Wtf Its A New Redtop
 

its like a month and half old and its died twice in the past to days
Wednesday morning it got parked a 2 am in front of the house, everything off, an key wernt in it, On thursday its dead reading 7.2 volts. This morning same thing.

Nothings on, what could be doing that to a big redtop, it cant be bad already could it.

the only thing i can think of is my capacitor, it usualy stays on for a bit after the doors are shut and reads 11.8 when the cars off

Does your cap remote wire not run to a radio fuse or an intermitant power?

hmm the capacitor didnt have a remote wire,

the last battery went bad
till now have had no issues with this battery but the car hasnt sat for 24 hrs b4 with the new battery in it

Un hook your system and try again.

Is your amp turning off when the cars off? lol

If your last battery mysteriously died and now your Red top died twice (meaning you got another new battery) then something is wrong.

So the cap is constantly on no matter? Thats crazy. It should turn off like the amps do.

EDIT: Ryan is here. He knows car audio and if he can't help then you are screwed haha

thats what im thinking and yes the amp is turning off, it was on the led's would be on

i guess theres a .000000000000000000000000000001% chance the redtop is a lemon

ryan r capacitors supposed to have a remote wire, this one is an American Accessory 1F

A Cap doesn't turn on or off unless you have something rigged up to do that. The only thing on the cap that should be doing that is the voltage display circuitry, which should be on some type of voltage sensing circuit to turn it on when the car is started. The display on the cap should then go off after a period of time. At least that's how mine works... So just because you see a voltage on the cap doesn't mean that it is passing current to the amp. And there should be no remote wire going to the cap. The cap will be hot (meaning voltage across the post) all the time when the amp isn't on there is no current flow...now if you have the remote wire on the cap then you could be causing you amp to stay on even though the car is off which could be killing your battery over time. Just my two cents! Hope you figure this out...it will be interesting to know what is causing this.

A capacitor will only draw current when something down line from it is drawing current.

It could be the cap if the cap is going bad.

Did you get a second red top or after the first death just recharge it? If it went down to low its probably junk now.

Warranty return it and disconnect the radio for a day or two. Then reconnect it. However keep going out to the car every 2 hours with a DMM and check voltage.

i dunno ive checked things light the light in the glovebox and trunk the best i could, they seem to be going off, other then that the headlights are always on auto and the interior was deffenitly on door

i put the redtop on a 25 amp charge are you, i know yellowtops are made to be rundown over and over again but are you telling me the redtop cant handledying once

You could take the amp and cap off the battery for a day or to to see if the battery holds a charge!

heres the common sense way to diognose... unhook all the after market stuff... if the battery holds charge then you know you did it... if it still dies then you know its something else

I have a remote to my cap. It runs perfect and have never had power drains. I run a yellow top

EDIT: I just realized what they are for....My remotes are power outputs for my Orions

i guess i could do that disconnecting the power cable to the amp, that means the only aftermarket thing would be the headunit which is tapped the the sunroof fuse and goes off when the keys off

It took you 15mins to come up with what I already said....LOL:lol: :jk:

that has happened to me a couple times, it was my cap not shutting off. my cap, and from the sounds of things yours too, aotuomatically shuts off when no draw is present and turns on when there is, there is no remote wire unfourtunately.

no lol i got it the first time lol.. just he kept talking and no action so i had to reiderate what you said multiple times just more straight forward haha

There is no on \ off switch on a capacitor...if they did that then everytime you started the car you would be shocking the capacitor with a 12volts which could cause it to burst open..explode...etc, that's why we charge caps with a resistor before instaling into the system. The caps that do have a remote wire that run to them are simply for turning the voltage meter on on the cap. Other caps have a voltage sensing circuit that turns the voltage meter on at certain levels of voltage and off at other levels.

:lol: :lol:

and for telling the amps to turn on :)

so the caps sucking everything down in a 24+hr period, if thats it ill be screwed while this things stored in freshman parking

I got to wondering if you have checked all your connections to make sure nothing is grounding out?

that is physically impossible. caps only draw from battery, when there is a draw on the cap.

no draw on the cap, no draw on the battery.

