I did the Big three in 0 guage. I noticed the amp only cuts out when the car is running. When the engine is off, its fine. I thought the battery would supply some juice when the alternator can't keep up.

 

Sorry guys, but I've got a stupid question. What're the "big three" everyone keep referring to? Thanks for the help.

 

Big three is upgrading the battery neg. to chassis, battery positive to alternator positive and alternator negitive ( which is the alternator's casing or mounting bracket) to chassis. This upgrade should be done with 4 guage, or bigger, power or ground wire. I used black loom to protect the alternator pos. to bat. pos. I had 4 guage but replaced with 0 guage. This upgrade helps the car's electrical system.

There is a step by step with pics of the big 3 on this site. I think I found them in the Lancer section of this forum.

 

^^^ Thanks for the help man.

 

What you need to do is run one piece of 2 or bigger (0 gauge is what I would use) and then at the amps split that to one 4 gauge to each amp. Make your amp grounds as SHORT as possible. The longer the ground the more voltage drop you will see. Also How do you have your remote wire hooked up on each amp? You should be running a seperate wire to each amp by themselves. JL amps only shut off if the voltage dips below 11 volts. Upgrade the wiring first, before you get a second battery or HO alternator. I don't think you need either of those if you main battery is a 1000 CCA battery then you are fine and you may want to have your alternator tested, make sure it is putting out over 100 amps, if not then a new/or upgraded one would be your best choice.

 

Here's an update to my sub amp cutting out problem. I installed Stinger battery terminals. Resoldered all 0 ga. big three ring terminals using a micro torch. Ran 4 ga. power and ground directly to the battery. The amp still cuts out.

I have a Kinetic HC 1800 on order. One day, it will all be good.

 

im running about 1400 rms on stock alt,but using a decent capacitor,im advising you do the same and buy a decent capacitor to save your alternator

 

Thanks for your reply. Were you having problems before the cap? Amp cutting out? Dimming lights?

 

I replaced my main battery with a Kinetik 1800. It fit in the stock location but it was a tight fit. The termanals on this battery are reversed from the stock battery. I had to reroute some of my wires.

The amp still cuts out during some songs within the higher frequency sub bass range. In the lower frequency range, it's all good. I noticed overall louder volume. It did improve my dimming lights during high volume bass hits. Going from 80 lowpass to 65 seems to help.

My next move, maybe a cap. I'm good for now.
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Caps do not help with voltage drop !

I dont think its a Voltage problem , its looking like the amp is getting pissed off b/c of cliping and/or impedance ...

 

From the JL owners manual e1800d

"Speaker loads below 2 ohm's nominal are not recommened and may cause the amplifer to inatiate a protect mode and shut itself off"

You are runing right at 2 ohms , so the impedance might be droping at certain frequency's causing it to go into protect mode .......

 

Moved my post to a new thread. Good Luck!!

 

Thanks to all, for your help.

I would think that when JL designed the amp to be 2 ohm stable, they considered that music is dynamic and the resistance of the sub would change depending on the frequency.

The sub only cuts out when the engine is running. With the engine off, all is good. I have heard from some people and in this thread that JL amps are sensitive to voltage drops. The HO alternator should take care of this.

As long as I dont crank the system too much, it wont cut out. I will recheck the input sensitivity adjustment since I installed the Kinetik 1800 battery.

 

You just answered your own question .

Voltage with car running (should be) 13.8-14.4v "amp cuts out"
Voltage with car off 12.6-13.2v "is all good"

Dosent sound like a voltage/amperage problem........

 

Find a friend that has a 2ohm stable amp and swap it and see if it still does it. Or go buy one and return it lol.