A Whole mess of problems. Please help with whatever you can

[nealkdc]

ok so first of all I am fairly new to the interwebs so be nice.

so I bought a '06 silver pt cruiser gt convertible BRAND NEW(!!) last August. it only had 53 test drive miles on it. I always wonder why they didn't sell it for 3 years... I saved over $12k on the car, as it was only $500 more than an '06 kelley blue book convertible 06 with over 40k miles. why not, right?

Love the car. but more importantly, I'm a huge car audio junky. I can't install much on these new plastic toys because I don't wanna break something, so I pay to get it all done.

I have an Alpine CDA-9886 cd player, a single JL AUDIO W7 10" subwoofer, an Orion HCCA-D2400 amplifier for the sub, a legacy blue 3.0 farad capacitor and an Optima yellow top Battery, to help power it all... I should be golden, right?

WRONG! damn it!

the lights always dim, the amp cuts out and blinks for 10-15 seconds and comes back on frequently, the cap always gets down to 12.xx as I'm driving, and the cd player first loses quality, and then just shuts itself off after about 30 minutes of driving. a minute or two later it turns back on and sounds great, but at five minute intervals it keeps turning off. I even bought 250 amp anl fuses to replace the original 100 amp one just incase that was the problem.

what do you guys think this is? could it be the alternator?? if it is, where do I find one for the 2006 gt model? I looked online and can only find ones for the wagon models, not the gt.

this probably isn't even the right place to ask this question, but I don't know where else to go. hopefully someone reads this and figures out what my problem is... car problem that is, don't psychanalyze the rest of me!

oh and why I was even motivated to find this place is because I want to buy new speakers to swap out my factory ones. I really have my heart set on the Alpine type R series. Or another top of the line yet affordable brand. Will someone please make it simple for me and tell me exactly which model numbers I need for the front and rear speakers. for the front, I definately want component speakers. I'm not a big fan of Polk Audio so please don't suggest those. I'm going to have either ultimate electronics or Best Buy install them.

If anyone out there on the Interwebs can help me, I'd be forever indebted.

PS. My convertible top also refuses to go all the way down, so it goes down far enough that I can drive with it, but I can't see anything but the cover in my rearview mirror and I drive during morning rush hour and that just seems too dangerous to drive that way. Which sucks because this is perfect weather for convertible in the arizona desert. But when I bought the car, it was "NEW" so it should/better be under warranty.

-Signed
Owner of PT CRUISER from Hell

REACT TO ME!

[Hooligan]

nealkdc, Welcome to the Forum!!

FYI: Threats ie: (REACT TO ME!) on this Forum don't work, I'd suggest you would edit both your posts.

[nealkdc]

Originally Posted by Hooligan

nealkdc, Welcome to the Forum!!

FYI: Threats ie: (REACT TO ME!) on this Forum don't work, I'd suggest you would edit both your posts.

REACT TO ME IS NOT A THREAT... It's a bad impersonation of Jim Rome... now that we got that cleared up, please help me...

And thanks for welcoming me with apprehensive arms

[nealkdc]

soooo... can anyone help me with any of my issues? please?

[Duster]

Knock knock knock

- Can I help you?

- I hope so bro'. Do you remeber me? I'm the guy that PAID for a sound system installation few months ago. But the damn system doesn't work. Can you fix it?




Knock knock knock

- Can I help you?

- Sure you can! I bought an old-but-new car here last autumn. I imagine the car is still under warranty, right? I'm asking because the top isn't working good...can you fix it please?

[nealkdc]

everyone's a freaking comedian...

the store wants $100+/hour to run tests to see what the problem is. Before I spend that money, as I have already spent over $2,000 on everything else, I figured I'd ask on here.

as for the convertible top, obviously my next step is to take it to the dealership. I was just curious if anyone has any idea what it could be incase they try to BS me and charge me for things I don't need/warranty should cover.

NOW will someone with any kind of actual knowledge please help?

I would love to hear from Candyman about what I should do. He seems to be the best one here as far as car audio goes. Exactly what model/make alternator do I need to replace the factory one?

[thedogg001]

Dimming lights and electrical shut offs are probably from the alternator. I have a jl 12w6 and the 500/1 jl amp and my lights dim when i hit about half volume on my deck. I just bought a yellow top optima yesterday and that didnt help with the dimming. To fix it, I believe you need to do the big 3 upgrade and get a high output alternator. The only alternator upgrade i could find is on powerbastards.com . hope that helps a little

[Knotsobright1]

With a good amount of draw on a system you will probably see headlights and dash lights dim. I had 3 W6 12 in a neon and a yellow top and cap. It sounds like you have a ground issue of some sort to be affecting all the before mentioned items.

[chris15]

If your fuses are good and the car still starts while your audio system is malfunctioning that leaves me to believe it's an alternator problem..

Just to isolate the problem, have you attempted to wire your system without the use of the cap just to see if it functions correctly? Doing so could potentially rule out your cap malfunctioning, thus reinforcing the idea that it's your alternator.

Let us know.

[bobdole369]

No need for a cap, its a further load on a strained electrical system. Take it out.

I found that after I replaced the 8 AWG wire leading from the batteries neg terminal to the chassis with a 4 AWG, my dimming problems went away completely. I'm running about 700W RMS total with a bone stock battery and alternator in a 2004 limited. No dimming, even when I was testing and had it turned WAY up into clipping territory.

You shouldn't have any issues with the 400ish watts that orion puts out (and thats a bit "optimistic".)

Did the shop run at least a 4 AWG directly from the battery back to where the amp is located? BTW that run should be fused within a foot of the battery, and run through the firewall with a grommet.