The problem is as follows. I'm getting a bump through my sub whenever I draw power anywhere else, like when I turn the headlights on, power windows or locks, manual fan switch. That and my voltage gauge in constantly reading lower than normal. But when I slide my vent selector from off to defrost it really freaks out, the lights dim and the voltage drops WAY down for a sec. From my experience this can be traced to bad grounds, but I cant find any visually.

Any idea's?

Thanks,

 

A few questions
1.How big is the amp?
2.Have you taken the car to a auto parts store like Advanced Auto parts or Auto zone and had them test the alternator?
3.Does the voltage read low all of the time?
4.Does the battery drain when the car is off?
5. Assuming you have an amp for the sub, how is it grounded?
Try ruling out the simple things first.

 

1. Amp is a 600 watt Rockford Fosgate backed by a 1.5 fared Fosgate Cap.
2. Alt. is brand new 120 amp
3. My cars factory gauge reads around 12V while running where as my Alt. ouput gauge reads aprox 14.5. The gauges used to match each other.
4. No batt. drain while car is off
5. My amp/cap. are both powered and grounded by 4 gauge. The ground is run to the rear seat belt bolt. I removed the paint from the grounding surfaces before installation.

 

Do big 3. Get a better battery (deep cycle) Get a bigger alt if need be.
Do big 3 first tho it will fix your problem more then likely.
One all is done throw away the cap it will not be needed since you will have more then enough power to run that small system
I have a 1000 watt mono amp and I have done what I have said above except my alt until tomorrow and my lights are fine and nothing goes crazy. I am doing the alt as a just in case because I have had my car already die a while back and its just not fun.

 

dude everything looks good so far if u have a multi meter i would have a buddy with you and put the meter on the bat and have ur buddy play with the defroster and lights and such if u find huge bumps in the voltage i would assume its a bad battery with that size of a cap you might need to desconect it for the tests also check if the subs makes more or less sound while the cap is disconnected the cap, 4g wire and alt are all big enough im assuming somethings eather wrong with ur cap or ur battory wires

 

Thanks for the replies....

I've gone over everything... I plugged one of the "ground loop isolaters" inline my RCA's between the amp and the deck and the noise went away. So I have a feeling that my cheap RCA's are to blame.

Let me know if there is anything else you can think of.

Thanks,

 

even if you do the big three dont throw away the cap a cap gives you cleaner power not more so the big 3 wont make it useless

 

Yeah man, I know...

The whole purpose of the cap will only be enhanced by the addition of a bigger batt. and alt...

 

just makin sure lol there are way to many people that dont have a clue what a cap is for

 

well the rules for RCA cables then is you want to run them as far from power cables as possible ie the opposite side of the car a cheep ways of fixing this problem is
buy better RCA cables
try wrapping the RCA's with alumin foil
or run a small grounding cable with your RCA's

 

Yeah, I have them separated. The power wire is run down the pass. side and the RCA's are down the center tunnel. Is there any rule against running the RCA's next to the remote wire?

And could you elaborate on this ground wire for the RCA cables?


Thanks,

 

i hope not because the rca cables i bought have a remote wire made right into the middle and ive had no problems

 

Haha, ok thats what I thought. Just checking.