I recently installed my sub and amp and was wondering how much power does it drain from the battery with the engine off. Reason being, I sometimes listen to my music while waiting in my car with the engine off and after less than 10 mins of music, I am unable to start my car.

I've had to jump start my car twice already. I am running a 4 gauge kit with a JL 500/1 and a 10" JL w3v2

Do i need to change my battery or is this normal power consumption. I don't plan on listening to music with the car off again. I'm just looking into the future, if i ever leave my lights on over night or something.

 

Your setup doesn't sound like enough to drain the battery in 10min.

Most auto parts shops can test the battery for you.

 

Depends how loud you are running your system.
If your audio system is 500 watts, you could be drawing up to 40A or so continous if you're really maxing it out.

10 minutes at 40A discharge is enough to drain your battery enough so that it doesn't start.

 

I wasn't playing it loud.. I have the amp set to a quarter of the power. so it should be pusing 125 - 150 watts to the sub.

 

I'd say get a farad cap and a redtop and you will be okay. I am running two JL Audio 12W6V2's, 1000/1 and a 300/4. I swapped over to a 1 farad and redtop and havent had any issues yet. I to sometimes leave the car in the A/C postion while listening to music but havent had an issue starting the car afterwards.

 

How old is your battery?

Mine started to do this when mine was about to go out

I hardly did play the setup with the car off, but when I did (for a month or so) the battery would struggle

but then again, 150 amps of current is a bit much

also a cap wont help your car start, caps get their energy from the battery and alternator, so a cap will not help in this situation...they rarely help in any situation

 

A capacitor is NOT going to help at all with battery drain issues.

The only reason those big capacitors are used is because due to the wiring (inductance mostly) you can't get the instanteous energy required when hitting big bass notes on the amplifiers. Its just an energy storage resevoir. It does not make energy nor improve efficiency.

The battery will still drain just as much whether you have no caps or a hundred caps.

In fact, it will actually drain MORE with the caps because of the internal leakage of the capacitors, although this is usually on the order of mA (if that) and the effect is negligible. But it is more nonetheless.

 

Where on the battery does it say the date? I had the battery checked at autoozone and the rating numebr they gave me was 390+ which was "decent."

As of now when I leave my car out overnight, I can't start my car the next morning without a jump. This has happen 2, 3 times.

Another thing i forgot to mention, this has started happening recently after I installed my Viper 5901 alarm with remote start. And the temperature outside has been dropping during the nights to about 40-50 degrees.

 

Just to add, the capacitors require charging and it has to do it VERY quickly, just listen to the bass notes and you can tell how quick it needs to charge...it's charging rate is nowhere near that of a battery.

I would replace the battery, but look into several ones. I personally recommend Odyssey and BatCap batteries besides Optima.

I don't have a system myself quite yet, but if I live my HID's on (fogs and low beam) with the car off for some time, it drains my battery. It actually happened a few too many times, probably 3 or 4 times and then I had issues with the battery and I replaced it with with an Odyssey PC1200. Problem solved. That battery itself is a beast. In my previous car I would be able to jump start cars instantly with my car being off. I would leave the lights on overnight and the car would fire up right away.

Save the money instead of buying a cap, and buy a better battery. The OEM will go out eventually.

 

I know close to nothing about batteries, but it seems pretty obvious you need a new one. You're probably still running the OEM one from your 05 which means it is over 4 years old. I've been told 5 years is the max to expect from an OEM battery, so if you've jumped it several times then it's obviously going to decrease the lifespan.

A rating of 'decent' along with trouble starting means your battery needs replacing. If 390+ is the cold cranking amps then that's definitely low. I just got a new battery for my 04 and I can't remember the number but I believe mine had over 700 cold cranking amps.

 

the stock battery has just under 500 cold cranking amps i believe. your standard aftermarket battery however usually has atleast 500 some even have closer to 800. I just replaced my battery with one that has approximately 625. has a 4 year complete warranty i believe.

Its from Costco, it was a pretty good deal - look into it.