ferdis

Well title says most of it... lol but neat less to say i've been having many many problems in regards to the electrical system with my jeep, mainly after i had installed my own stereo, so i dont doubt it might be my fault lmao but just for future reference for anyone on here that may run into the same problem, heres my story; For the last year and a half or so, i've been running my 1000 watt monoblock alpine amp and a single sealed 12 inch hertz sub, i like it pretty loud and that set up definately kept me bumpin, only problem is the lights when flicker when on, going with the beat... looked cool at first, then shit went majorly wrong, i'd be driving down the road, volume at about 30/50, and my dash would flash, all lights, all signals, my tacks would skyrocket, then plumet to the bottom, it ended up scaring the crap out of me, but i just kinda brushed it off, i had made a similar post when it first happened, trying to find a solution, but i honestly looked for days, and found nothing like what i had experienced, all the more reason for me to save some guy the trouble, ill post here the details lol But after that my battery and alternator went, i just assumed after 5 years the things have been worn with water, mud, etc. So i thought little of it, but last weekend i was on my weekly pilgrimage to Philadelphia, about 3 hour drive, and what'd ya know, right outside philly the dash started doing it again, my battery light had gone on, traaction control, system stability, and ABS were all lit, then my tranny downshifted, im assuming to try and charge the battery to breath life back into this thing. But for fear of my life i pulled over and turned it off, and it was dead, so on i went, called a tow truck and had it towed to the nearest jeep dealer, only 4 miles away so it wasnt too bad. But i brought it into the shop, there were a ton of delays but im suppsed to be picking it up tomorrow... ill let you guys know how it goes, after a half hour talk on the phone with a tech, he told me my PCM had went, as well as, when turned on, my fuse harness was running at extremely high tempetures, so much so that it had begun to smoke, i was a little shocked, but he said after all that was replaced i should be good to go, i just hope after all this that this will solve my electronical headache, bottom line is, if your having a similar problem get the PCM as well as your fuseharness checked out, im not too into the electronical part of cars but it would make sense that thats causing the problem, sorry if this is kinda rambling but i just felt obligated to give my .02 after i had recieved no help online lol hopefully this will save some guy the headache i went through, ill keep in touch ^^

Rip_Em_801

Do you have a stiffening cap? 1000 watts you should have at 3 farad caps. I'm telling you, all the power to run the bass will drain your battery fast because it is killing your alternator.

Rednroll

I had the light flashing/dimming problem with my system after I 1st installed it. Ended up doing the Big 3 upgrade, addded a stiffening cap, and then upgraded to a Sears Die Hard Platinum Marine battery. No flashing/dimming ever since and my system has close to 3000 Watts worth of amplifiers.

ferdis

I always wanted to get a cap, but honestly from all the stuff ive read and heard of from people, caps take more power.... and would actually hinder my system. So your saying i should look into getting at least a 3 farad cap?

Freewill

Caps themselves don't take more power, but they help keep the amp from running short of power on the thumps.

So, a cap helps the amp make more peak power, which also sucks more power from the battery - but the battery power is going into the speaker, not the cap.

To the O.P. - you are pulling power direct from the battery, not the PCM, right?

Rednroll

There's a lot of debate in regards to the benefit of the cap. I would start by replacing the battery to one that provides more CCA's. A Diehard Platinum or a Optima Yellow top are good choices. Then also do the "Big 3" upgrade wiring.

My system is around 3000 Watts, like I mentioned. I'm using a 1 Farad Cap on my 1600 Watt Sub amp only. The general rule is that you need 1Farad per 1000 Watts. Here's some good info on the need of the stiffening Cap.
http://www.parts-express.com/resourc...itors-faqs.cfm

Here is a pretty good tutorial on doing the Big 3. They recommend 0 AWG wiring, which is probably a bit overkill. I used 4AWG, in parallel to the existing wiring and that works fine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p82xRzCr-lc

Basically what you're trying to achieve is to increase the wire diameter so that your battery and charging system can supply adequate current upon demand for the audio system, so voltage dips don't occur when strong BASS hits occur. That's why your lights are currently dimming, because the voltage is dropping when bass hits occur when it's turned up loud. Fixing the voltage drops will also help out the performance of your audio system so there is less distortion.

