I have an aftermarket amplifier that was professionally installed about a year ago in Jacksonville, FL. I now live in MD. I went to my car the other day and it was dead. The lights did not come on, the doors would not unlock with the keyfob, nothing. My battery was completely dead. I was pissed because this is the second time this has happened in the past couple of months. I replaced the old battery and got a new one. That is the battery that I have now.

I took it to the Honda dealer and they said that with the key out of the ignition, my battery was drawing about 1 AMP of power. They said it should only be drawing about 1-10 mA of power. I was going to unhook the amplifier and have them trouble-shoot, but at $110/hr, that could get out of hand quickly in cost. I unhooked the amplifier for now until I figure something out. I suspect it might be the remote power turn-on that is failing. I do not have an aftermarket alarm, just a DVD player for my navigation.

My question is: can I install a switch on the battery cable by the amp (which is underneath the seat)? Kind of like an on/off switch just on that cable alone? What kind of switch, what size, and where could I find something like this? I don't want to lose my sub and amp, and I don't want to take it to the dealer to have them troubleshoot it. Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Have you tried pulling fuses one at a time, while looking at the battery current with an ammeter? A simple meter, if you don't have one, will cost very little at Radio Shack.

The amplifier installer SHOULD have connected to a fused source of battery power.

 

The easiest way to eliminate the amp from the equation is to pull its fuse (the installer put a fuse in the main amp power wire, right?).

Before you explore ways to put a switch on the amp's main power wire, you should make sure the amp is turning off when it should. It sounds to me like the remote wire on the amp is live all the time. If the remote wire is switching on and off properly, your amp may have a defect that is keeping it from switching properly. If so, it should be covered by its warranty.

 

maybe the on/off switch on the amp is dead. In that case the amp will be on all the time. find the remote on/off wire and install a switch there and maybe that will take care of the problem.

 

Your amp should have some sort of LED indicating a "Power ON" status. I suspect that you will finda that the amp is ON even without the key in the ignition. If so, find a control wire- it is usually thin and located close to the main power connector. Carefully disconnect it, makiing sure that the wire or your tool don't tuch anything metal. If your amp turns off- you have a problem stereo/controller/whatever this wire is connected to. If the amp stays on- it is defective.