Car battery died, then headunit began to have problems, what could've caused it??
 

unfortunately i left my headlights on while at work for a good 5-6hrs. When i came back , battery was dead, so we jump started it.

After that...I noticed that my Pioneer headunit deh-p8200 was acting strange. When its usually off, the time is displaed int he middle of the display...in this case its just blank/black. Another thing i noticed is that when its playing music the display becomes weird like fuzzy for like 5sec, then goes to normal.


It was working absolutely fine before batteried died. What could be causing problem?? Do i need to change battery completely, or is there something wrong with the power dealing with headunit??

btw i got the GOLD series Battery from Sears.

Completely discharging a battery isn't healthy for it. It is likely the battery is damaged and may need to be replaced. It is possible that your HU's symptoms may be due to low voltage, which could be caused by damaged cells in the battery. Check the voltage, or take it to sears and have them test the battery.

When my alternator went, my Kenwood deck freaked out and just kept turning itself on, off, on, off, etc...

It's probably that your battery is toast. Buy an Optima.

im taking my car for oil change today at mechanic...so i'll ask to test the battery. At what point would i have to change the battery for HU to function properly? if voltage is less then half??

thanks

I varies from head unit to head unit, amp to amp, etc. But regardless you should have at least 12.3, 12.5, something above 12 volts with the engine off. You may just need to charge the battery fully. Before trying to turn the stereo on again. It takes a while to charge the battery with the stock alternator. The sears battery should be able to take a few discharges before replacement. It will never function optimally after a discharge, but even a marginally operating stock battery will work fine for a few years or more.

Unless you get an Optima Deep Cycle Battery...you can discharge those suckers 100's of times, and the battery works just as well.

I have an Optima Yellow-Top....costs me $169, but it was well worth it.

IanS

Dollar for dollar, CCA for CCA, and recharge for recharge I think the Westco's blow the optima's away.

Though deep cycle batteries hold up better through discharges, they are not immune to damage. I wouldn't recommend draining them all the way if not necessary. For a car with a moderate sized system, any old battery should do just fine. Unless you need a very high capacity battery for some reason, I wouldn't shell out 3x the money for an optima or some other expensive battery. If the old one does end up being bad, just get a same model replacement, under warranty perhaps.

How much are the Westco batteries?

I need to replace mine, it's very bad, 67k miles/4 years old... still running the factory battery. Plus I am installing my stereo soon and will need something that will hold up to like 900Watts or so.

They are generally less expensive than the streetwires batteries. And they have more battery sizes to choose from. I have seen them for sale on the net but the prices weren't much better than buying from a local shop. Once you add shipping of a heavy battery to the price, it's probably no better than buying locally. The battey in the review below is a small battery, for a civic probably. These are sealed batteries so they can be mounted on their side or upside down if you were to need that option.

http://www.carsound.com/reviews/power/svr5012.html
www.westcobattery.com