Vaquero/Voyager Stereo Amp and Speaker Upgrade and Impressions of the Results

[Lumberjack]

Eliminate ALL possible sources and disconnect amp completely and "bench test", run a independent/temp power and ground wire to amp and even use a separate to make easier and see if it STILL draws.

Originally Posted by mswans90

Alright, I did a little testing with my multimeter to see what this amp is drawing for power with the ignition off. I pulled out the 25A fuse and have the multimeter in series with the amplifier now. I have the remote signal wire completely disconnected for this test, so there are no worries of it being hooked up incorrectly.

It looks like this amplifier is drawing .037A, or 36.87mA all the time while the bike is off. 37 milliamps Doesn't seem like much, but is this enough to drain a battery over a week? Anyone else wanna pull their amplifier fuse and measure theirs?

[mswans90]

Alright, I did the same speaker/amplifier upgrade posted here. All worked well, but I have an intermittent parasitic draw now that kills my bike battery after one week of sitting. Heres what I did tonight:

Completely removed/disconnected the amplifier and hooked it up to a new source. Draws 34 mA (first picture)

Got pissed, disassembled the circuit board from the case in hopes of finding the board shorting to the case. Found nothing, no components look clearly smoked. (2nd picture)

Light handling/twisting of the board made the draw intermittent anywhere from 0mA to 50mA. I can't quite pinpoint the problem area of the board. (3rd and 4th pictures)

This thing really has me pissed. I'm gonna leave it alone for tonight, maybe I'll test some individual components on the board tomorrow. Amplifier came from ebay months ago, too long to see who the seller even was.

[Lumberjack]

I would cut my losses and move onto another amp. Best of luck

[mswans90]

Originally Posted by Lumberjack

I would cut my losses and move onto another amp. Best of luck

This is what I ended up doing. Considered digging deeper and re-soldering every component on the board, but the weather is getting nicer and I'm not going to let something like this keep the bike apart. Installed a second brand new clarion xc1410 and my multimeter reads 0mA at the main fuse now. Looks good to go.

Apologies for hi-jacking this thread getting my bike fixed, but directly after an amp install and anytime the battery suspiciously dies, I would recommend checking for parasitic draw. Set a multimeter to the mA setting, pull the 25A fuse, and put the multimeter leads in the fuse holder. You want to see 0mA or damn close.