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k i dont think this is an audio form or wutever.. but my civic is a 2001, and i was wondering if anybody had a problem with thier car stalling after you hooked up ur amplifier. my car started to stall like 5 minutes after i connected my power cable to my battery; my amp worked but after about 5 minutes, my RMP droped to about 300-500 rmp (normally its about 700) then it stalled on me. its not the battery because i replaced it the next day but it still happend after, so do u think its the alternator??? if it is, how do i fix it? or do i need to replace it enable to have a sound system?

help please.. thanks

 
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I would think that the connections to the battery r not tight. Its happened to me b4 my car would just lose power and stall and I was like WTF?!! And it was a loose battery terminal connection.

The addition of an amp alone would never make ur car act like this. It could b the alt I guess but I think that would b fine cuz the battery is. bring ur car to Pep boys or whatever and ask them to check ur alt to c if its working.

 
Rep Power: 275

Well if the alternator is bad and you dont replace it, youll just run down your battery and need another one every week. I havent heard of it being caused by the amp, but a dead alternator+amp will probably cause that problem. Have the alternator checked, its not an expensive fix. Also, depending on your setup, you might be running too much power for your alternator to handle.

 
Rep Power: 452

before you go and get the alternator checked, Remove the power cable that you installed at the battery and see if your car stays running. If it does, you dont have a bad alternator. My guess would be something is hooked up wrong. But if the same thing happens, then go have the alternator checked.

Can you restart the car after it stalls out? If you can, again its not the alternator. And like soonercivic said, you may have to much power for that small alternator to handle.

 
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i dont think its loose battery terminals because i tightened it really tight, and the problem happens even if only the *amp turn on wire* is connected and the *power cable* isnt connected. Yes, my car turns on and runs normally if neither of the 2 wires are not connected. my friend says that it might be the alternator: he said the alternator might be messed up and its only putting out 2/3 of its intended amperage or something. do you think its that? oh and i dont think its hooked up wrong because the nextday i hooked it up, the ONLY wire i connected was the power cable, and i didnt plug in the fuse, and it stalled, (the next day i hooked up everything and the car stalled, then the day after, i took out the power cable and left the AMP TURN ON wire connected, and the same thing happend.) my car is driving me CRAZY!!! HELP!

 
Rep Power: 264

yea but dropping the battery out may cause a voltage spike and hurt the alternator, just go have it load tested at autozone for free

 
Rep Power: 275

What kinda system are you running amp wise?

 
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what do u mean by dropping the battery out? yeah ill proabley get the free test thing, but do i have to take out the alternator? or are they just goign to hook up some stuff to the battery terminals?

and im running (or was running) a kenwood 7201 amp.. its only 460 RMS.. but that doesnt matter because my car messed up even if only the power cable *OR* the AMP TURN ON WIRE is connected to the sources (but the wires are not hooked up to the amp)... its stalls. my friend said she had a problem liddat too, and it was her alternator... so im screwed.. no sounds for my junk unless i spend like $300 to replace the alternator.

oh by the way, is there a way to fix an alternator problem without replacing it? (im low on money)

thanks!

 
Rep Power: 452

I didnt mean remove it with the car still running, remove it with the car off and then turn it back on and see if it stays running. If it doesnt stall out after 5 minutes or like it did before then the alternator isnt the problem. Yea I wouldnt ever remove a battery cable with the car running. You are correct, it does cause a voltage spike. Sorry if I didnt clarify.

I think he thought I meant to remove the battery with it still running, alot of techs used to do that with older cars to test the alternator, but with the high tech computer systems that cars have theses days, doing that could send unwanted voltage all over the car and damage electrical components. Especially the PCM since it cant take high voltage. To test the alternator, they test for the amp output at 2000 RPM to see if its doing its job. they will usually hook up a VAT machine to the battery. But stalling out doesnt necessarily mean a bad alternator. You could have other problems with the car. If the alternator is not charging the battery, once the car dies and you try and restart it, you will just get a clicking sound because the battery will be dead and there wont be enough power to send to the starter. that is why I asked if you could start the car after it happened. Its possible that you have a fuel issue delivery issue, problem with the timing, something clogged. based on what happens after it dies, depends on where you start diagnosing. No need to take it to get the alternator tested if the car starts right back up after it stalls out, you would have to look for other causes for the stalling.

Now if the alternator is indeed the problem, you dont necessarily have to replace it. You can rebuild it. You can pull it apart and test everything inside the alternator to see what is bad. An easy test would be to test for the presensce of AC voltage at the battery. if there is more then .5 VAC at the battery, then you have diodes that failed. But doing the rebuild requires some skill and knowledge of the alternator. You may have a part that failed that only cost like $5, or its possible the failed part was $150. usually mechanics are the only ones who will rebuild there own alternators, usually for customers its more cost effective just to replace it. The time and labor to rebuild it is not worth it to the customer.