DrkPhynx

I installed my Stealth Box, sub, and amp on Saturday. The install was successful in that it worked (and worked quite well). I didn't drive it Saturday, but did take it out on Sunday, and everything was great.

Today (Wednesday), I went out to start it up (to bring it to work since it's supposed to be in the 90s today), and the battery was dead. The remote door locks didn't work, even the power lock switch in the door was dead, and nothing happened when I turned the key.

I'm at work now, so I can't check on it, but tonight I need to make sure the amp didn't move around during the drive on Sunday and cause a short.

Failing that, I'm wondering what, if anything, I did wrong.

In my old Grand Prix, I ran the amp power wire straight to the positive terminal on the battery, the remote wire to the proper connection on the back of my Kenwood Exelon HU, and the ground to a convenient location in the trunk (amp is a Kenwood too).

Worked great, never killed the battery.

Now that I've sold the Grand Prix and picked up a Stealth Box, I put one of the 2 10" Polks in that box, used the same amp, and just added it to the Monsoon (in a 2002 T/A WS6. A weekend/nice weather toy that has about 9600 miles on it (bought new with 9 on the odo)).

Here's how I did it in the T/A - I didn't want to pull apart the interior, and since the amp has speaker-level inputs, I didn't need to put a converter on the head unit, so I figured I'd just tap the Monsoon amp's harness.

I went to the FAQ and found the wiring diagram, and tapped the sail panel speaker outputs (using quick-tap connectors), and ran those into the speaker-level inputs on the amp. I ran the ground wire to the ground strap for the power antenna (since I put the Kenwood amp in the spare tire well), and found the wire that goes hot when the antenna is activated (stereo power on) to use for the remote wire. For power, I found the 2 orange wires in the Monsoon harness (E11 and E12) that provide a 12 volts and tapped one of those, figuring it to be akin to connecting to the positive terminal of the battery.

So it should be just like the Grand Prix install, only not needing to run new wires down the length of the car.

'Cept I have a dead battery now. I fear it's the amp and it's been draining it continuously, but I wanted to ask here, just how badly, and where I may have gone wrong.

(the power light on the amp only goes on when the stereo is on, so again, it really seemed to be ok)

JustinID

I think that drawing off the same power line as the Monsoon amplifier is a really bad idea. If I remember right, that's only set up on a 25 amp fuse and it's not really large wire. I guess it could be ok for a really small amp, but even then... I'd say you should be running a fresh line to the battery.

My first guess as to why you were draining was around the idea that your amp was staying on. But if you're seeing the power shut off when the HU is off, then that's probably ok. The other thing that could be staying on is your Monsoon amp, but I don't know what that uses to turn itself on and off. It's POSSIBLE that amp is staying on.

If your aftermarket amp came loose and shorted against something, that shouldn't kill your battery, it should blow a fuse. Have you checked to see if you can jump start the car? Have you looked at your fuses?

DrkPhynx

I haven't checked the fuses yet. I noticed the problem this morning on my way to work, and I was running late, so I didn't have time to look at anything unfortunately.

I will check them when I get home though.

Originally, I tapped the wrong wire on the antenna, and the Kenwood amp did not power on and did not fire up the sub. So with a friend, we found the wire that goes hot when the stereo is turned on (and raises the antenna), and tapped that for the remote. Once we did that, the blue LED triangle on the Kenwood came on when the stereo was turned on, and the sub played.

That's why I was sure that it wasn't on, or actually drawing current, when the antenna was down (stereo off).

Another bit of info - I had taken the tops out on Sunday during my drive, and put the windows down. When I got home, I parked it for a bit as it was after 6 and most things were closed and I was trying to decide if I wanted to go back out again or not. Eventually I chose not to, and I went out and opened the hatch with the fob, put the t-tops back in, and started the car to raise the windows. Afterward, I locked it with the fob, as I always do.

Today, just over 2 days later, I hit the unlock button once, and didn't hear anything, but figured I just missed the sound (I'm a zombie in the morning anyway), and opened the driver's door and it was indeed unlocked, so I assumed everything was fine. Once I realized that the car wouldn't start, I looked over to see that the passenger side was also unlocked.

Do these cars unlock themselves when they lose power?

Also, when I pulled the key back out of hte ignition, I noticed the LED in the dash vent went a little crazy before settling back down into it's normal pattern.

I've left the car sit, even in the cold of winter, for a month and a half, or more, and never had a problem with it. This is why I suspect the Kenwood amp/Stealth Box install.

DrkPhynx

Ok, I checked all the fuses and they are fine.

I hooked up the jumper cables and it fired right up. I took them off after a few minutes and let it idle a few minutes more for good measure.

While it was idling, I looked at the spare tire well and the Kenwood amp has not moved. All the connections look good. And the power LED on the (Kenwood) amp was not on. (incidentally, took the jack and spare out when I did this install, and it seems that the passenger side interior cover is sitting high now and there is a soft spot under the carpet, just ahead of the speaker - is that from the lack of a jack and it's plastic cover?)

Once I buttoned everything back up, I shut the car off and hit the lock button on the fob and it beeped twice at me signalling everything was working.

So something caused a power drain over the last 2 days. Again, I'm left suspicious of the Kenwood amp, but I just can't see how - Positive to a constant hot 12 volt positive supply (just like the positive battery terminal), ground to an existing ground (power antenna ground strap), and a remote wire to a power source that's only on when I want the amp to be on (which is when the blue power LED on the amp itself comes on and everything works).

