help!! car lossing all power with amp wire atta

[tommyd369]

My cars being a pos. Ive had a my system for awhile now(two 10" an amp and 1 farad capacitor, all fosgate wiring) and then a couple days ago i lost all power to my car, it wouldnt turn over, no lights no beeps nothing!! i narrowed it down to this distribution block thing i have attached to my positive part of the battery. When i wiggled the amp wire it would turn the power on and off, so i took off the amp wire and i got everything to work and turn on and things are all good with no amp wire hooked up, then if i attach the wire everything dies again!! wtf is going on, is my battery dead or the alternator or what!!!

[Rogue9]

sounds like your amp is always on draining the battery???
check the remote wire?

[syc0path]

No, the amp isn't draining the battery, becuz the battery was ok once the power wire was removed. I'm thinking u've got some corrosion issues - I bet the ring terminal for the amp wire and the battery cable are made from different alloys, and having dissimilar metals next to each other increases the chance of corrosion. Disconnect the positive terminal of the battery and clean everything (battery terminal, battery cable, amp wiring, etc) w/ a wire brush. Then spray w/ WD-40 to make sure everything is cleaned and protected.

BTW, my g/f just got a 96 GASE... where did u run your power wire thru the firewall?

[tommyd369]

about the firewall, if your looking at the engine, standing in front of it, look to the top right, as far as you can go, and i drilled a hole down, so when you get in your car, put your head under the steering wheel and where the hood release thing is at, look behind that and all the way up at the top is the hole you drilled, it workes perfectly cause after you drop the wire through the hole it lines up perfectly with the plastic moldings for the door trim, so you can run your wire underneath that all the way to the back of the car under the rear seats....help this helps ya....

[Mike Jung]

Originally posted by syc0path
...Then spray w/ WD-40 to make sure everything is cleaned and protected...

I was told by someone, when I was buying & changing my battery:

NOT to use WD-40 on the battery terminals/electrical contacts; because it is flammable.
He knew of a person's car going up in flames because of using WD-40.

To use like Vasoline instead on it.

[MattBatt]

Ok that sounds like the punchline to a million and one jokes but seriously folks....

Now about that problem you said that the car had power when the amp wire was disconnected but didn't when it was connected? That sounds like a short of some kind but that would be impossible because you have a fuse within at least 2 feet of your battery terminal and you grommeted that hole you drilled because if you didn't the raw metal would rub a hole in the wire exposing wire and shorting the battery...Right.

[tommyd369]

no gromet, but wouldnt it blow the inline fuse, because the inline fuse is like 6-12 inches from the battery...

[gagt13]

omg....my car does that also.......i cant figure out what it is, alls i kno is i open my door slam it shut n then start the car n goes right over.. idk its wierd...... the guy at the local shop thinks that the passlack thing is throwing a bad code or sumthin

[tommyd369]

after i unhooked all "after market" wires going to the distribution blcok thing i have attached to my batter post my car works fine, but a couple times when id shut my door to hard it did something to cut all power, nothing worked, so i popped the hood, moved kinda moved the thing on the battery post around(i loosened it by movin it) then at the right position my car would have power again does this mean its the thing i have hooked to the battery post??

[MattBatt]

Maybe
Do you have a clamp style battery post connector or is it a large O-Ring you bolted on under the battery post?
have you checked to make sure that the battery post is tightened Pos and Neg? DON"T tighten too tight you can crack something in there and leak battery acid all over everything (done it twice with AC Crappo batteries).

[tommyd369]

its weird after i unhooked everything it works all good, then i get the amp wire and touch it to the thing i have on the battery post i loose all power, i take it off and **** doesnt work still, so i wiggle the thing on the post(i attached it and used the stock battery bolt to hold it down, through the o right) and i get power when i wiggle it to the right "section"

[MattBatt]

I'm confused

[tommyd369]

heres what is attached to the battery post...and amp amp wire was connected into one of the holes.....

[tommyd369]

another pic....

[tommyd369]

i have that attached on the battery post, closest to the batter then with the other cables on the other side of this thing, then the post bolt holding everything tight to the battery....are you still confused, if i wiggle this thing shown in the pics, the power will go on/off....

[gobraves02002]

have u tried running a power wire straight from the other positive terminal to see if it works from there???

[tommyd369]

like totally remove that voodoo crap, is it called a distribution block??

[gobraves02002]

run a power cable from you main positive terminal, then from the power cable that has inline fuse attach dist block and see if works then

[syc0path]

OT to use WD-40 on the battery terminals/electrical contacts; because it is flammable.
He knew of a person's car going up in flames because of using WD-40.

To use like Vasoline instead on it.

Well I guess it's possible WD-40 could catch on fire, but u would have to have some major corrosion or a really bad connection to generate that kind of heat -- the battery terminal should never even get warm to the touch. U could always use the non-flammable Liquid Wrench teflon stuff... I don't think Vaseline would be a good idea, becuz it doesn't conduct electricity. If u really wanna do it right, use dielectric grease.

Anyway, getting back to tommy's question... GM battery bolts are pretty short -- how did u get that huge distro block in there and still connect to the battery??? It must be hanging on by a thread, and that's not good for electrical conduction. I've seen cases where there's a poor connection, but just enough power gets thru to heat it up a little bit. Once it starts to get warm, the metal expands a little bit, it makes better contact, and it works fine. I think u might have a situation like that here... when u hook up the power wire, it provides just enough drain that it prevents that little bit of power from flowing to warm up the connection. The fact that u'r able to move the distro block by hand indicates it isn't tight enough. U might be better off to just buy a large gauge ring terminal at an auto parts store and use that to connect to the battery, then run a short piece of heavy gauge wire to a distro block to power all your stuff.

BTW, thanx for the tip on the power wire... turns out there was already a hole in that spot -- maybe the previous owner had a system in it.

[tommyd369]

my problem fixed!! bad connection on the dist block, i took it off and just hooked up the amp wire to the battery bolt, everythings good now, thank you everyone for your help and input! and about the firewall question, i had a hole already when i bought the car, but it was really small, small enough for car alarm wires, so next to it i had to drill a hole for a 4 gauge wire, pain in the a$$!! i was afraid i was gonna screw something up on the other side....