Thread: Battery Dead.. Perhaps from the AMP?

I have an 03 GTP and I have subs and amp hooked up as well... I didn't hook the power wire for the amp to the + Terminal of the battery because it doesn't have the posts ontop of the battery, and only has side posts, so I hooked up the power wire to the big black fuse box that has the red plastic + sign on it and behind that plastic piece there is a bolt where I hooked the amp power wire to, to that fuse box.. Could that be the reason why my battery is completley dead.. It's a brand new battery and only had the battery for a max of 2 weeks.. Please help.. Thank you to those that reply.

hook it up to the side post if you need to get a extender for it
make sure your amp isn't set to be on all the time

Originally Posted by TurboTrav

hook it up to the side post if you need to get a extender for it
make sure your amp isn't set to be on all the time

How do I check to make sure the amp isn't all on the time? Besides looking at the amp to see if it's still running even after the fact the car is off, what else do I look for.. Is it possible that the remote wire is hooked up wrong causing the draw??

do you have your AMP set to be running at all times or just when the car has ignition power?

when you take the key out and open the door the amp should shut off

Originally Posted by 01GTP

Hooking it up where you did should work fine. That is where the battery cable goes.

unless you pull to much power then run the risk of a fire

Originally Posted by TurboTrav

when you take the key out and open the door the amp should shut off

Yes it shuts off.. I even checked to see if the light on the amp shuts off... I just bought a new battery and it's working fine for now, we'll have to see what happens.. I even went as far as buying a volt meter gauge to put on an A-pillar just haven't installed it yet, that will be my next mission, and that way I'll be able to monitor the voltage and keep a closer eye on it. I also checked behind the kenwood head unit and check the wiring, and it appears to be fine.. I hooked up the remote wire from the amp to the back of the head unit, along with some pink wire from the stock harness to the remote wire behind the head unit because the Bose speakers wont work if it's not connected to it, then I also hooked up the blue wire that said Constant P to those two as well and my amp works that way, and yes it shuts off as well after turning the key to the off position and opening the door, so I dont know what it could of been that killed my battery.. Also my amp is an 800 watt kenwood amp, with two 12inch Kicker comp subs... Any other suggestions? Thanks again.

Im running a California ap1060 1000 watt amp and 2 12 inch kicker comp subs and I havent had any problems, My power is connected to the Fuse box terminal as well. What do you think of thos Kicker comp subs Super?

Originally Posted by lorenzojay

Im running a California ap1060 1000 watt amp and 2 12 inch kicker comp subs and I havent had any problems, My power is connected to the Fuse box terminal as well. What do you think of thos Kicker comp subs Super?

I think those kicker comps are the awesome. They bump pretty well.. I'm happy with them.

Maybe my battery drained because I had my ipod charging in my car with the car off while I was at work, and had it charge atleast a good half hour to an hour so maybe after that, the battery was on it's way out perhaps

A new battery on its way out? You should have had it warrantied.. Free replacement on the spot if it died in two weeks.

The question is, are your amps turned on by a 12V source or signal sensing via RCA/hi-level input?

If its the former, choose a new line or run an extension off of the line for your head unit. If its auto sensing, faulty amp unless it has an adjustable sensitivity (highly unlikely).

Also, if your headunit has a demo mode, that may kill it.

These cars have a 10 min auto shutoff on the lights so you can't do too much damage to the battery.

Originally Posted by TurboTrav

unless you pull to much power then run the risk of a fire

How so? All of the fuses would blow before that could happen unless you didn't fuse your setup properly. The alternator wire is a fusible link which automatically prevents that source of overcurrent and the line you ran to your amps should be fused (for the total combined amperage of your fuses plus a safety net of say 10%) as close as possible to the power source.

If you really pull too much power, you run the risk of destroying your alt because you'd be using it to the point where it must provide lower voltage to provide the same level of current. On top of that, it'd pull power from your battery. If you really went overboard you could in theory stop your car because it wouldn't have enough power for the ignition or fuel pump. But if its all setup properly then there would be no fires.

Originally Posted by matt5112

A new battery on its way out? You should have had it warrantied.. Free replacement on the spot if it died in two weeks.

The question is, are your amps turned on by a 12V source or signal sensing via RCA/hi-level input?

If its the former, choose a new line or run an extension off of the line for your head unit. If its auto sensing, faulty amp unless it has an adjustable sensitivity (highly unlikely).

Also, if your headunit has a demo mode, that may kill it.

These cars have a 10 min auto shutoff on the lights so you can't do too much damage to the battery.



How so? All of the fuses would blow before that could happen unless you didn't fuse your setup properly. The alternator wire is a fusible link which automatically prevents that source of overcurrent and the line you ran to your amps should be fused (for the total combined amperage of your fuses plus a safety net of say 10%) as close as possible to the power source.

If you really pull too much power, you run the risk of destroying your alt because you'd be using it to the point where it must provide lower voltage to provide the same level of current. On top of that, it'd pull power from your battery. If you really went overboard you could in theory stop your car because it wouldn't have enough power for the ignition or fuel pump. But if its all setup properly then there would be no fires.

I really don't think it's my amp that's killing the car.. I took a volt meter to the battery with car off it and it was running 12.7 volts and then some, with car running it was up around 13.8 to 14.2 volts so everything is checking out fine... I'm now wondering if possibly it was a defective battery?? That's always possible right?

yeah its always a possibility

Originally Posted by matt5112

If you really pull too much power, you run the risk of destroying your alt because you'd be using it to the point where it must provide lower voltage to provide the same level of current. On top of that, it'd pull power from your battery. If you really went overboard you could in theory stop your car because it wouldn't have enough power for the ignition or fuel pump. But if its all setup properly then there would be no fires.

i've dropped the rpms pretty low a couple times, low enough to make me hit the gas