First off, I must say that I am a knucklehead for purchasing a cheap deck. So if the final verdict is that it needs to be swapped, I will have learned my lesson.

The situation:
When I am doing a lot of in town driving, after a while, every time there are any intermittent draws on the electrical system (open sunroof, turn signal, shift gears (automatic), roll windows up and down, braking, and AC turn on) my sound system will fade out and create static that sounds like a fart.

My gear:
XO Vision double din DVD reciever. This doesn't run any speakers off of its internal amp and when the system drops, the screen still looks great.

Alpine MRP-F300
Front output is going to MB Quart Q components in the doors.
Rear output is to a ten inch audiobahn sub.

I think I need to get a capacitor or can the receiver and start over.

Any ideas would really help.

Henderson

 

First thing to check would be the voltage at your amp. What you're going to want to do is grab a DMM, and check the voltage across the inputs of your amp. It sounds like your voltage is dropping when you use your accessories. My 98 CL does the same thing, but fortunately, a better battery keeps the voltage up above the point where it's a problem.

From there, we can try to diagnose your problem.

And, a cap is worthless... It will end up being more draw on your electrical system than it helps...

 

CAPS are totally worthless in my mind
Best solution if you think you need a cap is to do the big 3 that would probably solve your current problem, then if you still have dimming or anything like that add batteries, they will do the job way better. as for the HU thats all fine and dandy, what car speakers are you running??

 

Nersh, keep in mind that your electrical system is only as strong as it's weakest link. So if you add nice batteries in the back, but your stock one is not up to par, you will still have voltage issues... Upgrading the front battery should be the first battery change you make.

But, Nersh is right about the Big 3. That should help out quite a bit.

Oh, OP, what size wire are you running to your amp?

 

I am running 4ga wire to the amp.

Someone asked what speakers? 6.5 in mb quart q components in the door. No rear deck speakers.

So an optima battery may solve the issues?

henderson

 

BTW, what is a dmm

 

dmm is probably a digital multimeter, to see what type of input you're getting to your amp.

Is 4ga a little excessive for a 300w amp? I have a 400w for my subs and have an 8ga kit instead. No trouble there, I just heard once that even though you may get a cleaner sound with more current on a bigger amp, that with something like my 400w I would just end up putting too much draw on my electrical system and find problems and inadequacies like this one.

But you shouldn't have to change your wiring kit to fix your problem. PITA.
Cheaper than batteries and alternators and capacitors if it fixes things though.

 

i put "more current" but it's really less resistance, right?
sorry.

 

Yes, a DMM is a Digital Multi Meter. It will allow you to check the voltage inputs at the amp, which will hopefully allow us to diagnose the problem better.

As for bigger wire being a solution to any possible problem, yes, it is good. The bigger the wire, the more current it can carry. This means that for every amp of current that the smaller wire was carrying, the larger wire will do so more efficiently.

J. weems, you should upgrade from 8ga to 4ga power/ground wire for that amp of yours. I'm going to be running 4ga to a 4 channel amp in my celica, with the front channels (125w x 2 at 4 ohms) powering some components and the rear channels (500w x 1 at 4 ohms) powering a small sub.