I have a 1999 Honda Civic EX. I have a Sony Explode cd player, 2 - 12" subs and a 460-watt amp. I have herd of other people having problems with civic's and amps and I seem to have the same. My battery went bad. It would not charge enough from my alternator. I unhooked my amp and bought a new battery and it has stopped but I am afraid to hook my amp back up because I don't want to buy another battery. I need to run my amp from another source (like an extra battery of sorts) instead of the car battery. How do I go about this without spending a fortune or f%@3in up my car??? I had this system in my 94 talon and had no problem. This is the first time I have ever encountered a car where my amp ruins the car battery.

 

Is the amp off when the car is off? If the remote wire from the HU isn't working right it could be making the amp 'on' all the time. Don't play the music for more than 30mins with the key in the ACC if hte engine isn't on. I don't think 460W is all that much for a stock civic alternator, but it may be approaching the limits.

 

Yes the amp is off when the car is off. I don't know what the prob is. I have been hooking up car audio for years and have never encountered this prob. I have herd that peeps with civic's have had to use a seperate battery but I know nothing about that type of stuff

 

I think our stock civic alts make what, 80A at 1200rpm? Check to see if there is a local alt rebuilder who will re-wind yours to 100A-115A that should do the trick. And get a bigger batt? I guess you could get a sepearate batt but thats extra wiring and more weight etc etc.

 

I have no room under the hood for a bigger battery though. The little on under there now barely fits. If I do that to my alt. will it put more of a strain on it? Sorry if that's a ridic. question, but I've never had an import before, all this is new to me.

 

do you bump it hard and/or drive short distances?? if so, the amp is eating up all the power in the battery and you don't run the engine long enough to recharge it. you could buy a better/audio battery with or without a reserve or get an auto voltage sensor that kills the amp when the battery voltage is too low (like a batcap). or take it easy and play your system like a normal person. you can check the voltage level of your battery using a digital multimeter at various times to see what's going on. maybe that battery was too old and needed to be changed.

 

Optima and Odyssey batteries are better at holding power than our stockers, they do cost more but you get more bang for buck in the same size as stock.

 

Assuming your amp is 460W RMS, you would hardly, if ever, use all 460W, and the average current draw will be about 50%, it takes about 65A of current to make 460W of RMS power, your probably averaging around 30-40 amps of current draw, [when cranked] your stock alt. is more then capable of of keeping up with that, unless there is something wrong with it.

Same goes for the batt., [even the stock one] again, unless there was something wrong with it.

I would be more inclined to thing you had a problem with the batt. from the get-go.

Have a load/gravity check done on the charging system, most batt./alt. shops will do that for free, it only takes a few min. 94