellow top. A second battery will add weight, alot of it. It may also end up giving your battery system too much storage and the alternator will not be able to charge the batteries effectively.

Jstas

Oh, as for upgrading your alternator, depending on what kind of car and what trim level it has, you may be able to get a higher output stock alternator.

For example, my Thunderbird had a V6 in it. It came with a 110 amp alternator I think it was. I wanted more juice for the stereo. I found out that the supercharged V6 version of the car used an alternator in the same location but it had a 130 amp alternator. Same wiring connections and all. So I bought one of those for the same price as a remanufactured 110 amp unit and threw it in. I picked up 20 extra amps which was plenty of extra juice to to support the stereo I had.

Keep in mind, the higher the performance of the engine and the more electronic options you have like power windows, mirrors, locks, seats, heated seats, SATNAV and so on, the less power you have available to extra stuff like aftermarket stereos.

Manilaboy

There might be something in here which could be helpful...

http://www.bcae1.com/

MacLeod

Something else is wrong. Even a stock Civic charging system should be plenty for powering a system under normal listening conditions.

Recheck all your wiring, fusing and overall installation.

Serendipity

Lasareath wrote: »

You need a New Battery or a new Alternator

I'd think a new or bigger alternator too.

eloplayspolo

k i woke up read this, went outside, disconected the Class D so that only the 4 chan was connected, no cap envolved, less power, etc.

When i get to about volume 20, with the gain set at half, really loud but not ear bleed level, the music will cut out shortly and then start again, no short light or protect light on the amp,
im using 4 gage ground cable and 4 gage power cable. My ground is in the same place that the air bags are ground.

audiobliss

Have you set your gains correctly? Half way sounds pretty high to me.

eloplayspolo

k took care of the problem im pretty sure, my input sens was at 10x and with 4v preouts i was forcing it to clip.

Now another problem, im pretty sure that the rear speakers are touching the dynamat and the metal in order for it to work back there, i would have to cut the metal, so im thinking im just gonna go ahead and finish the front and see if want rear speakers and let me passangers hear it because i have people in my back seat prob 4 or 5 times a week.

eloplayspolo

k nope lol, both amps say there is a short

MacLeod

Ill bet thats the problem. The outer coating of the Dynamat will short out speaker leads if theyre touching.

Take the speakers out of the doors and crank the volume up and see if that does the trick. If it does then youre going to have to figure out something. Maybe take the Dynamat off directly behind the speakers.

black magic

MacLeod wrote: »

Something else is wrong. Even a stock Civic charging system should be plenty for powering a system under normal listening conditions.

Recheck all your wiring, fusing and overall installation.

I agree. I have 3 amps right now running of my civic's stock battery and alternator (haven't had a chance to install the h.o. alternator yet). The amps are drawing a little over 1400 watts (160 amps) without a problem unless I turn up the subs a lot - then the lights will dim, and you can definitely tell there is no where near enough power on reserve. Even though I'm short on power, i dont run into the same problem as you.

You can also try finding something to cover the speaker leads like Mac suggested.

Installer4life

You should have enough power on hand to drive the amps in your signature. If these are the ones in your system then the problem exist somewhere else. The 4 channel is running 4 ohms per channel and high frequencies. I seriously doubt it will even come close to its max current draw at these frequencies playing music. 50% or less. I have a 95 watt per channel amp that draws 20 amps into 4ohms per channel with a sign wave and ony 6 amps into the same load playing music with highpass filter at 80 hz.

eloplayspolo

yeah mac i was thinking the same thing, im just gonna unplug the rear for nwo and finish the front, but i dont know why the subs woudl shut off too....

MacLeod

You may want to use another ground spot as well. Youve got some solid power being put out and that ground location should be solid as well. Find a good spot where you can sand down the paint to bare metal and drill out some holes and use some heavy duty bolts. That may not fix your problem but its still a good thing to do.

black magic

The first time I installed an amp, it kept turning off when I'd turn up the volume past a certain point. The problem was b/c of a bad ground. So Mac has a good point.

eloplayspolo

k right now, i just have sub and amp connected to a dist block, and they are both grounded to diffrent locations. When i turn the volume up the amp cuts out and plays again (i think its clipping) im only connected to 1 speaker right now and the gain is set at half the volume is on 15 of 35, sub stays on no dimming lights

eloplayspolo

i guess there is always suicide...

black magic

eloplayspolo wrote: »

k right now, i just have sub and amp connected to a dist block, and they are both grounded to diffrent locations.

I'm not sure I quite understand this part... you grounded your sub? And it is usually a better idea to use the same grounding location.

eloplayspolo

sorry class D and 4 chan are connected to dis block and they are grounded in seperate locations. i gota queston though, my whole inside of my car is a coper colored metal, i dont think its paint... or is it

eloplayspolo

any way that a fuse could be the reason that the sound is cutting out at high volumes?

exalted512

Most certainly can be the fuse. Do you have a multimeter? If so, check the resistance of the ground, it needs to be about .3 or less ideally.
-Cody

eloplayspolo

The fuse at the battery is 80, the Class D has (2) 40s and the 4 chan has (3) 40s