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Electrical Issues
This might not be the exact place to ask, but I am lost. I have a 2011 Chevy Cruze Ls 1.8l Auto. Great car, I've put around 20k miles on it already and only had to change out a cam sensor, besides regular maintenance. Right when I bought the car I installed a sound system (my hobby). I've installed many systems, so yes its all installed correctly. I will put what the install consists of down below. When the car is idling (not moving) the high bass notes and the low bass notes play perfectly fine. Now, when I'm driving down the road, the low and deep bass plays perfectly fine however any song with really high bass notes is when things start happening. When the really high bass starts hitting, the radio will cut out and the bass will just hit, stop, hit, stop and so on. I have a bass knob. The bass will hit, stop, hit, stop until I turn the bass knob back down, then the radio will turn back on and continue where it left off like nothing happened. Also, when the high bass notes hit, along with the radio cutting out until the knob gets turned down, the gauge cluster will display " Service traction control" or " Service Stabilitrak" turn the bass knob down, everything continues like nothing even happened. It makes no sense to me. The deep louder bass will play fine, but songs with high bass... not gonna happen. Any help here would be much appreciated.
Battery voltage drops like 13.3 at max so that's not an issue.
Build:
Stock alternator with "big 3" 0 gauge wire
Single run of 0 gauge back to amplifier in trunk (also the amp is grounded in trunk, sanded the surface nice and shiny)
Amplifier is an Audiopipe APMI 2k
Rockford Fosgate Balanced Line Driver (factory radio doesn't have RCA's) ( tapped in to left and right tweeters for signal)
Subwoofer is a Sundown X-15 Dual 2ohm wired to amp at 1ohm
Box is 4 cu. ft. tuned to 32hz
Battery voltage drops like 13.3 at max so that's not an issue.
Build:
Stock alternator with "big 3" 0 gauge wire
Single run of 0 gauge back to amplifier in trunk (also the amp is grounded in trunk, sanded the surface nice and shiny)
Amplifier is an Audiopipe APMI 2k
Rockford Fosgate Balanced Line Driver (factory radio doesn't have RCA's) ( tapped in to left and right tweeters for signal)
Subwoofer is a Sundown X-15 Dual 2ohm wired to amp at 1ohm
Box is 4 cu. ft. tuned to 32hz
1 - 5 of 5 Posts
I can think of a few things to start with. First, Negative Battery Cable. If you've still got the stock battery cable, that can cause some of the symptoms you're talking about.
Next, how old if the battery? The Cruze is a computer on wheels. When the battery is on it's last legs, you'll get some strange electrical problems. Even though the power comes from the alternator, the battery still acts as a filter/capacitor. When that fails, the car gets wonky.
Next, when you ran the cables, what did you do with the car's current sensor? The donut in the battery negative ground lead? By design, that's supposed to tell the car how much current is being used to charge the battery. Depending on how you've run the cables, you may be confusing the charging system.
Speaking of charging systems - the Cruze runs an intelligent system. It will lower the voltage when you need engine power and ramp it up when coasting. Consequently, the voltage does change depending on the driving - by design. That might explain why you have a problem when driving.
I'm no car audio guy, but you might want to consider adding one of those huge caps by the bass amp so the cap softens the impact of the bass notes on the battery. This might be nothing more than your audio system pushing the car's power system too hard and freaking out the computers. Computers do NOT like bad power.
Next, how old if the battery? The Cruze is a computer on wheels. When the battery is on it's last legs, you'll get some strange electrical problems. Even though the power comes from the alternator, the battery still acts as a filter/capacitor. When that fails, the car gets wonky.
Next, when you ran the cables, what did you do with the car's current sensor? The donut in the battery negative ground lead? By design, that's supposed to tell the car how much current is being used to charge the battery. Depending on how you've run the cables, you may be confusing the charging system.
Speaking of charging systems - the Cruze runs an intelligent system. It will lower the voltage when you need engine power and ramp it up when coasting. Consequently, the voltage does change depending on the driving - by design. That might explain why you have a problem when driving.
I'm no car audio guy, but you might want to consider adding one of those huge caps by the bass amp so the cap softens the impact of the bass notes on the battery. This might be nothing more than your audio system pushing the car's power system too hard and freaking out the computers. Computers do NOT like bad power.
Try tapping into the rear left and right out puts for the bass signals .
1 - 5 of 5 Posts
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