Need some opinions and help here guys.

On Saturday, I relocated my JL 500/1 amp to under the passenger side plastic piece in the trunk. It fits perfectly.

Yesterday, I installed my JL 10W6V2 in a temporary enclosure until my 4080 box arives.

Last night, while driving at higher speeds or 90+ (up to 140), I noticed the headlights dimming at strong bass notes. Keep in mind that the system had been playing for about 15 minutes prior to getting up to the higher speeds.

I've got two theories:

1) At higher speeds, the electrical system is more heavily taxed by vehicle systems & the amp combined, so it robs power from the headlights.

2) Due to the amp being mounted under the plastic piece and subsequently, the trunk carpeting, the amp is overheating, reducing output, and drawing more current to compensate.

Now my first theory doesn't really make too much sense to myself, but if anyone can chime in, then great. It's just that when I had my amp mounted to my Zenclosure box, to my knowledge I never remembered the headlights dimming.

The second theory could hold water due to how the 500/1 operates; many amps will go into "protect mode" at overtemp and kill output, while the 'slash series' amps will actually reduce output until temps are back in check. But if that is the case, I'm not sure why it would draw MORE current from the battery.

I'm just a little confused here and would welcome some input from the gurus.

I already have an idea to retrofit a 120mm computer case fan in a location that will blow air over the top of the heatsink of the amp. It will obviously only circulate the ambient air, but will not allow the air between the heatsink fins to stratify.

Sorry for the long-winded post.

 

Your headlights shouldn't dim because they are HID...that's strange.

Def. make sure that the amp has enough cool air around it, maybe next time it happens, pull over and see if you can feel the amp getting hot?

Also, you might want to invest in maybe a 1-2 farad capacitor. That might solve the problem.

 

This is normal especially when the battery is not fully charged. My setup is much more powerful cuppled with a radar detector, iPhone charger A/C etc.. it does not occur all the time.

A cap is a good idea but it's not necessary with the specs you mentioned. Did you have this professionally installed? What gauge wires are you running?

 

You need a capacitor, to help with those quick little surges.

 

All installed by me. The first install was on a Zenclosure box, offset so that the sub and amp were both on the box. Now, the amp is hidden and sub will be in 4080.

4AWG wires are used with a nice solid ground. I also have a Black Betty 4AWG grounding kit installed. Like I said, I can't recall this ever happening when it was all on the Zenclosure box, but it's doing it now.

I'll install a fan tomorrow probably to see if that helps.

I've always been of the opinion that Caps were a bandaid for the real problem, so I'll try to correct it without adding one.

 

Well another battery is always a better route, but you shouldn't be drawing so much current with that setup, We done systems with a lot more power draw. So you may just recheck some stuff. The amp would just cut off completely if it were over heating, it'd go into a protection mode.

 

the JL slash series amps don't do that. they reduce output while waiting for temps to go back down. but you're right, there's no way the setup should draw that much current... i'll have to play around with it some more i suppose.

 

However, aren't our batteries abnormally small. You may just need to step up to putting a dry cell in the trunk and ditching the OEM battery.

 

that certainly ain't gonna fit. the goal is to keep it as stock and hidden as possible while still retaining the spare.

the main thing here is that this issue is new and related to the change made. i'd like to fix it without having to add anything.

 

Then begin the diagnosing, I hated taking other shops vehicles and searching out problems, luckily you know everything that went in so there's no suprises. Good Luck!

 

I've heard that adding more batteries to solve problems doesn't do anything. I took a trip to Kicker Car audio headquarters a few weeks back with my engineering class and this is what one of the head engineers told us about batterys.

It doesnt matter how many or how strong of batteries you have if your alternator can't support keeping them full. When the car is on and the batteries are charged everything runs pretty much off the alternator. He said think of it like the alternator being a water faucet and the battery being a bucket that is being filled. Then hooking up an amp and sub is like putting a big hole in the bucket. The bucket will drain faster than it is being filled and won't be able to get full. Adding another bucket (another battery) and conecting them wont do anything. You still only have as much coming in as the faucet (or alternator can suply)

It seemed to make pretty good sense to most of us in the class.

 

that's a perfect analogy. to apply it to my situation. the hole in the bucket now appears to be larger than it was before... either that or the faucet has gotten weaker... which would suck.

 

Well, the higher speeds really shouldn't matter. If anything it should help I think. The alternator would be generating more charge at higher speeds.

I don't think the amp would draw more current due to it's internal heat. I am not positive on this though. I could be wrong.

Did you change your wiring set up at all? Did you change your grounding location?

I've had the light dimming problem in previous cars but have not noticed it so far in my current setup.

Did you do a comparison using the same settings, song, etc.? Different frequencies can cause much more current draw. One song may dim the lights much more than the others. You may want to experiment with different music sources and see if the problem is not the speed or amp location.

If all else fails you could always pull the plastic cover off temporarily and see if that solves the problem.

Typically a cap would be the solution to this kind of issue. A cap is a temporary point of current storage. It's kind of like a buffer for power. It stores extra current for when the amp needs it.

 

Right. I wouldn't think the speed would be a problem.. maybe that's just when I noticed it.

I didn't change any of the power wiring, but I did change the ground location. However, the new ground location is closer and ground down to bare metal more than it was previously.

I'll try installing the fan in there. I'll post a new thread showing how it's all setup.

 

Just an idea... but if you are going to mount a fan you could mount it directly to the inside edge of the plastic cover piece and cut a small hole that allows it to pull cooler air from the spare tire area.

I still haven't had any overheating issues with my amp, but that is my plan if I need to add a fan.