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Subs draining TOO much power...

botchla90393

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hey guys,

Last night i was on a cruise and had the system cranking for about 3 songs while the car was idling in traffic....the head unit shut off randomly while playing it and the interior and exterior lights became very very dim even when nothing was playing...i shut it off straight away when it came back on to see if my lights would brighten up more, and they didnt. so in an attempt to make my voltage rise, i revved the engine, nothing past 2500rpm because my water temp was already rising really really quickly until the thermostat kicked in and brought it back down.

my system is:
4 x rockford fosgate punch splits
1 x alpine mrp-f450 amp (8 gauge wire)
2 x alpine type s subs making 600RMS
1 x alpine mrp-m850 amp (4 gauge wire)
head unit - alpine 9881

the car (vt commodore) has never done anything like this before and i have played songs for a longer period of time and nothing would happen....im just worried that the next song i will turn up will do some more damage....

do any of you know what might have caused the lights to stay dimmed AND make the water temp rise?? what i could do to fix this problem???

thanks in advance
 

Tasmaniak

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how old is your battery?
 

commsirac

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hey guys,

Last night i was on a cruise and had the system cranking for about 3 songs while the car was idling in traffic....the head unit shut off randomly while playing it and the interior and exterior lights became very very dim even when nothing was playing...i shut it off straight away when it came back on to see if my lights would brighten up more, and they didnt. so in an attempt to make


Did things revert to normal when you shut the stereo down.?
for the head unit to switch off, it indicates that the voltage dropped very low, and along with the dimming of your lights it suggests the presence of a very large fault creating currents that are most likely due to short circuits.

Either the problem could be in the wiring that goes to your amps(fuse protected?) or an internal problem within the amps. Id try one amp at a time 1st and take it from there.

From what you describe it is not a battery problem.
 

StoneX

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Don't play the stereo loud at idle... That's how you kill things... The Alternator doesn't output much current at idle and big current draws will drop the voltage too low for products to work properly. Amplifiers can die from this.

Have your alternator and battery checked by an auto elec. They should do it free of charge if they're a good guy, as it only takes a couple of mins.
 

Luked

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With that gear you could calculate the load and then opt for a 1-2(circa) farad capacitor. Or run dual batteries with relay'd isolators off the ignition barrel.
Ensure everything is fused individually too to be safe :)
 

botchla90393

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Did things revert to normal when you shut the stereo down.?
for the head unit to switch off, it indicates that the voltage dropped very low, and along with the dimming of your lights it suggests the presence of a very large fault creating currents that are most likely due to short circuits.

Either the problem could be in the wiring that goes to your amps(fuse protected?) or an internal problem within the amps. Id try one amp at a time 1st and take it from there.

From what you describe it is not a battery problem.

the battery is prob 2 years old which would need replacing soon...was looking at the optima deep cycle batteries but theyre quite pricey for a good battery.

things did revert back to normal once the head unit was swiched off, but not instantaneously. took about 3-4 minutes before all the lights 'clicked' back on properly. i revved the engine during this stage to try and re charge the battery more but it did nothing.

All fuses are intact and nothing blew. i dont really think it would be an amp problem because the head unit power dropped and thats why the music stopped....

thanks for the replys.
 

botchla90393

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Don't play the stereo loud at idle... That's how you kill things... The Alternator doesn't output much current at idle and big current draws will drop the voltage too low for products to work properly. Amplifiers can die from this.

Have your alternator and battery checked by an auto elec. They should do it free of charge if they're a good guy, as it only takes a couple of mins.

so if i want to play music loud i have to rev the engine? lol....

and yeah ill get them checked.
 

Stretchomatic

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i dunno how much of a difference it makes but alot of the guys that do sound systems around here tell me my lights dim when bass hits because my negative cable isnt big enough.
kinda makes sense considering theres a 8 and 4 guage power and large ground cables from the amps earthing out to the chassis, so its gotta get back in somehow.
 
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