Up until about a year ago, I had installed a Rockford 300 watt amp and a MTX 200 watt amp in my '95 civic EJ. I was having problems with my car starting and decided to change the battery, so I went out and bought an Optima yellow top. After 1 year and 1 month with that battery, I was experiencing rough starts and a rough idle for about 10 seconds and the car would have a regular idle. I would "gas" the car during a rough idle to get it to a normal idle. The car would not start one day, so I jumped it. After jumping the car, I would run it for about 10 minutes, shut it off, then start it again immediately. However, after shutting it off, the car would not start back up again.

I took it to a shop and they said that the battery was completely discharged and was not charging since it was overly depleted. They did claim that when they put on the power wires on the positive terminal, the current did drop and they claim that something electrical is still on in the car. I replaced the battery with some cheap one and took the car home.

I pulled the stereo fuse to my deck, along with the other 2 fuses for my amps. When I start my car, I don't get a rough idle and it starts right up perfectly.

Now, it's hard to believe that when my car is off and just sitting my amps are draining current because they're not supposed to stay on.

Shops have evaluated my alternator with their load test and claim that it's okay along with my battery being okay.

I've been through about 5 batteries in 9 years.

I'm not an expert at charging systems, but would this be an alternator problem?