I Need Some Help!

[LgndKller20073]

I have a few questions and I'm hoping someone out there can help me.

1. I'm running 6 speakers through my car right now. I have the front and sail panels on a 4 channel amp and the hatch on another 4 channel. I had to run the hatch speakers through speaker level inputs. The only way I get sound out of them is if the Power IC on the head unit is turned on. Is there anyway to get around this. Secondly, I am continually blowing speakers in the hatch and I'm not sure why. The gain on the amp is turned all the way down and the crossover is sitting right at 80Hz. The amp is rated at 40 watts RMS and the speakers support 40 watts RMS. I'm not sure why, but when the speakers are on, the sound is still distorted. Why is it distorting in those speakers and why are they continually blowing? I've checked all the connections and they seem fine. This problem has confused me to no end

2. I just installed my sub and I've been watching the volts carefully. As of right now, I'm running at about 1680 watts RMS total power or 3760 watts peak power. If I play any music with deep bass(i.e. r&b), the headlights dim and sometimes the sub will cut out or the music will cut out. When the music cuts it comes back on after a few seconds; but when the sub cuts, it's gone until I turn off and turn my car back on. The volts during this time are down around 7-9(so really low). I have a 1 farad capacitor installed, but I just ordered a 3 farad capacitor to replace it with. Will the larger capacitor help stop this problem or should I look into regrounding my alternator or even upgrading both my alternator and battery(probably to an Optima)?

[ultra_badass]

have you done what they call the big 3 where you hook the alt with double00 wire to the batttery + side then the battery from the - side to the chassy of the car...then from the motor to the chassy of the car the strut town will work for the ground from the motor and what kind of amps and what kind of subs

[LgndKller20073]

no, i haven't done the big 3 yet. i was just reading about it online. I'm going to probably have to replace the alternator too. I'm running 3 amps:

Alpine PDX 4.150(150 watts RMS x 4)
Alpine PDX 1.1000(1000 watts RMS x 1)
Alpine MRP-F250(40 watts RMS x 4)
Alpine Type X 10"(1000 watts RMS)

Pretty heavy system load. I think that doing the big 3 along with replacing the alternator and the bigger cap should work. I just replaced the battery with a Duralast(not deep cycle).

[ultra_badass]

your alt has pretty much nothing to do with it...it does but its not causing your amp to shut off...you have more of a grounding problem then anything....I have a blazer v6 same size alt as your i believe with 2 autotek 100.2 and pcx ppi 250...crossover..and 2 pioneer 3004 spl's subs...everstart battery...no cap...sure the lights would dim and the alt gauge would down to like 10 volts but never had an amp to shut off...but those where the old school amps....hope this helps a lil

[bigrondownhiller]

i would definatly upgrade the alternator and battery. why did you have to run the hatch speakers off of speaker level inputs? couldn't you just split the rear rca's to the hatch amp?

[LgndKller20073]

how would i have split the rear rca's? if somebody could tell me how to do that, I would rather have them ran off rca's. i think that would help my problem. I'm probably going to get some money together and do everything. the big 3, upgrading my battery and alternator, and installing the bigger cap. or i think i could install a capacitor in the headlight relay to stop them from dimming. right now it's like a strobe light when i drive at night lol

[bigrondownhiller]

they make a y splitter. if the amps are run close enough together the splitter can come off the rca's to the amps. found this. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RCA-Y...QQcmdZViewItem. you can probably pick them up anywhere they sell stereo equipment, best buy, circuit city possibly even walmart.

[LgndKller20073]

I don't get how the y splitter works. So i run one set of rca's from the head unit back to my amps, how does it split off? will i have basically the right speakers in one amp and the left speakers in the other amp?

[LgndKller20073]

never mind about the y splitter thing. I installed one of them and it made my hatch speakers sound A LOT better. It got rid of the whining sound completely and i can turn the gain and volume up without distortion. thanks.

for those of you that have done the big 3 or replaced your alternator, how much did it cost? what AMP did you use for the alternator? I don't want to replace it with just an OEM replacement. Is the one you get from autozone or checker an OEM replacement or will have a higher AMP rating?

[LgndKller20073]

i was talking to somebody today and they suggested instead of ugrading the alternator and wires, i should get a kinetik battery. has anybody had one of these before? was it any good? what size would you recommend, the 800 or 1400?

[bigrondownhiller]

here is a company that makes high output alternators.http://www.powermastermotorsports.com/.
i would still upgrade the wiring.

[ultra_badass]

for the much wattage or so you need 00 wire it will help with the power issue

[LgndKller20073]

i'm probably going to start by upgrading the battery to the kinetik 1400 to see if that helps, then if i have to, i'll upgrade the wiring and finally the alternator. I'm hoping not to have to do all 3 because the battery alone is $200.