Guys, wtf? Really straight install! Remote turn on hooked up to the correct wire, all cleanly done, Alpine HU to Alpine mono amp, Clarion components in the doors. I'm baffled! Only thing I can think of is bad ground??? Yet, it all works/plays fine! Help! Had to drive the gf's car to work this morn! Checked the doome lights, etc. Do I now have a short somewhere??!

 

Obvious thing to check would be to see if the amp is on switched or constant power...

 

OK, how would I do that? Its wired into the remote turn on from the HU. The head unit does power off when the truck is turned off. I don't think there is any kind of switch on the amp.

 

the amp should turn on and off with the radio if you ran a remote turn on wire from the radio to the amp. if you have a volt meter, test the remote turn on wire and make sure that when the car is off and the head unit is off, the remote wire has 0 volts going to it. if you are getting voltage to the remote wire with the vehicle off, that is where your problem is. did you hook the remote wire to the head unit or to a fuse in the fuse box? a bad ground should not cause your amp to drain your battery, rather it would cause your amp not to turn on. describe your install set up to me the best you can. what size power wire, what size ground. are you running your power wire right to the battery and fusing it? where did you tie the remote turn on wire into? the back of the radio, the fuse box etc. give me a little more info and i may be able to help you get it figured out. the first and easiest way to see if it is the amp without all the testing is to simply unhook it ( tape off your power wire so its not exposed ) and leave it unhooked over night. if the battery drains again it is more than likely not the amp. also how old is the battery? did you have all the doors open with all the interior lights on when you were installing the system? if so you could have simply drained it from drawing current off of it for so long. sorry about the long post just trying to help cover all the bases.

 

wow, grt answer, i appreciate it a lot! ok...

the amp should turn on and off with the radio if you ran a remote turn on wire from the radio to the amp. if you have a volt meter, test the remote turn on wire and make sure that when the car is off and the head unit is off, the remote wire has 0 volts going to it. if you are getting voltage to the remote wire with the vehicle off, that is where your problem is. all good points, will run this test if i need to (i'll explain why i may not)did you hook the remote wire to the head unit or to a fuse in the fuse box? a bad ground should not cause your amp to drain your battery, rather it would cause your amp not to turn on. describe your install set up to me the best you can. what size power wire, what size ground. yes, fuse in line of the 8 gauge power and ground, remote turn on from the deck (correct wire). real simple and clean, power off the batt with inline fuse, remote off the deck, rca's off deck and ground off the amp.are you running your power wire right to the battery and fusing it? where did you tie the remote turn on wire into? the back of the radio, the fuse box etc. give me a little more info and i may be able to help you get it figured out. the first and easiest way to see if it is the amp without all the testing is to simply unhook it ( tape off your power wire so its not exposed ) and leave it unhooked over night. if the battery drains again it is more than likely not the amp. again, good tips. when i got home the batt was fully charged and the same thing...i turn the key on and nothing! so i knew it was not the battery, prolly never was, prolly was charged this morning too i just didn't check once i put it on the charger b/c i was late for work and it was just the assumption i made. i disconnected everything including the radio from the harness and the amp from the batt and still same thing. nothing. well, this time the idiot lights would come on in the first position of the key then go all dark and dead when i tried to start it. no power at all. batt is a year old, yellow top optima. also how old is the battery? did you have all the doors open with all the interior lights on when you were installing the system? if so you could have simply drained it from drawing current off of it for so long. doors open, dome lights were off. you covered a lot of good ground. sorry about the long post just trying to help cover all the bases.


Now here is the kicker.... after doing nothing other then taking the key in and out of the ignition and turning it like an idiot i got it to light up the idiot lights once in a while but when i turned it to the final position to start the car all would go dead. a called up a buddy of mine who said to disconnect the battery, the pos and neg for a few and hook it back up to "re set the computer". i disconnected the neg only first and no change then i pulled the pos and magic. starts as always! this truck has never had starting problems and matter of fact just had the 120k tune up done a week ago. so connected everything back up and drove around this evening. no issues. will see what tomorrow morning brings. i don't like this though. any suggestions???

the amp is one of those alpine mono 450 watt ones, i don't have a capacitator, stock alternator. i do have connected to the positive terminal on the battery a few accessories though. front hella 500s, rear hella optilux but either of those are rarly on and were not on yeasterday. i also have my HID's connected to the battery to operate the magnetic hi beam shield but again, i never even used my hi's last night. so i got 4 diff things off the + on the battery including the amp now making it five but other then the 2 hid connections, the other two were not activated last night. is it possible i have too much shiat connected to the pos terminal??? if so, whats my alternative? i feel like i need all those things and others have that or more w/o issues. thanks in advance a lot for any tips.
07-23-2010 12:53 PM

 

you honestly may have just forgotten to tighten the positive termianl enough when you hooked the amp wire to it, that would cuase the lights to come on but not fully start. enough power to send power to the truck but not a solid enough connection to start the truck, possibly when you took it off and re connected it it got tightened enough and now it works?

 

No, the + terminal has an extra/additional post on it that all my accessories are tighten down on so thats what i loosened and made sure to tighten down.

really bizzare, never had anything like this happen before. i'm kinda worried about it happening again or worse yet, messing something up permanently all the while. but really, this is all very straight forward and cleanly done. only thing that may be or worry is all the things connected to the + termianl but they are not all on at once, ever. i think a power capacitator is just a band aid and i do not need it anyways for 450watts, plus i know my problem is unique and not your ordinary weak batt, alt, not charging, draining issue. i will get a power distribution block just to clean things up i think, just run 0 gauge off the + to the block and then all the accessories off that..... doubt that will help (not that apperantly theres a problem now, b/c i've been driving it last night and this morn and it starts fine).

i'm just wondering what the hell happened? it was fine right after install then the next day it was completely dead (no warning lights, no power at all) the the idiont lights come on intermittedly yet still no power and no turning over then i disconnect the positive off the batt and magic? it all works? ugh....

 

take your truck somewhere and have the alternator tested. could honestly have a bad alternator and its not charging the truck enough to keep it running, only reason im saying that is the intermitent lights on the dash. might as well get a voltage draw test done on the battery while your at it.

 

Cell in my battery went bad when I was listening to my subs with the truck off,It will kill batterys

 

mazda, i don't think thats the prob.....like i said the batt was NOT dead (i assumed it was and threw it on the charger w/o checking if it actually was).

well, i has not happened since, i'm just hoping i'm slowly not damaging something or that it does not happen again.

 

did you clean the terminals? could be corrosion of the battery cables ends or the terminals were dirty. Make sure they are clean and take a look at your positive cable. Sometimes the wire corrodes inside the first inch of the cable.

 

Good tip....i'll check out the whole + cable but the connections are CLEAN, even have the purple anti corrosion fluid on them/dilectic grease.

Seems to be starting fine now. I think i will make a new post to see how you guys deal with connecting multiple things to the + on the battery.

 

run a 4 gauge lead off the positive terminal into a fused distribution block. then you have plenty of options to add stuff, and it keeps it cleaner.

 

ya, thats a real good idea!