Well since its been cold out, my max would have a hard start.
I recent bought a new 12" Sub (other one blew out) and some midrange speakers for the back. Now for the past couple days my max had to be jump started about 3 times. I also notice that if i dont drive/start the car for about a day, it wont start. My best guess for this problem is the new audio stuff that got put in is somehow draining the battery when the car is totally off. And No I didnt leave the dome light on or anything. I was wondering if this is possible?? Its either that or my starter is dying and its a coincidence. Any guesses on what the problem is??

 

What are you using as the turn on trigger? In other words what is powering the remote turn on lead of the amp?

 

Im sorry im not too electronically inclined. All my audio equipment was put on by a shop so I wouldn't know.

Heres the stuff on my car:
Kenwood KDC-719 HU
Lanzar Tweeters and 6.5s in the front
7" Microvision In dash LCD Screen
DVD/TV Tuner
6.5s in the back
500W Amp
1 Farad Cap
12 Eclipse Sub

 

nice sub, interesting selection on other equipment though, a bit mix and matched as far as quality of companies.

 

i'd take it back to the shop and tell them your problem, since it occured after they installed everything. it shouldn't drain your battery, IF the shop installed everything correctly.

 

The cap is a waste of money for that amount of power. Especially with a good sized factory alternator. The shop may have drained your battery during the install test phase.

The fact that when the battery sits without being recently charged by the alternator, and then does not have enough power to start the car indicates a couple possible problems. One is that the battery is old or the water level is low. Or it has one or more bad cells. Another possiblity is a slow drain on the battery. Any bad wiring in the car can cause this but I would check the recently installed equipment first. You can do a test to determine the current draw with everythng including the engine off. But you need a multimeter.

Also a standard power cap will have a slow drain effect on the battery. With a good condition battery and working charging system it should not be enough to worry about unless the car will be sitting over one month.

 

might also want to check how many volts the alternator is putting out with the engine on. should around 14.4 volts with a properly operating alternator.

 

I had the alternator replaced about 2 years ago because there was a recall.
Im going to go have the audio shop take a look at it tomorrow i guess. Thanks for the feedback guys

 

Before I had the cap, I was getting noticable dimming from the headlights as well as dash lights. The cap remedied that problem.

 

If you had dimming with 500 watts you have very serious wireing problems. What class is the amp? What ohm load is it pushing? How much power can it produce into that load? What type and size power cable are you useing? How long is the cable from battery positive to amp and from amp to ground? How many D-blocks and fuses do you have in line? What style are the D-blocks and fuses / fuseholders? Did you just get the system or is it all new?

There are about another 100 questions on the top of my head. But I'll see where the answers to these lead first.

 

seems like your alternator is starting to go bad. i have about 680 watts (using no caps) and experience no dimming what-so-ever. the stock alternator can support a fairly big system.

 

Not if you have a dead battery, coroded terminals, or a bad ground someplace.

The stock alternator can support a very large system with proper wireing.

 

would a bad ground drain the battery???

 

I'd like to know this too...

 

What is a a bad ground? A bad connection or a connection to a place that does not have god conductivity back to the battery. Any time you have a bad connection or a bad ground the resistance to the flow of electrons is greater. More current is needed to complete the circuit. The current, voltage, whatever, has to come from the alternator or the battery.

- Sorry , forgot to mention that this is only when the circuit is on. So if it is something that is not on when the engine is off it shouldn't kill the battery. But it could kill the charging system, the alternator.

Corroded battery terminals can prevent a battery from charging and keep the car from starting.

 

i cleaned and scraped every ground point a could find under the hood and my lights brighten very slighly still when im at idle and i rev the gas so does the speed of the blower motor when the heater is on, what else can cause this??

 

That is most likely the normal set point for the alternator. In the 4th gen the alt produces enough current at idle to keep the lights from dimming.

 

i feel better now