If you can find nothing wrong in your electrical system, take the battery in to get checked (preferably where you bought it).

I have been through 3 redtops in as many years. This time, I got Autozone's house brand, and have had no problems. Normally Optima's are good for what they are designed for, but you will get some lemons out of em once in awhile (often, according to the guy doing the exchange at the counter).

And in truth, I'm not an audio guru, but back in my day, we used to run our audio equipment off a deep cycle separate from our cranking battery, with an isolator to allow charge but no draw off the primary system.

yup, bought a yellowtop and it was bad right off the shelf, wouldn't hold charge for nothing.

Ditch that cap too, boy, you don't need it.

[quote=BlackJack;481120]If you can find nothing wrong in your electrical system, take the battery in to get checked (preferably where you bought it).

I have been through 3 redtops in as many years. This time, I got Autozone's house brand, and have had no problems. Normally Optima's are good for what they are designed for, but you will get some lemons out of em once in awhile (often, according to the guy doing the exchange at the counter).

And in truth, I'm not an audio guru, but back in my day, we used to run our audio equipment off a deep cycle separate from our cranking battery, with an isolator to allow charge but no draw off the primary system. [/quote]

That's how you should still do it today if you have the room and the cash. Good Point BlackJack

hmm ok ill get the battery checked, but lonnie is there anypoints i should check for grounding out

After you get the battery checked and if it checks out I would check all the aftermarket power connections. Put a meter on the battery terminals with the car running...should read about 14v give or take...if not could be the alternator not charging the battery. Before you do all that though the quickest way to trouble shoot this problem is take the aftermarket components out of the loop. Once you eliminate the cap and the amp then the only thing ....that should be left is the head unit. If you don't have any issues then you know its either the amp or the cap, and you can put the amp back in without the cap to see if the problem still exist...if not then its the cap. If you do have an issue once you take the amp and cap out of the loop then you know it is either from the head unit or wiring to and from. Its allot quicker to trouble shoot the components first....make sure your battery is charged...and like Ryan said get a meter where you can check the voltage periodically. Good Luck!

ok the new battery it whet away, i went back and double checked all hardwireing i had done for the radar scanner and etc, it all checks out, now ive also make it so the radar and my phone chargers are only on when the car is running.

the battery still died
now im gonna let the car sit for a few hours the batter said 12.3 with teh car off and so did the cap when i locked the doors,

in a few hours when it check if the battery reads lower and that capacitro reads the same im gonna have to assume the capacitor is steadily but slowly loosing charge and drawing more form the battery, there for causeing the battery to die over a 2 or 3 day period

I went through 3 red tops in my alero before finding out what the issue was. Each time i ended up with a bad cell. If the cap is not the issue, look toward other things like gauges. My issue was my gauges. I had 3 FAZE gauges in my pod that the lights turned off but they for whatever reason were always drawing a voltage. Killed that red top repeatedly. Was after a week or more sitting though. Just my thoughts. Good luck.

wow, I wouldn't have figured you to be the type to have FAZE gauges.

yep i have had a dud yellowtop. nothing like a no-start with a pricey ass battery. screw that shit I just stick to the basics now.. I'll put in an Interstate battery when my delco dies in the balt!

this is the second redtop i had got a new one like u guys recommended, but i have led gauges, how can i check there for the issues the battery now says 12.1 and the cap says 12.1
thats down from 12.3 on both at 6:30

Hey Genius...

Take the FUSE out of the power wire up front, give it a few hours and take another measurement...

That will tell you if its because the radio stuff or if its something else...

the car was fine for 3 days with the power cable off the battery

you have found your problem!

im driving to the other side of the city tomorrow so i can go over the whole wiring job i did with my audio dude

If you are suspecting the cap, pull it out.

You need to start removing things to find the real culprit. Its not going to jump out and scream "you got me" when you look at it.

:eek:

^lulz

caps out, all my grounds checked out and my wiring did too
but cant let the car sit, its gotta get cleaneded on the inside tommorow gotta date ARGF is GONE