Something wierd going on -

[Greywolf]

I did the back-fit to install the radio the car came with (JVC with subwoofer ability) and when I run the radio/CD at a good volume....

The car overheats!

This just blew my mind, I have never heard of a sound system making a car heat up.


But it's true - the only change is the radio/sound head and a largish speaker box with a pair of 120W DUAL-COIL speaks, and it will walk the temperature gauge right up to the "NOPE! We don't want to go there..." end of the scale.


Huh....


Power is cumulative. I have a pair of 90 watt KW speaks in the dash, the box has 2X 120W + 2 (?) watt tweats on the back channel.

The alternator converts HP into Volts, I know this. Put a load on it, and it has to use engine HP to make it up - but not that much.

I'm wondering if I have a borderline cooling system and an alternator that has problems (Volts never dropped below twelve and a half)


I've never seen this before in all my years.


*BEFORE YOU ASK!
YES, I ran it with the radio/CD turned off, and it runs beautifully. Mid scale temp, no problems at all even with the A/C on. Just like it did on the run to Missourri


Do I need to tell ya that this seems like Alien Science? How can a draw on the alternator run up engine heat?


My plan at this point is a new water pump, thermostat, alternator, and a back flush of the radiator OUT OF THE CAR.
A new radiator pressure cap is also mandatory, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)

IE: If you don't know the condition of it - it needs replacing

[william]

Didn't read threw it all but one thought came to mind. Extra load is making the belt slip and water pump slow down?

[Greywolf]

Could be, I'm not looking at anything until tomorrow morning.

BUT IT SURE SOUNDED BITCHEN!!! :headbang:

I'll take that as the first possible when I look at it.

Q: How much drag can an alternator put on a belt?
Q2: How much drag does a wrecked alternator put on an engine?
Q3: Is there a separate set of windings that come into play when the load is big?


But the big "Q" is - what changed?

The only difference was radio/cd on or off

So whatever it is (and the install was essentially done with stock wiring) it's the electrical load of the 'HEAD' unit that pushes it over the edge

~ I think I have a marginal/borderline cooling system


This all tells me I need to bullet-proof that next.
~ To overkill if I can


"Leave everything to chance - and you will find yourself walking"

[nitrofarm]

Dude the gauge.....confirm it with another measuring source. :thumbs_up:

[ryanprins13]

You usually hear belt slip but not always. I have run some pretty big loads on my alternator and never heated it up more. Pulling a trailer with the pedal on the floor for 2 hours non stop doesnt overheat mine.
Is your fan working? Thats the first thing to verify. If its not and you have a decent load on the engine and not travelling fast it will heat up quick. Also your coolant level is full right?
Any possibility the radio is messing with the wires? Maybe a wire from the radio melted to the coolant sensor wire somewhere and their shorting when power runs through the sterio. Take an IR thermometer if you have one and verify that your actually overheating.


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[firebush357]

How quickly is it overheating? Also you said it never dropped below 12.5 Volts, is that with the Radio turned up to higher levels or just while it is running?

Are you running an amplifier with all of this or just the CD player?

[Flyin4stroke]

Something wierd going on -

Me thinks it's the gauge.
Does the car boil the coolant. Make bubbles in the coolant system?

[Advancedynamix]

You can use an infrared heat gun to check the cylinder temp with the stereo off and on to confirm that the engine is actually heating up. It does sound like a gauge problem. Overloaded ground, voltage back feeding or some other electrical issue.
You can also check to see if the fan is cycling on and off differently with the stereo on as opposed to off. If there is no change in the duration of the fan being on, you've got a guage problem (or a problem in the fan control cuircut.)

[FestYboy]

A good alt should never dip below 13.4 volts period. So a 12.5 V reading shows me that the regulator or field coils are going bad.

[bhearts]

But... Does it also overheat when you turn the head lights on.

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[Greywolf]

I sat in it tonight after the doings of today and ran up the volume after dark - no problems.

I'm thinking that anything I did not install myself so that it is verified is likely to be half-assed or cheap and needs to be replaced anyway

Either that, or the car was afraid of having my estranged wife ride in it and getting cursed somehow (I had to take her and the guy she was living with for the past ten years on base today to renew her ID card so she can still get medical benefits)

WORD: CARs have personalities, even if they ARE inanimate objects.
I don't think it likes those people.

That might seem way out there, but I just sat in the car after dark and cranked the sound system up listening to ZZTOP - and it had no problems at all.

Basic? I sat in the car in my driveway with the CD cranked up for half an hour - and it didn't do it again. It was after dark, and I just had a few brews while I watched what it did this time.

I think it's a marginal cooling pump, possible back flush needed for the radiator, and the alternator is 25 years overdue for replacement or upgrade.


The plan is as above - I don't trust the cooling pump, alternator, or the radiator. All of them have to be gone through....
If you JUST DON'T KNOW what someone before you did, you have to put your own hands on it and do it right to make sure. NEVER ASSUME! It makes an ASS out of "U" and ME...


~Adios por la noche
Dutch



PS: I LOVE ZZTOP

[tooldude]

Just some thoughts - It seems that the cooling system is borderline cooling as you are thinking - maybe not removing the higher BTU load created in the engine when driven. Assuming the coolant temp is actually rising, another possibility is that the thermostat is not opening all the way. If mine, I would start there. Then verify the alternator belt. Then check the water pump impeller for erosion/looseness. If not any of those, then I would start suspecting the radiator and internal corrosion. If the fan was a problem it should show at idle. If there was a short, I would think there would be a sudden or permanent jump on the gauge. A low voltage problem should make the gauge drop, not rise. The CTS could cause the gauge to rise if it is failing toward a low resistance, but I don't know if that's typical. It should be in the neighborhood of 350 ohms with a warmed-up engine. Electrical problems seem weird only while the cause is unknown. Where is the power tapped for that system, is it running through the ignition switch? There may be enough amperage to need a dedicated circuit through a switched relay rather than loading the ign switch more.

[Greywolf]

I tapped into the same wires that a factory radio install would have used, both for switched power and always hot.
(It has one of each)

As usual, I followed my mania for all wiring and connectors being soldered. The wire I used was typically equal to or larger than the gauge of wire I connected to and I kept the ground wire as short as possible. It's a clean job.

I also made sure that every bit of it was well insulated.

[tooldude]

Many ideas have already been presented. I believe the first thing to do is determine if the coolant is really getting hot to establish whether the condition is mechanical or electrical. Both possibilities seem possible, but it doesn't seem that the information given is complete enough to nail it either way. I still have questions like: How many total amps is that radio system pulling? Maybe it's too much load on the alternator and/or affecting the regulator. Thanks for a great puzzle with lots of opportunity to be misled, Mr. Sherlock Holmes Jr. (can I really dare to say the whole problem may have been caused by Watts son? - haha)

[firebush357]

I'm still wondering if you are running an Amp for the speakers in the back? Not for the cooling issue but for the CD Players lifespan, what kind of resistance are you running on each channel?