Rep Power: 244

Just made a jump up from an alpine mrp350(350 watts rms) which i had powering my sub to a kicker 550.3(~550 watts rms) which powers my components and a sub. The problems is the amp cuts out whenever the voltage changes like when I open my windows or step on the gas/brake, I have a radar detector and it shows my cars voltage. Its fine though when I'm cruising at a steady speed. Im pretty sure its not the ground/power wires. Any ideas how to fix this or what the problem is?

 
Rep Power: 246

You are trying to pull too many amps through too small a guage of wire.

The wire you used to hook up your amp is insufficient.

What did you use, and how is it wired? Where is it grounded?

 
Rep Power: 244

Its hooked up with 4 gauge wire and I drilled a hole and sanded the paint where its grounded. Its grounded to a part of the frame behind the rear seats

 
Rep Power: 246

4 guage to where? Direct to the battery, or to some other point?

 
Rep Power: 258

geez 4 gauge should be cutting it. but like toaster said where is it going. do u have 4 gauge wires all the way from ur amp to the battery or does it cut off and turn into a smaller gauge.

 
Rep Power: 244

its 4 gauge from the battery to fuse to amp and 4 gauge from amp to ground

 
Rep Power: 351

make sure ur grounding it well... not just some small contact point...

 
Rep Power: 249

it may be your alternator going out. either that or check your battery. if they check out fine let me know and ill tell you what else to check and diagnose.

 
Rep Power: 290

put a voltmeter on your car and take readings with the system on and see what it drops to when you do what normally makes the amp cut out. if the voltage drops a ton, you may need a bigger alternator.

this is proabably a stupid question, but i hope you did upgrade the ground wire from the battery to the chassis....didn't you? the stock cable is not 4ga. if you're running 4ga for the stereo system, you need at least 4ga if not 2ga for the battery to chassis ground. the battery to chassis ground could be your bottleneck if you didn't upgrade it.

 
Rep Power: 232

my power wire is 5 gauge with a dist block with a 8 gauge going to my amp

 
Rep Power: 290

what does that have to do with this thread?

 
Rep Power: 244

yea i did the big 3 upgrade with 4 gauge wire. amp cuts off when the voltage changes quickly like going from 14.1v <---> 12.1v or something close. Maybe something to do with the alternator coming on and off?

I suspect it may be the battery its oem and theres no "green eye" i dont know when the battery was last replaced, it might even be the original battery from 01 getting it checked out soon and probably replaced

 
Rep Power: 290

yeah, your voltage shouldn't jump that much. get the battery checked out.