Civic-EG.com Forum 3.3.1

- Sat May 22, 2010 4:16 am #196104 recently ive wired up a 10 inch lcd, inverter,and a bumper cam into my car. I get mad noise when i run my xbox off the inverter into my aux and my bumper cam fills the screen up in this reddish blur when i start my car or start bumpin. i think my cars power is unstable! spikes and shit eatin up my box of x and anything else i wire up. my buddy just showed me a battery he just threw in his trunk that he wired up directly in parrallel to his existing batt. says it completely stabilizes spikes because they go through the plates and acid of the battery... makes sense but something tells me theres a problem with this method? does anyone have any qualms with his madness? or is this legit?

- Thu Jun 03, 2010 5:59 am #198401 I think what you're friend did works but I feel like that's a bit unnecessary and unsafe :/
What I would do is run a strong amp from the battery to the back with a double-ought gauge wire. Then run whatever you need off of the amplifier. This may be a bit more expensive.. BUT it is safer.

Don't take my word for it though, I only did car audio for a year so I'm not too experienced in the big technical stuff.

just a suggestion
Hope this helps!

[suspendedHatch]

- Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:59 pm #198492 Your problem could be caused by a bad alternator regulator, bad plug wires, bad battery, bad or missing grounds, bad aftermarket wiring, bad battery terminals, bad ignition coil. Most likely it's a bad or cheap inverter.

Did you wire the inverter directly off the battery with at least 12 gauge wire? Did you fuse it and ground it properly? Did you run the power wire near any audio signal wires? What is the current draw of the inverter according to the specs? (Watt ratings are all B/S.)

You can't just put a regular car battery in the trunk. They release hydrogen gas which pools up in the interior and goes boom. Also not so good to breathe, not to mention that it's not fun when you get in a wreck and have battery acid or the battery itself flying through the cabin. If you're going to do that, you need to get a sealed battery and mount it properly. Also, fuse the power as close to the battery post as possible, and run the power wire to the starter and to the under-hood fuse box. Ground the battery to each of the frame rails. It also doesn't hurt to run a ground to the stock ground location. Use at least 2 gauge wire except extra ground wires can be 8 gauge. The longer the wire, the thicker you have to use.

But that's not going to solve your problem. Your friend is right in saying that the battery is an electrical filter. It takes the crap your alternator dumps out and filters it into clean, stable power. When your battery is going bad, it loses this ability. If your battery ever goes dead, even though you recharge it and it seems like it works fine, it gets permanently damaged reducing it's life and it's ability to filter the alternator. But there's no reason to throw a second battery in. Just replace the first.

- Sat Jun 12, 2010 9:34 pm #200107 awesome! i have a cheap inverter from da shack rated at 350, prolly bs like u said. grounding issues, not! batt terminals noway! however i am rockin the cheapest walmart battery on the face of the planet. gonna have to bite the bullet and get an optima. good information man... like always. thanks for the insight!

[suspendedHatch]

- Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:19 pm #200311 Odyssey are better than Optima, and cheaper.