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Subs causing car to lose power

bezz

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Bezz! yeah really good. just bought a VYII SS! goes a bit better than the VS. lol! new job in procurement is kicking it too! urself?
not bad! glad to hear you're doing well man... sounds like u scored a wicked job too! Me I'm still kickin on at uni and still pov because of it. Only 18 months left! :w00t:
 

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Denno: OK mate, whats the amp grounded to? how long is the cable?

So to clairfy, I have 4ga running from positive on battery to power in amp, and 4ga running from ground on amp to negative of battery.


Grounded to the battery.
I would try using an earth as close to the amp as possible. Make sure it has good contact with the metal
 

Denno

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Thanks Philthy, I will try that tomorrow. Next time I thin I will stick with my gut and not buy the extra long wire to run back to the negative, would have saved myself around 40bucks :S, oh well, lesson learnt, don't trust salesmen lol.

garfa: I would have no idea what it is grounded too, nor how long it is lol. I tried having a look at where the cables go the other day, but could really work out what was what. I can say though, it is completely stock, so I'm guessing the answer to your question is, the same as every other vx commodore?

Thanks heaps for the help so far guys, hopefully we can work out the cause of this soon, cuz I don't like driving aorund with my bass turned down :( lol.
 

dijm8

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lol thankyou dani-el bahaha, but you have heard them, would you take them out if you were in my position?? No, thats what I thought :p haha. Now go to work :)

lol shut up luke, yeh they do sound good and dosent rattle either which is gr8 :p, but id rather listen to my exhaust :yeah:
 

Denno

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to each their own daniel, to each their own :)
 

Tasmaniak

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Reality is, 4GA should be ok....barely, but it will suffice. The real kicker here is the earth back to the battery. For the amplifier to make power the voltage has to do two full lengths of the car running down 4GA. Get that earth to some place in the trunk. Like I say to my guys...If your earth strap is longer then 18" or so..."YOUR DOING IT WRONG!"

You know the baby seat anchor bolt make an AWESOME earth point! Now, with all that extra cable you, you will upgrade the Battery negative to earth as well! Run a short length from the negative post on the battery straight to the nearest peice of metal on the body you can find...scratch of some paint and screw it tight.... It's all well and good to take the voltage out...but useless if you can't put it back in as fast as you can take it out!
 

Denno

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Reality is, 4GA should be ok....barely, but it will suffice. The real kicker here is the earth back to the battery. For the amplifier to make power the voltage has to do two full lengths of the car running down 4GA. Get that earth to some place in the trunk. Like I say to my guys...If your earth strap is longer then 18" or so..."YOUR DOING IT WRONG!"

You know the baby seat anchor bolt make an AWESOME earth point! Now, with all that extra cable you, you will upgrade the Battery negative to earth as well! Run a short length from the negative post on the battery straight to the nearest peice of metal on the body you can find...scratch of some paint and screw it tight.... It's all well and good to take the voltage out...but useless if you can't put it back in as fast as you can take it out!

Thankyou mate. I thought i got screwed over by the jaycar guy, clearly he doesn't know what he's on about. Might be ok though, bcuz it means I can upgrade the wiring (pretty much cabling lol) inside the engine bay.
 

commsirac

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I can't see that fixing/improving the wiring to the amp is going to achieve anything in terms of the motor losing power.
Improving the wiring will only lower the resistance and cause more electrical drain on the system(making the problem happen more easily), I think you need to look elsewhere., however, making sure of the battery to earth connection and other earths of engine related electrical components are good is a prudent check.
Load on the alternator, even at max load the alternator is going to draw ~1.2kW or so, and thats only additional for peaks..its probably producing half of that the rest of the time......its simply not enough load to feel a noticeable difference in power.
Where would I be looking: at how the motor can lose power:
1. spark
2. fuel/injector pressure
3. electronic control of fuel mixture
Depending on how low the voltage goes on peaks, there could be a problem in the electrical connections to any of the above 3 that creates too low a voltage on the component in question when the voltage dips on peaks.
 

garfa

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Your still alive?! LOL
How is the US going?

For the newbs here: "." knows what he is talking about. Listen to the man, he helped me very much.

Reality is, 4GA should be ok....barely, but it will suffice. The real kicker here is the earth back to the battery. For the amplifier to make power the voltage has to do two full lengths of the car running down 4GA. Get that earth to some place in the trunk. Like I say to my guys...If your earth strap is longer then 18" or so..."YOUR DOING IT WRONG!"

You know the baby seat anchor bolt make an AWESOME earth point! Now, with all that extra cable you, you will upgrade the Battery negative to earth as well! Run a short length from the negative post on the battery straight to the nearest peice of metal on the body you can find...scratch of some paint and screw it tight.... It's all well and good to take the voltage out...but useless if you can't put it back in as fast as you can take it out!
 

JohnKorn

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Hey I had the same problem

YouTube - To much power being sucked by car stero

I'am running a
2X JL AUDIO w7 13.5 inch
2X JL Mono 1000:1 Amp
0 Gauge
2X3 Farad Cap
I doubled up on the batterys earth
double earth the amps (didnt fix this problem)

I put an amp / volt metre on my car.... when the subs kicked it was Drawing so much power it was taking the voltage below 12 volts which means the car is giving up systems to keep everything going..

I kept losing "ABS and ESP"

(note dont let your car keep doing this as it is possible to damage both your car computers)

I bought a $900 Blue top battery 2500 CCA and replace the Front battery with a 670 CCA $350 (small truck battery)

this helped with the light dim but they still did alil on crazy songs and during comps!!!


Even if you install a 2nd battery its still possible to lower your cars voltage to below 12.5 volts :) maybe try a cap.... try 2+ farad :)

you didnt go to insane with your stero but i did :$


i hope you just run 4 gauge from your block to amps.... if not replace the wire with some 0 gauge as i have seen 4 gauge glowing red when it is under to much draw and the guy was wondering why his auto vx use to stall.....
 
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