[CRiZO]

Okay heres the background info:

I got two neon tubes and have one under each side of the dash, I am using a wire to the cigarette lighter to run both of them (i made a little setup where I still can use the harness the lighter plugs into. it's neat.)
Now here's the deal, it seems ever since I put the neons in my battery light has come on more often than before. I've had the battery checked, it was dandy.
I do have a system (got it after the neons) , but it's only a 500 watt JL amp (the 500.5 running all four midrangers and the sub box). i wouldn't think that would drain the battery, some of you guys have freakin 1000 watt amps.
Sometimes when I have the radio cranked the amp will cut out like it went into protect because it's not getting the right power (RIPS system, always max output)
My headlights don't fade when the bass hits, so I don't think it's my alternator... I'm not sure though, it's expensive so I hope not.
Even sometimes if I ran the neons for awhile the battery light would come on. Hoping my car wont die, I'll kill the neons and stereo. The light would go away, but if I stopped at a stop sign or something the light would fade back in.

Anyways... I undid the neons just now to see if that'll help with the batt. light and the amp cutting out... I'll let yall know if the issues fade or disapear tonight.

I read that I should wire the neons to the fuse box... + to the battery and ground the - to the chassis, so maybe I just didn't have it wired right? I basically put an on/off switch to the lighter and put the lights into the line. And yes they worked just fine... other than that they seem to be parasitic to my cars electrical system.

Ideas anyone?

Or do you think I should drive my happy little butt over to the store and get an Optima battery and get the alternator rewound? How much does that alternator work cost?

 

[Chaos311Clarity]

perhaps u should just get rid of the neons if they are that big of a problem....im not to sure but i would maybe suggest getting a cap and running **** off of that....i dunno...i could be wrong....anyone else?

 

[CRiZO]

I really don't think I need a cap, like said, then again they're only 100 bucks or so and look cool lol. I'll probably actually do that before pulling out the big guns and getting a new battery and everything.

 

[ptirmal]

Update? Anyways I 4 exterior neon tubes and added foglights with about 900 watts rms not usually played that loud,,, Doubt it is the neons draining the amp if anything I would think the other way around

 

[Guest]

neons killing the bass

I just had an experience similar to yours and I rewired everything in my car and found out that is was the alternator. It just couldnt keep up with everything i had going. My amp would cut out also and the light would fade on when i can to a stop. I recommend getting the alternator checked out.

 

[mxmissile]

Wow, sorry CRiZO, UI dunno how I missed this the first time through....

First off - nice amp! The 500/5 is my most fravritist amp in the whole world. While it isn't 200 watts, though, it does draw a LOT of juice - that's why it has an 80 amp fuse, bro!

Sounds like a bad cell in the battery. This will NOT always show up when they test the battery, it can be an intermittant thing. It can and will eventually kill the alternator. A cap will NOT help the problem at all, it will only prolong the agony, if even that.

Replace the battery. A regular battery should be fine, a better one a la' Optima or Hawker woould be even better. If you have the duckets for a rewound alternaotr, it's never a bad idea, either. A cheap and easy way to improve things once the batt is replaced - replace the factory power wire from the alternator to the battery with 4 or 2 guage good stuff. Replace both factory ground straps (alt and batt) with the same. Takes a few minuts, costs a few doallars, improves charging by as much as .5 volt at the terminals - that's a VERY big deal in the 12 volt world.

 

[BlackHazex]

hey maybe oen of you guys can help me in a similar case, i had a rockfor fosgate 500s amp and not to long ago i tottally fried the fuse in the front, took it to best buy and the guy checked everything out and said the amp was fine and we needed to replace the fuse up front.. and so we did and nothing happened. then he came to the conclusion that the amp was dead. now since the day my amp stopped working i've been getting the charge battery light almost anytime i come to a stop, and i've been wondering what was going on. anything i should possibly get checked up? cause it's a fairly new battery in my car. but now im getting a new audiobahn amp thats like 1200 watts so i wanna have everything fixed before i hook it up.

 

[Guest]

Your amp...

Did you leave the rest of the system connected? By that I mean, did you leave the power wire from the amp connected to the battery, but not connected on the other end? If so you may be draining your battery. I had someone break into my car and cut my power wire to my amp, and the next day my battery was dead. Your power wire may be intermittenly grounding itself out, draining your battery.