CKNY

iTrader: (1)

Oh boy. If this week hasn't been bad enough with the check engine light I got for the vacuum valve, here's a new one. Last night I'm driving home from work and going 80 mph on the parkway and my car just shut off, lights, everything just shut off. Luckily, the steering did not lock and I was able to brake and pull off to the side of the right without causing an accident. *phew* This proceeded to happen 4 more times the rest of the night. While playing with the battery terminals I noticed that it appears to be the positive battery terminal and possibly, the red thing that attaches to the pos terminal. What is that? If I jiggle it I can get some really nice sparks - and then it'll start up again. Today I tightened all the connections at the battery really well and it happened one more time. *sigh* any ideas? anything? Why would this happen? I just installed a 500 watt amp this week, one day before all of this - is it possible it's putting TOO much of a strain on my electrical system or battery or something?

I'm at such a loss here. Someone please help, this is really dangerous to drive.

TIA

Daniel B. Martin

Some auto parts stores offer a no-cost charging system test. This is done
with an electronic test instrument and takes only two minutes. Please get
this test done.

You may have to replace the battery and both battery cables.

CKNY

iTrader: (1)

I hope it's something this simple!! I'll go to the auto store tommorow and get the charging test done.

I'll keep ya updated! thanks for the quick reply daniel.

Yellowbrother

could it be ur alternator?... the very first time when i messed with my bose system trying to install aftermarket amp and sub to it... the next nite i wasn't able to start the car... got a jump from a friend and it started again... but on the way home all the lites went out for a second but the engine was still running... this happened maybe three time that nite no longer then a second... by the time i got home i let the car run for a bit to recharge the battery... next morning i go out to start it up and it didn't want to start... i went off to buy another battery... and everything worked cool again.. i wasn't sure if it was the amp and sub that i put in that caused this so i took it apart and reinstalled everything from scratch just in case... happy to say that nothing like that ever happened again...

CKNY

iTrader: (1)

very similar symptoms to what I had - so I'm placing my bets on the battery. Like daniel suggested I'll be doing a battery test tommorow and most likely will pick up an Optimate yellow top for the amp and the computer.

Thanks for the info yellowbrother!

nforg

Just wondering, did either of you two have the cold weather package, or whatever the package was where a more powerful battery was installed at the factory?..... it came with like heated seats and mirrors and the name of the package has been changed a couple times but I'm pretty sure a better battery was included...

Just wondering if that better battery at the factory has an actual difference in a scenario such as this..... Who knows how much that battery is different though anyways so...

-Nate

CKNY

iTrader: (1)

I did not have that package installed on my gxe.

dch95

If your battery test is good then perhaps the amp is putting enough of a strain on the system. But chances are that it,s just that your battery terminals and connections are in need of a good cleaning and that may get you back on track. If you were to put a voltage meter on the battery POSTS you may get a correct voltage reading but if you touch it to the TERMINALS/CONNECTIONS your voltage may read less due to corrosion.

MaximaRider

iTrader: (3)

You or the shop you went to get ur amp installed mite have not tightened it well enough, but 500watts shouldn't be bad, i have 1 300watt 4ch amp and another 300watt amp, with 600watts i see no problem running it all off my stock battery. Also have a friend running 1000watts off of his stock battery on his 99 GLE