Basic upgraded connections are:
1. Alternator Output power post to B+ Battery post
2. Chassis to NEG post
3. Engine Block to Chassis

Of those 3 connections, #3 is probably the least needed in the JK. Essentially what they're trying to do is increase the Ground strength from the Alternator case to the chassis. If you look at your JK, you see there's a pretty solid connection of the Alternator to the Engine via the bracket, and then a pretty solid connection of the Engine Block to the chassis. So that's already a pretty good ground path of metal for grounding of the alternator...but if you want to do that connection, it doesn't hurt.

Once you get that done, then you will want to run a 4AWG or lower AWG wire directly from the B+ post of the battery to your amplifier.

Caps of this size can get expensive. The Big 3 is a cheaper solution and a better solution, but it won't hurt doing both. So as I suggested, it is probably best to do the Big 3 and also replace the battery and then decide if you need to add a cap. Adding the cap should be your last option. It is best to fix the problem at the source and that's what the Big 3 and increased battery strength does. The next step would be to get a higher output alternator, but the JK already has a pretty high current alternator and the available higher output ones that are available, really aren't worth the price of admission. The stiffening cap is a band-aide solution for people who know very little about electrical systems.

I also highly recommend when doing these additional wire runs to buy some wire Flex Tubing and put that around all your B+ wiring that you added. They carry it at Wal-mart in the automotive section for like $2.00 for 10 feet and most any other automotive store. You will see they mention in that video tutorial to secure the wire away from hot objects. That is good advice but additionally adding the Flex Tubing adds an additional layer of security because cracks, and wear due to the wire rubbing against metal over time can occur on the wire insulation, and the last thing you want is for that thick wire connected directly to the battery and/or alternator to come in direct contact with some metal and cause a fire. So in that video tutorial you will see they secure that wire to metal by some plastic wire ties. So what happens over time as that wire is vibrating against that metal or those ties start to become weak and fragile and start to fail due to heat and moisture that is always present in that engine compartment? The answer is, the insulation wears on the wire or comes in contact with a hot object due to the 2 cent wire tie failing and then melts, and poof....FIRE!!! So, that's why you see flex tubing on all the existing wires under your hood from the factory. Flex tubing is cheap and it adds that additional layer of security and will make your wiring last much longer. Let the rookies pay $12 a foot for 0 AWG wire and then fail to pay an additional 20 cents a foot for flex tubing to put around it, so you reduce the risk of catching your car on fire.

ferdis

Alright guys thank you so much for the info! its greatly appreciated and ill be sure to look into it all, next step is a quality battery, with which ill be doing some reserch on soon; Also i called the jeep place over the weekend just to check the cost of everything, turns out that they had to replace all the wires for my alternater/other electircal connections as well as the PCM, so i guess after some water/mud and probably a few branches my wires had seen they're last day lol but ill be sure to look into redoing all of that, nice to hear first hand, i always perfer personal expereince thanks guys!

grumpy1

I would also look into upgrading your alternator. I had to do that on my old XJ after adding all the electical "toys" that I wanted because it was killing the battery because I was drawing power faster than I was putting it back into the battery. My lights also were flickering before it killed the battery and alternator. Thankfully the parts store replaced the battery for free, still under warranty. I just took the stock alternator in to a good auto electrical shop and they rebuilt it, I think it wa putting out about 120 amps or so. I also quit playing in the mud after I killed the alternator a couple of times when they got packed with mud. I haven't played with caps before but understand that they act kind of like a battery by storing power and have heard of people getting shocked by them even after they have disconected the power.