Last night driving home (in my car, not my bicycle) my empeg started behaving strangely. I don't believe the problem lies in the empeg, but in the wiring connecting it to the car.

At random intervals, not caused by bumps in the road, the empeg goes into standby mode, at least I think it does. My dash position is such that I can't see the flashing LED in the upper right corner of the screen.

It will be playing just fine, then silence for about three to five seconds. I look down at the empeg, the screen is blank. Then the display comes back, it starts playing where it left off. It is NOT re-booting (no empeg logo, no 15 second wait) and the amplifiers are both powered down during this musical blackout, because I hear them come back on-line one at a time. I can exactly duplicate this behavior by holding the top button on the empeg in and entering standby, then pressing it again to turn it back on.

These symptoms would seem to be a loose wire to the in-car docking connector, a common enough problem I believe. But I am a little hazy about just which wire would be causing the problem, what with wires that are always on, wires that control the remote amp turn-on, wires that are switched by the ignition...

And just to make it more complicated, my radar detector started acting up at the same time -- randomly powering off and then "rebooting" with all the beeps and chirps as it goes through self-test mode. These radar detector glitches do NOT coincide with the empeg standby glitches.

Does anybody have any ideas about what I should look for here?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

I would start looking at things like low battery voltage. Is the alternator drive belt tight? Is the battery still OK? If it's effecting your radar detector as well it's likely to be something other than your empeg. I have seen a similar effect in a car where the output wire from the alternator wasn't hooked up and the battery just got flatter and flatter.

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 6GB blue)

Greetings!

Hmm... If you lost power on the permanent line, I would think that it would give you a full reboot, or a battery symbol if it was just a drain. So I would guess that if any line were bad, it would be the ignition sense (orange). I think that would have it go into the standby mode... I am assuming your radar detector is powered through that line also, directly hard wired or indirectly through a cigarette lighter.

It would have to be at a common point above both devices, unless both wires came loose. Can you get a meter on that line? Maybe it is borderline or spiking. Either that, or the connections are getting weak somewhere along the line. Are both devices tied into the ignition sense or power line at the same point?

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Smoke)

I would start looking at things like low battery voltage

You nailed it, Derek.

My first clue was when I went to start the car after work tonight and it barely cranked (and I mean barely. It was cranking less than one cylinder over on compression stroke per second -- and it started. (I keep that engine tuned!) My second clue was anytime I turned on any electrical accessory (lights, heater blower, even reverse-lights) the radar detector dropped out. The third clue was when I was almost home, the charge-indicator light on the dash (finally) lit up. My fourth clue was that I put a meter on the battery with the engine running and had 10.5 volts, and revving the engine made no difference whatsoever in the battery voltage (measured both directly on the battery and on the battery cable terminals). My fifth clue was that the battery voltage dropped to 8.5 volts and the engine started missing when I turned on the heater blower.

Gee, I wonder what the problem could be?

Well, I guess I could stop at NAPA on my way home tomorrow (I'll be on my bicycle) and bring home a new alternator. Think that'd help?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

I think I'd check things like the charging circuit and the alternator drive belt first before I splashed out on a new alternator. They're not all that cheap. Make sure all the cables are connected and have good connections, and that the drive belt is nice and tight and the thing is actually turning when the motor is running (OK, that might not be quite so easy to check now . Could even be that the rectifier diodes have blown up - in more modern cars they are often in the back of the alternator and can be replaced without replacing the whole alternator. Somewhere in there there is a voltage regulator too ....

Anyway, sounds like the alternator is having no effect at all and that the battery has been carrying the whole load, so I'd be looking for things like broken/disconnected cables first. Good luck!!

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 6GB blue)

I think I'd check things like the charging circuit and the alternator drive belt first before I splashed out on a new alternator

Been there, done that... the alternator on my car is driven by the serpentine belt that runs the water pump and the power steering and the A/C and who knows what else. This belt is kept tight at all times by a spring-loaded tensioner. Before I turned off the engine, I loosened, wiggled, and retightened the battery terminal connections, and wiggled the wiring plug in the back of the alternator. Next step is to pull the alternator and take it to my friendly NAPA store where they will test it for me and tell me it is no good and sell me a new one.

That alternator has 181,000 miles on it, so just from a mechanical wear point of view it is probably ready for replacement, so I'll trade it in for a new one.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

stick a new belt on at the same time saves time incase it dies at a later date and then keep the old one as a emergency spare.

stick a new belt on at the same time saves time incase it dies at a later date and then keep the old one as a emergency spare.

Actually.... I did that the last time I had the belts off the car... when was that? Oh, when I blew a head gasket at 145,000 miles and had a factory-rebuilt replacement engine installed.

I started to replace the alternator this afternoon, got as far as pulling the connector plug off the alternator (as opposed to just wiggling it to make sure the connection was tight) and found it all corroded and dirty. After cleaning the connector and the spade terminals on the alternator, I plugged it back in, started the car, and guess what? 14.6 volts at the battery. Turned on every electrical thing I could find (lights, rear window defroster, windshield wipers, heater blower) and voltage dropped to 12.6 volts... revved the engine a bit and even with that load it went right up to 13.6, this with a fully charged battery. So, I'm back in business, all I have to do is talk the folks at NAPA into taking the new alternator I bought back. They don't like to accept returns on electrical equipment... but seeing as it was never even out of the box, and me being a pretty good customer....

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"