There's Something Wrong

[D'Morrow]

Recently I bought a 1994 Honda Accord, just for fuel mileage purposes. But, I ended up getting a lot more than I had planned for. I'm not a car guy by any means, and neither is anyone else in my family. But, I'm low on cash and need some helpful insight.

My car is running Dual 12" C4 X Series Special Edition subs through a 444 W Sony xPlod amp, and it's all connected through a Scosche 500k Farad capacitor. When I first got the thing, it ran perfectly, and the capacitor worked good, and it was thumpin' everywhere I went. But one day I started it up, and it wouldn't start. I was confused. I jumped the vehicle and drove it around for awhile to charge. Still, it wouldn't charge. The next day, I purchased a new battery and now it runs perfectly. But, today, I decided to head out on a little 60 mile round trip adventure, and I parked it, shut it off to go get something to eat, and I come back out, and it's completely dead. The only lights that are still working are the ignition light and the interior door lights. So, I get her jumped and I get her home, and the first thing I do is remove the o-ring connection cable that went from the farad to the battery, and I jumped it again. Let it run for about 15 minutes, and shut it off, then I restarted it. Nothing.

Now, I'm confused on what the problem is. Is it a problem with the battery terminal clamps? Do I need new ones? Is my alternator shot? Because the car won't even begin to turn over? Did my farad capacitor really drain the battery that much? I'm so lost in all of this right now. The only thing I've seen so far about my problem is that the farad capacitor was a bad idea, and that I need to remove it immediately. But, I'm so unsure of everything else. If someone or a group of people could toss out some ideas onto what is going on, whether it be electrical or whatever, that would be great.

And, if you do have a solution, please, explain it to me in the simplest way possible, as I mentioned above, I am not a car guy, and it's really starting to show.

Thanks,

D'Morrow

[EricR]

Buy a new alt, new batteries and ditch the crapacitor

[D'Morrow]

The battery is brand new, as in like.. A week new.

[Guest]

ditch the cap.

[EclipseChris]

Do you know how to use a volt meter?

If so run the car with the amp and cap and everything like that disconnected and make sure the voltage is around 14.4 give or take like .6

This means that your charging system is in working order.

Now with the car off and let it sit maybe an hour or two, check the resting voltage by just checking the voltage on the battery car not running nothing on in the car. Still with the audio disconnected. If it is around 12.5 give or take .6 again your fine. This means your battery is fine.

If both are fine then the problem is in either the amp or cap.

I have had a case where one of my amps had died and it drained my battery, QUICKLY too. So try these things and maybe you'll learn something new.

[D'Morrow]

Yeah, I can sure use a volt meter. Alright, well, so far that seems to be a reasonable answer.

But, if the amp is crapping out, will it drop all the power that's in the capacitor as well? Wouldn't that cause the capacitor to pull more power from the battery? Correct me if I'm wrong. Not sure how this all works.

[EclipseChris]

Yeah, I can sure use a volt meter. Alright, well, so far that seems to be a reasonable answer.

But, if the amp is crapping out, will it drop all the power that's in the capacitor as well? Wouldn't that cause the capacitor to pull more power from the battery? Correct me if I'm wrong. Not sure how this all works.

If the amp is bad, and grounding out, then the cap is always giving it power (until the cap is dead). Caps are comparable to batteries. So if the amp is fried then it is taking current all the time from the battery and the cap at the same time. The main battery is trying to recharge the cap when the car is off which means the battery is discharging twice as fast. This is another reason people on this site hate caps.

Give it a try, maybe the cap fried the alternator. This is the main reason people hate caps because that happens.

[D'Morrow]

I checked with the volt meter, there's a little juice left in the battery. Now, I'm currently jumping the car again and attempting to recharge the battery.

[B4SSB0Y]

Like above posters said ditch the cap, check to see if your alt is charging correctly. If it is reading right try try just the amp without the cap and go from there.. Honestly it sounds like its either a bad alt or a bad charging cable from the alt, could also be bad connections on the exciter wires of the alt (check the small plug that plugs into the alt if after jumping the car your voltage isnt reading 13.5-14.5 volts.

Edit as you posted while i was writing:

Seeings the battery was mostly discharged borrow a battery charger if you can and charge it for a few hours at a low amp rate to get a good charge.

Edited July 7, 2010 by B4SSB0Y

[D'Morrow]

I'll have to do that. I'm currently charging the battery up right now. I'm checking it momentarily to read the levels on the volt meter. Will a bad alternator cause the battery to go dead? Because now the battery is charging up. You said to check the alternator, do I do this the same way I checked the battery?

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Edit -

I'd hate to double post. But, I checked the battery on the volt meter while the vehicle was running, it was great after it charged for about 15 minutes. I even turned on the lights and the heater, and it didn't take up much of the power from the battery. It ran smoothly. Then, I turn it off and the interior door lights begin to dim wayyy down. I go to restart it and it won't even turn over.

Now what do I do?

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Edit Edit -

I'd hate even more to triple post. But, I've done a lot of little tests and Team-Atomic-Andrew and I talked for some time on the cause of it. So, as of right now, I am going to remove all of the hardware, and check for the source of the problem from there. Maybe because the remote line was never fed to the radio and the amp never turned off? I'm going to borrow a clamp meter and try to check all of the lines that way. But, in the end I may just sell all the hardware and end up getting matching stuff. But, hopefully I'll find the source(s) of the problem. Thanks guys, if anyone may have another source to the problem. Lemme know.

Edited July 7, 2010 by D'Morrow