I am wanting to install a system but not kill my car battery, what to use?

Question

I had a system in my car before and after a month or so it began to kill the battery if i didn't crank it for a day or two. I had a capacitor but i'm not sure if it had anything to do with it. I want a simply system, 6-800 watts for a little extra, what all do i need to install this to keep my battery up? Thanks

Answer 1

If your system killed your car battery, it was installed wrong!  Take your car to someone that actually knows what they are doing and your problem will be solved.

Answer 2

Here's the best thing you can do. Contact a sales rep. at Crutchfield.com. They will help you though every step. To save you some money, you don't need a capacitor. They are nessesary when using high wattage (1600+ watts) because your alternator can't build up that much energy. To save your battery, don't run your system w/o your car turned on fully, meaning don't have your subs on when your motor isn't running. That's where you'll kill your battery. Next thing is buy the proper size amp. A sales rep from crutchfield can help you. The one thing more important than the amp itself is buying the correct gauge wire. Your wire running from your battery to the amp should be about a 4-6 gauge wire. From your amp to speakers, use abou 14-16 gauge, and for subs, use about 12-14 gauge. You also need to have a good ground. Scratch away any paint with sand paper near a bolt that you can attatch the ground cable to. It needs to be a clean metal surface, just like that of your battery terminals, it works the same way. Then install the remote wire. On my headunit (Pioneer), its labeled System Remote Control. That doesn't mean its the wire that lets you use the remote control that you system may have came with like mine did. Instead, its the wire that tells the amp when to power up when the headunit is turned on. This could be your problem as well. If you didn't have your remote wire hooked up correctly, it may be powering up and never shutting down, which is like leaving your headlights on. Any other ?'s feel free to ask me, or ask the sales rep.