The amp is definitly drawing on the alt. When i crank up the volume the lights bounce with the bass ... could it be that its drawing too much than the alternator cn charge and because its only being driven a few miles each day its not enough to keep the battery charged ?

Dont know if this will work but heres a link to a video of the system at full tilt with the lights flickering .... BTW ITS NOT MY CD IN THE DECK lol....

sorry for the low quality video .... http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x...urrent=024.flv

 

Logic says disconnect the amp for a few weeks and see if that is the issue. But based on your last post this may have nothing to do with the charging system. As a general rule batteries to not recharge themselfs. Atlease not much. To go from no start to a starts fine with no battery charge inbetween suggests a problem in either the Start/ignition system or the VAT's system.

 

I thought exactly the same thing.... I pulled the fuse on the amp and ill have to see if that chnges anything ...

 

ummmm do you have a capacitor (spell check) for your stereo system??? a lot of people throw in subs and neglect to add a cap... if sometimes it starts and sometimes it doesnt have you tried replacing the terminals that connect to the battery??? sometimes they arent getting enough contact to crank it clicks just like a dead battery would.... it happens a lot at my work where people will just wiggle the cables and car starts right back up..... just a thought

 

Since ive been having these problems ive been looking into possible solutions in the event the system is the problem. Everything i have read so far is telling me that a capasitor may not solve my problems because they discharge so quickly, not only will the alternator have to run the system it will have to keep the cap charged... If it is indeed the system, its looking like i need to upgrade the alt and get bigger pos and neg leads and also a bigger lead for my alt.

I was hoping a smaller alt. pulley would do the trick because im confident that if the car were driven regularly on the freeway there would be no charging issue. But because its only driven around town in short hops here and there its not able to run everything and keep the battery charged at the same time.

but as pointed out by others if when i get home and it cranks right back up it seems like its charging fine but come out the next day and its dead the problem may lie elsewhere... When its dead its dead..... It will crank right back up with a jump. so it seems like there are just times when it wont charge... Could that be caused by ignition/vats?

 

next time it seems dead instead of jumping try wiggling the cable a bit and see if it starts.... thie cap is what saved my buddies car when we installed it he was having his lights flicker when the car was on and his battery seemed to die after a week of regular driving after we installed the cap his lights stopped flickering and he no longer had battery issues.... thats why i suggested trying it

 

"I was hoping a smaller alt. pulley would do the trick because im confident that if the car were driven regularly on the freeway there would be no charging issue. But because its only driven around town in short hops here and there its not able to run everything and keep the battery charged at the same time."

If you're driving it, even just a few miles around town, the alternator will keep up with demand. That's what cars are built to do. You might want to check the terminals and cable for corrosion going to the battery, or even just replace the cable all together. Sometimes they will look fine, but underneath it all the cable has corroded away and is not visible. Also, i'd check the connections going to your starter, make sure your ground is good. In a somewhat related note, i was working on a kia once that would run fine, but we couldn't get the thing to start sometimes. It would run and drive fine, but the next time we shut it off, it wouldn't start up again! We tried push starting, checked all the connections, battery had good power, alternator was working...Turns out, the connection going to the computer was loose and would get kicked by someones foot so next time we killed it, it wouldn't start(the car was completely stripped, body and all. it only had the bare minimum to drive around a parking lot! Gotta love shop class.). Clamped the connection back down, and its been doing great since! Check your computer connection.

 

Interesting, Ill have to check on that...

No issues so far after pulling the fuse on my amp.

MY brother told me to lock the car up with the hood open, wait fifteen minutes after i shut off the motor then disconnect the negetive side of the battery. Then, place a test light between the cable and the negitive side of the battery. He said the light should be very dim or not lit at all. That means theres nothing drawing on the battery, If however the light is lit bright that means something is drawing. There was no light.... Even after i hooked the amp back up .... Didnt know thats how you test for a draw on you battery but he knows more than i do ....

 

my friend just had a similar problem.. sometimes the car would just die out..

turned out to be a bad fuse.. just a thought

 

Two weeks with the amp unplugged and not a single problem .....