loss of power

I have been having a serious problem with my system/hu recently. I have had my 02 protege for about a year now and since the first week i have had my system in the car, but here recently i have had a problem with my hu cutting off when i come to a stop and when this happens once i cut my car off i usually have to jump the car off.

I have a jvc sh55 head unit , 2 12in mtx thunder6000, a rockford fosgate punch 250a, and a 1 farad cap that i bought of e-bay for $30 bucks. everything was bought brand new when i bought the car except the amp that i have had for about 2 years now.

once this happened the first time i came to a stop and the radio shut down like i turned the power off ( it came up and said "goodbye") and when i took off the radio turned back on. there was some dimming of the lights and instrument cluster, also my windows rolled up very slowly. i have figured out that once i unhooked the amp ( and let the battery charge for about 15 min) the problem went away.

I thought that buying the cap, especally since i'm not pushing that much power, would keep the amp from putting so much strain on the battery?

anyways, does anyone have any ideas or solutions to the problem. any help would be greatly apprecieated

That really sucks. Someone should be along shortly to help you. Welcome to the board and thanks for posting in the right section.

a cap only helps stabilize the current in your system so the alternator's regulator doesn't get over worked

How powerfull is the 250a? Its not a huge amp if I remember correctly and it shouldn't be putting that much strain on your system.

You may have a ground loop somewhere, did you do the install yourself?

the 250 a is a 2 channel amp with i believe 4something rms when bridged. i did do the install myself ( probally about my 20th install and i have never had this problem before, also never installed in a pro beforef) i can't remember exactly where i grounded the amp but i will look ( it was somewhere i got from a thread on this forum though.

SOunds like your alternator is scraped. Put a multimeter across the battery terminals while the car is off and while the car is running. without the radio on each time.
Then turn on the radio while the car is running and measure the battery voltage again.

This will tell you if there is a charging problem or if the battery has been deep cycled.

For the deck to actualy say goodbye then cut out is weird s*** unless it has an off trigger wire which I doubt. I think it may have a frared wire in the harness or something.

1st MP3 in NH said:

SOunds like your alternator is scraped. Put a multimeter across the battery terminals while the car is off and while the car is running. without the radio on each time.
Then turn on the radio while the car is running and measure the battery voltage again.

This will tell you if there is a charging problem or if the battery has been deep cycled.

For the deck to actualy say goodbye then cut out is weird s*** unless it has an off trigger wire which I doubt. I think it may have a frared wire in the harness or something.

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Thats what i thought at first but i unhooked the amp and have not had a single problem since. while i was doing this i did a test to see if it was the alternator by unhooking the battery while the motor was running and it did not die. but it sounds like i better take it up to autozone to let them check that bad boy out.

thanks

The battery may be a the issue. I would remove all the audio. DIsconnect the power wire at the battery for the amps and remove the radio totaly! Then take it for a drive.

could the wiring have some kind of a short? or something that is grounding out?

disconnect your amp, and take your car to autozone or some other shop that will test your battey for free. they'll load test the battery to see if it's holding a good charge, and they'll also be able to test if the voltage is staying high enough when the car is running. if both things check out ok, then it's most likely problems with the amp. the power supply of it could be screwed i had a problem with an older amp that had some of the same symptoms. and the problem with the amp was that the mosfet power supplies would never shut off, which killed my battery when i shut it off, and when the amp was running they sucked down more power than normal but first check the battery and alt. those are still under warranty

This used to happen to my old galant and it had something to do with the alternator, after countless trips to the mechanic I decided to remove the sound system and the problem went away, I'm guessing that the alt was not working properly and couldn't take the extra strain from the amp I had at that time.