Amp sub doesn't hit as hard sometimes...

Lately I've been having a problem with my sub being a lot softer than usual. I'm pretty sure it's the amp that's the problem, but I'm not sure how to fix it. It will work fine one day, then later not work as well. Today on the way home from school it was doing that but by the time I got home it was loud again, it slowly got louder. This didn't start happening til I put the switch in the 12v lead and my battery died, so I dont know which one of those two could have caused it, please help!

oh i meant to just put sub in the title, not amp, that sounds stupid...

your battery or alternator could be bad .... or one of your subs could be going bad (voice coil). What kind of amp and sub(s) do you have ?

First thing.. do you have a capacitor on the amp power leads??? You really need a 1/2 farad or 1+ cap, second are you still using the car battery that is used for everything else in the car??? Try to install a larger (truck) battery, if you can or install a second battery with a battery isolator as close to your amp(s) as possible with good heavy guage wires. You can install a lot of batteries under the car-truck in a lot of places with brackets, I have 3 truck batteries in my BMW all mounted behind the front bodykit and 2 ga wire running from 2 of the batteries to the trunk where my amps are mounted all sheilded inside 3/4" sealtite flexible condiut with 2 - 1 farad caps mounted within 6" of the amps. the isolator allows all batteries to be charged when driving but the battery running the amps wont discharge the starting battery when running the amps and not charging.

Uh oh, a certain few members on here will probably discuss those caps...*cough* *bumpin*...

Later

-Ryan

Caps are useless, you dont know what your talking about. And DO NOT just throw a large truck battery on your stock electrical system. A truck battery with 900CCA on an elec. sys. that is designed to charge a 400CCA will kill your alternator. Sounds like somethin Paul said. answer his questions

i dont have a capacitor, nor an extra battery, and i dont have the money for one. It's a fosgate p2002 amp and some older model kicker sub, and yes i know im probly over powering the hell out of it, but oh well, not a big deal considering the sub was free. It most likely is the battery being dead, because I had to jump it again because I left the switch to my amp on once again. Hopefully once the alternator recharges the battery more it will work better. thanks

on top of the fact that deep cycle marine batteries are the best. Reserve capasity is what matters, not CCA or CA...

You are using a switch to turn your amp on and off? Isnt that done by the decks remote wire? Sounds to me like the reason your batt is dying is because there is a parasitic drain somewhere. The amp may be bad, and doing this to you. Check all your wiring, and hook up a remote wire, so you dont forget to turn your amp off, and get stranded.

parasitic drain...?? no i just forget to turn it off sometimes. how do i hook up a remote wire?

Remote is usually the blue wire on your hu. I had 4 amps in my old truck (all below 300) 3 sub amps one for 4 speakers. I had one with the hu remote and the rest i ran off a fuse block from the battery to seperate switches so i could turn subs on or off. They also dont recomend running to many remotes off of your hu i cant remember the reason but it was on my old panasonic cq-dfx983u.

you dont need to run more than one remote wire from your H/U. Just run one, an tap, or use the terminals from a amp.

Thats what i did in my first car i was just doing that because the hu instructions said not to run more than 2 amps off of the hu remote. Anyways it was so i could turn 3 of the amps on or off.

Ok, I know which one is the remote wire, I just use that as my accessory wire, from my HU straight to my amp?

just splice into the remote wire, an hook it up to the R+ on your amp, dont disconnect it

cool thanks

I'm having the same problem and I think it's my alternator puttint out less than my amp is pulling. It eventually drains the batter and the amp has to work extra hard with the less power and then clips and overheats. I have cooling now but an alternator is what powers your whole car. Batteries and Capaciters only store power so if theres not enough initial power then what's the point? But hey, i'm new at all this.

Batteries and Capaciters only store power so if theres not enough initial power then what's the point? But hey, i'm new at all this.

Tis true, Tis True

NG