I knew I couldnt avoid the electrical gremlins forever...Let me start by saying that the truck broke down on my fiancee this morning on her way to work, I wasnt there so the only details I have are second hand from her.

I have a 2006 H3 adventure. Back in February I installed a new head unit, and two amps (one for door speakers one for subs). The power to the amps is a 4ga wire from battery>>inline fuse>>power distribution block>>6ga wires to amps. Grounds also go into a distribution block and then into a single wire/ground point.

I had her send me an email with any details she could think of, Im going to copy/paste it right over here.

"At a stop light. I looked down at the dash and the battery light was on, traction light, and check engine light. The traction light was flashing and messages were running across. “Traction control failed” “Engine Service required” I turned off the radio and then realized that the truck had shut off. It had ZERO power. A couple minutes later I got back in the truck to call a tow and put the key back in ignition, it beeped so I thought it might be ok. Then tried and it turned over. All lights turned off except the check engine light. It was also idling harder than usual."

She did mention that the DIC had a message like "too much power" or "using too much power", she couldnt remember the exact wording. She also said the radio was very low, but I'm not positive if the amps pull the same power regardless of volume level.

My first thought is either battery connection, or the amps are pulling too much for some reason. Ive had the stereo installed for 6months now with zero problems, but its the only aftermarket thing I can think of that would be "using too much power". Im leaving now to go to her work and trade cars with her so I can pull codes, but thought Id throw this up here and see if anyone had any ideas for me when I get back

Sorry for the long winded post, but wanted to get all the (seemingly) pertinent details in.

 

More info. .... do you still have the OEM battery terminal connectors? How old is the battery???


There is no "Using too much power" message to be displayed, about as close as you can get is "REDUCED POWER" which itself as nothing to do with battery or alternator drain.

Everything you described correlates with a poor connection to the battery, and or a battery that died because of age, short, or alternator failure. The PCM is very, very finicky to even minute voltage changes and sets off all kinds of problems.

 

Thank you very much for the quick response.

Im going to guess bad connection at terminals, because after she was able to get it started again she made it to work with no other issues (except the CEL stayed on). It seems if the battery itself crapped out she wouldn't have gotten any further. Ill update in a few hours after I get the truck home and can look into it some more.

 

Good luck...keep us informed.
Chris

 

alright, got the truck home (with no problems, ran like a champ the whole way) and pulled the code -- P0601

Did some lookin around on the interweb, and Im finding a lot of wishy-washy info. Some say its a bad PCM, some say it needs to be flashed, some say battery terminals. Anybody have any definitive info about this code?

I do still have the factory terminals, so I probably need to get some aftermarket terminals in, just because.

 

You have a voltage drop issue. Fix it before you fry the pcm...GL

 

Replace those OEM battery terminals NOW, before you do anything else.
They are a known cause of many electrical problems.
Use a good quality replacement, not a cheap universal piece of crap.

 

What he said X 6.5.

There is a REASON I and other members keep TELLING people, hack off those POS OEM battery terminal connectors and get a good quality aftermarket set. If you do not, you WILL have problems. It is not a maybe, it is just a matter of when. Getting rid of the OEM battery terminal connectors should be the first mod done, period. You may have more than one issue going on, but terminal connectors are not expensive and should always be ruled out first.

 

10-4, thanks guys. Found a store in town that sells those stinger terminals for a fair price, Ill have to go scoop some up.

 

I'd go a step beyond the has to be good quality terminals to it just should not remain oem.
Did gf's and mine both with hardware store or autozone type.

Chris