# electrical issue 97 jeep grand cherokee after installing amp



## julesjeepin (Jun 7, 2008)

Problem started with the installation of an amplifier. When vehicle was started, it runs for 2 seconds and shuts down everytime. Then the battery is completely dead and will not take a charge. Other electrical failures include no parking lights, no instrument cluster, no power windows, no heater controls. All other electrical systems seem to be fine. There are no blown fuses (mini or max) unsure if any relays are bad. This all happened in a matter of 1 hour. What could possibly cause this many failures all at once with no sign of any electrical damage? Can a shorted battery cause partial electrical failure as described? And more importantly, why would the truck start and run for 2 seconds and stall? Please help


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

Hey Jules!

First off, it could be anything. But more than likely it is something that happened when the AMP was installed.
Look for simple things, like a ground screw going into a wire harness ETC.......
Did you check the fuse panel under the hood also, usually there are two fuse panels is why I ask you?
AMP only uses ground and power so it should not be too hard to figure out what is causing it.........
Post back with any info you may have gotten.


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## julesjeepin (Jun 7, 2008)

Well here's what we found. Upon putting power thru the amp and turning on ignition, the remote power wire was drawn thru the radio's accessory power, which was the problem. It drew so many amps that it welded the parking light relay. Then blew the 10 amp fuse to the parking lights. The amp finished off the battery. When grand cherokee batteries are low or dead, gauge cluster and fuel pump do not function, even though headlights and starter will still operate. With a new battery, and just to be safe, removing the amp, everything worked again. Parking light problem was just fuse and relay. Why exactly the surge went thru the parking light circuit, I will never know. That's a jeep for ya! Thanks for your responses!


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

You must have a big amp for it to do that........... like four amps on one turn on lead.


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## julesjeepin (Jun 7, 2008)

The jeep has infiniti gold system. It is possible that the accessory lead also turned on factory amp (which is 400 watts) and the additional amp is a 1200 watt. I had this system hooked up in another jeep and it worked fine. It powered up good in the grand cherokee as well (except for all the electrical problems) but only would put base thru sub when speaker balance was put all the way to the left or right. Weird huh? The factory radio in both situations did not have rca jacks so ive been using a converter. That could have been the reason for bad input. The power surge? who knows.


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

Jeep head units are prone to easy breaking I donno why. Running an after market through or off it is just asking for issues.Coupled with the factory amp, = one big head ache to me. I would either leave it alone or just replace the whole system.


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