speakers stop when car stops

bccsurfer · 04-27-2007, 06:19 PM

Hi everybody this is my first post. I've been reading the forums for awhile and last week I put a carputer in my civic. But I do have two problems with the audio that I am clueless about.

1) When I drive the car the audio works great but when I stop at a red light the sound stops, but picks right back up where it left off as soon as I hit the gas. I know the amp doesn't shut off and the computer is still playing the music. I have no clue whats wrong.

2)When the car key is in the ACC position no sound comes from the speakers even though the carputer is on as well as the amp. The sound only comes throuh when the car is cranked even though the amp is already on.

My audio setup is a 4ga wire to a distributor in the trunk, from there the amp is hooked up with 8ga power wire and an 8ga ground wire and of course the speakers are hooked to the amp.

Any help would be much appreciated as I know little about car audio.
I love this site and my carputer thanks for eveything yall do.

GoHybrid · 04-27-2007, 06:30 PM

need more details: how do you control your computer... you say the music "picks right back up where it left off" this says that the computer is actually NOT still playing the music when you stop at a light.

also, what kind of amp are you using? what kind of battery? what is the state of charge? stock alternator?

all that stuff is helpful in solving this. please advise.

bccsurfer · 04-27-2007, 07:07 PM

The carputer is controlled by touch screen, when I stop the song time counter continues as if still playing, my amp is a 4 ch 300 watt power acoustik, I have a duralast 3 or 4 year old battery with stock alternator.
Sorry for the lack of information. Thanks for quick reply.

GoHybrid · 04-27-2007, 10:07 PM

here is the first thing i would do: get a discman, ipod, whatever... something you know has a functioning output. plug that into your amp instead of the computer. turn your car to ACC, verify the amp turns on, and then push play on the ipod. if you get music on ACC or at a stop light, the problem is in your PC. if not, i'd check your remote wire, 12V+ and ground wires. make sure they're in perfect shape, and the ground is good and clean to the metal. make sure that amp is getting all of the 12 volts it needs.

bccsurfer · 04-28-2007, 12:48 PM

So I hooked up my ipod when the key was in the ACC position and no musi even though it was playing on the ipod. I checked and the amp is on and both ground and power wires are straight to bare metal in the trunk. Any ideas?

pancit175 · 04-28-2007, 09:09 PM

Check on your amp for +12 voltage, remote wire voltage, ground resistance, and your power line fuse resistance with a multimeter. I would also test your amp as suggested above instead with the car on, then attempt to rev your engine and get back with your results.
Your amp may appear on, but it may not be getting adaquate voltage or current from your battery or altenator.

GoHybrid · 04-28-2007, 09:34 PM

or you might try jumping the +12V on the amp straight to the remote terminal and remove the remote wire and see if the amp actually shuts off when you're not above idle. if that's the case your battery is probably bad if not your alternator as well.

bccsurfer · 05-02-2007, 11:23 AM

Ok so I got a bigger battery and it solved the problem. Thanks everybody for your help.

RedGTiVR6 · 05-02-2007, 11:41 AM

I hope that you had your alternator tested because just replacing the battery won't last long if your alternator is the issue.

You'll be replacing batteries left and right.

How big is your alternator on that car? Honda isn't known for putting an alternator that's very big on their cars.

Depending on your amps and how big they are, you might or might not need a bigger alternator.

GoHybrid · 05-02-2007, 11:52 AM

he said it was a 300W amp... doesn't seem out of this world...

RedGTiVR6 · 05-02-2007, 12:09 PM

nope - not at all...guess it was just the battery then!

GoHybrid · 05-02-2007, 01:04 PM

you're still right though... doesn't matter if he's running no amp at all, if the alternator is working overtime to charge a battery that won't hold up, it could eventually fizzle out. I'd still get it checked as a precaution

bccsurfer · 05-04-2007, 05:52 PM

Yeah I will still check the alternator out thanks yall.

greatwhite · 05-04-2007, 05:58 PM

At this point, I would have the alt tested to protect the new battery, not the stereo.

A weak alt will allow the battery to be in a constant state of discharge. This will allow sulfation and will drastically shorten the life of the battery. It could allow the battery to "pass on" in as little a few months to a year.

Also, a bigger battery demands more from the alternator to maintian it's charge. too "big" of a battery and the alt will not be able to keep up and leads to the aforementioned sulfation problems.

it really is a system and must be built as such.

If the battery was listed as a replacement battery for your car, you should be alright though.

Cheers

BJ

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