have any of you guys with aftermarket amps had power issues?

[DraggnFrameGMC]

What exactly did they fix? They just tightened the battery clamp?
my grounding block is a piece of metal I made that has a few holes with screws to put my stereo wire grounds in and tighten down. Then I sanded the battery area wall, bolted it with 2 bolds and ran a bead of weld to ensure the connection. I machined it at work

[kiteman]

so i think i finally know what's going on.

the stock battery has a main clamp on each terminal, with two separate bolts on each clamp. one bolt connects the car's main battery cable to the battery clamp, and the other bolt tightens the clamp to the battery itself. when i did the install i used the large knukonceptz ring terminals which were too big for the bolt that connects the clamp to the car cable. so instead i barely was able to connect them to the bolt that tightens the clamp. this option was fine for 2 years.

what the dealer said and showed me is that the nut was loosening at the top because the ring terminals were so big. they said the nuts only had 1, maybe 2 threads to hold on to the bolt, and that as a result the battery clamp itself was loosening on the battery, causing everything connected to the clamp to sometimes get insufficient/intermittent power. i guess maybe the ground was loosening every now and then to create the power failure i experienced.

to be honest it all sounded reasonable, albeit i wished i had figured it out instead of paying the dealer $115 for an hour's worth of work. i figured after 2 years of working fine, the problem couldn't have anything to do with my wiring.

i bought some of the smaller ring terminals today and connected them to the other bolt, so we'll see how she rides in the next few weeks to make sure the problem doesn't persist. feel free to call me a dumbass, i do feel like one a bit. lesson learned here: don't EVER buy those big bulky ring terminals for our cars!

[Trentin24]

Originally Posted by kiteman

my car just died the other day while i was driving down the road, including the steering wheel locking up. tried to jump, restart, nothing. the next day it started right up no jump needed. because of the steering wheel locking i thought it was very dangerous to drive, i took it to the dealer and they said it died because i have aftermarket amp power cables hooked to the battery. they say this causes my car battery cables not to have a proper connection to the battery.

if you guys know, our batteries have a separate connection point on the +/- where amp cables can be attached (see link below, posts pointing up are separate from the actual cable connections coming from the car), which is where i attached them. i don't see how that is possible for cables connected here to interfere with the main battery cables connection to the battery, not to mention i check this before i left for the dealer and all connections were tight.

the problem now is twofold in that they are making me pay for this "fix" and i don't really think it's fixed at all and i'm concerned for my safety driving the darn thing.

have you guys ever had this happen or see any way this could happen? maybe there is something i'm not considering that could be going on (and the dealer has a good point and just not explaining properly)? i've had the amp hooked up for 2 years and nothing like this has ever occurred.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1373987908

Did the steering wheel actually lock up? Or did you just lose power steering?

[yzark99]

Here's the way I hook up to the battery: with a copper mechanical lug. They are skinny enough to tighten the battery bolt down, they have sizes to fit huge wires, and they cost way less than the specialty ring terminals.