I put a Kenwood stereo, 2 alpine amplifiers (one for speakers, one for subwoofer) in my sons 67 mustang fastback. Plays great but having problem with drawing current and draining battery when car is shut off. I thought maybe internal power control switch/relay on amplifiers was blown so put external relay. Anyway I continue to drain the battery when not in use. If I disconnect the two power leads from the two amps to the battery and put my volt meter in series between the positive terminal and the two leads that go back to the amplifiers I show I am drawing 6 or 7 amps when I should be drawing nothing. With the amplifiers disconnected and if I put my meter in series with the negative battery terminal and cable I show drawing like one amp which I assume is the memory for the Kenwood unit. HELP. Do I have some sort of internal short in the amplifiers?
did you wire the remote turn on to the constant power by mistake? so they stay powered up even when you turn off the radio?
wiring question I don't believe I made that mistake, I will crawl under the dash over the weekend and check. Can't I just hook the remote turn on lead to a switched power source and install a fuse in the circuit to protect the car if I can't get this isolated?
yeah that will work too. maybe check the battery, i had that problem a while back but it turned out i was slowly melting my stock alternator..got a 175 and ive never had a dead battery since, so im not sure..electrical is screwy sometimes man, juss mess around with it.
I know with my Durango there was a problem with the electrical system when I bought it, before it ever had a system in it, and they installed a heavy duty switch, and then ran the battery wire from there back to the battery and it wouldn't drain any juice if the switch was off, so I would just shut it off at night worked good and it was done without looking bad.. the only thing I had to do was run the memory wire from the head unit to the battery so it would save my settings.. just an idea
i meant at the amplifiers. the radio turns the amps off and on right? you could also set up your meter to the batt and start pulling fuses till the draw stops. theres a site to show you how. i just dont remember it, but it sounds like you know how do that anyways.
wiring in Bosch relay Stereo store can't figure out amp problem. Suggested wiring in a relay to create my own remote power circuit to trigger amplifier on and off. Does this make sense. For wiring in a Bosch 30 AMP RELAY Need ground to pin 85 remote lead from head unit or other switched power to pin 86 wire out from relay to amplifier remote lead location from pin 87 Question need 12V on pin 30, can that be spliced from source to pin 86 or does it need to be a separate source?
I would use a seperate source (thats how its done in my truck). I use a constant source, but a switched ACC source will also work. Remember to fuse the wire going to pin 30. I use a 2-amp fuse. There is no way that a Kenwood radio will draw 1-amp when its turned off. Please double check your equipment, are the settings correct? A few milli-amps is normal. I would think that 20 to 30 milli-amps is normal, 1-amp would indicate a problem with the radio.
power source I have the power leads to the amplifiers accessible in the trunk that run right from the battery. Could I just tap into one of these? I could put a 2 amp fuse in between the relay and the power leads and have a separate power source. since the relay on draws a couple of amps I assume it wouldn't hurt the amplifiers performance?
Yes that would be an acceptable power source. The typical automotive relay only draws 200 to 300 milli-amps ( 0.2-0.3 amps) and only when its on. As far as the amp, it draws less than a 300 milli-amps on its turn on lead. I just noticed on other thing from your previous post, Pin 86 should go to the radios remote turn on wire not an ignition or ACC source. This way the amp is only on when the radio is on.