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

OOC - Does anybody know what the voltage is in a typical head unit remote-power wire?

JustinID

I wish I knew what turns the monsoon amplifier on, because that's what I'd be checking next. One thing you can do is see if the car dies again (just to be sure it wasn't a freak one time thing). If it does, get it jumped, recharge it and when you park it again, pull the stereo fuse. That should make sure that NOTHING in your stereo is getting powered up. If your battery still dies with that fuse pulled, you have an unrelated problem somewhere else.

A HU remote turn-on line is 12V, but it can typically only handle very low amperage (my Pioneer can only manage 300mA). You can use it to turn on an amp or activate a relay. You CAN'T use it to power anything like an antenna or other accessory. Trying to do so will likely toast your HU.

No clue on the carpet question...

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

The Monsoon amp has constant (battery) power and a signal sensor that turns it on automatically when it detects audio input.

DrkPhynx

Well, it's dead again today.

I'm sure there wasn't very much charge put back into it last night, but it's also a lot more drain than I would have expected. (I let the Grand Prix sit for about 2 months straight when I was trying to sell it and it still fired right up, so something is different here)

I'll have to give the stereo fuse trick a try.

DrkPhynx

I found the solution... I pretty sure.

Guess the old saying is true "if you want something done right.....". I had some friends over when I was originally installing the amp, and when I tried tapping the wire I was sure was the right one for the antenna power (to use as the amp remote wire), nothing happend. So one of them grabbed the volt meter and said I should jump inside and turn on the radio. Then I heard that they found it, we tapped it, checked it, everything worked, and that was that - we thought.

The sun is the other culprit.

Today, I took it in my garage to investigate this further. I was thinking about using a relay, tapped to the same antenna lead, to physically cut the positive power wire to the Kenwood amp when the antenna was down (which is sorta what the remote wire should be doing, in a sense). Well, when I pulled the spare cover, I noticed a faint glow on the Kenwood LED. I started the car and turned on the radio and it got ever so slightly brighter.

I checked the lead, and sure enough, the antenna wire we tapped was constant hot, meaning the Kenwood amp was on all the time. Since the guy with the meter is ex-navy and has a rep for being a wiz with wiring, I assumed it was all correct.

So I checked the other 2 wires, radio on, and off, found the right one, re-tapped it, and now everything works. The LED on the Kenwood is indeed off when the radio is off, and it's on when the radio is on.

Gotta watch it now to see for absolute certain. Gonna take it to work tomorrow to get some charge in the system, and then let it sit for a few days to verify.

Also, while I was at it, tapping off the sail panel/"sub" outputs on the monsoon proved too loud, so I tapped off the hatch speaker inputs. It's much better now and I can control the mix somewhat with the F/R fade ****.

And while I was at it, I ground down the edges of the Stealthbox to get the damn thing to actually fit. It's not 100% yet, but it's 10 times better than it was.

The sound is much the same - not nearly as good as my Grand Prix (using a Kenwoon Excelon HU, OEM speakers powered off the HU, and 2 10" Polks (one of which is being used in this application) in a large box in the trunk, powered by this amp), but still much better than it was with no real sub, and better than it was when I first tried hooking all this mess up last week.

JustinID

Glad you were able to track this down. This certainly makes more sense now...

As for where you are wired into for the speaker level outputs, you may want to consider coming off the other side of the amplifier so you're getting a signal straight from the head unit. That way you don't have to worry about what the amp is filtering out and you won't be double amplifying noise. Remember that any noise/distortion/whatever that comes out of the head unit will be amplified by the Monsoon amplifier, and then it will get amplified a second time by your aftermarket amp. Working with the signal straight from the HU (can tap off of the Monsoon amp inputs) will give you less noise in the end. It'll just be a lower voltage range going into your amp which you'll be able to adjust for with the gain settings.

Anyway, hope all the electrical problems are worked out now!

DrkPhynx

Yeah, that's what I did. My first thought was "the monsoon sends only bass signals to the sails, so I don't need to worry about a filter". But it turns out the Kenwood has a filter built in, and I have that turned on. So I went to the sail panel speakers with the intent of getting some more control via the F/R fade. But, then I also went from the Monsoon amp outputs, to the inputs, as you suggested.

I didn't even think about noise issues, but you are right, taking that amped noise, cutting the signal down, then re-amping it can't be good. So I picked up a benefit I wasn't even thinking about.

Thanks for the help. Really hope this is over now. lol

02Z28LS1

iTrader: (2)

if the car was holding a charge fine before all this started, all you should have to do to verify that there will be no further problems (as far as being related to the amp installation) is take a reading with a voltmeter with the ignition on, and again with it off. you will want to take the readings from the REM On lead on the amp. set it to the vDC setting; with the ignition on, you should read in the vicinity of 12v (it may vary a bit, from 9.x to 14.x), and with the ignition off (make sure you open the door so that the H/U powers down) it should read 0v.

if you have anything other than 0v on the REM On lead with the ignition off, then there's obviously still a problem.

and to get the absolute best out of that amp, i'd really recommend running a separate 12v wire from the battery to the new amp, instead of using the power source from the Monsoon amp. not only is the wiring too small for both amps to run at their best, with the extra power that you'll be trying to pull over the power connection, you could possibly start frying your fuse for the stereo.

it is always best to run each device on its own power connection, with its own fuse.....not only for the reasons i mentioned already, but also for troubleshooting problems. it makes it a lot easier to narrow things down when there are problems, when each device has its own power connection.