Water and road salt are known to wreak havoc on the body and underpinnings of our cars and trucks in the winter. Even living near the ocean, where salt levels are high, can accelerate the rusting process. In this article, with some help from the automotive electronic experts at Motron Automotive Electronics in London, Ontario, we’ll talk about how water infiltration can cause serious problems with even relatively new vehicles. We’ll also discuss a few options for protecting the electronics in your vehicle to help prevent water damage.

Electronics and Water Damage

Water and road salt are a nasty combination. The mixture seeps into the seams between body panels to cause rust in the corners of doors, around wheel wells and near fuel filler doors. If you’re in and out of your vehicle often in the winter, your boots will track this nasty mixture into the vehicle’s interior, where it can damage the floor.

With newer vehicles, automakers are often challenged when determining where to mount computers, control modules and entertainment system components. These parts often end up under the seats of a car, where they can come in direct contact with this evil and destructive salt water. The result is damage to costly components, especially audio system amplifiers. Likewise, small leaks around the roof or trunk of a convertible can allow water to drip down onto expensive and potentially hard-to-find electronics.

A quick look at the photo of this multi-channel amplifier and tuner module shows severe damage to the power supply and amplifier integrated circuits in this BMW 650i.

The owner of this Mercedes-Benz GL350 SUV shown above reported that the SiriusXM satellite radio tuner had stopped working. Water had soaked the carpet and seeped into the electrical connectors. A pin broke off during removal because it had severely corroded.

Lee from Motron tells us that vehicles like the VW Tiguan, Jetta, Golf and Passat frequently experience amplifier damage because the units are mounted to the floor near the front of the driver’s seat. Water from melted snow can wreak havoc in a few years. This photo above is from a 2015 Tiguan. Depending on the vehicle trim level, replacing these amplifiers can cost between $750 and $900. That doesn’t include labor to perform the installation and check the condition of the electrical connectors and system fuses.

This 2013 Porsche Boxster had what would be deemed a small water leak. The water collected on the floor under the passenger seat, where it seeped into the audio system amplifier and caused corrosion. Though it might be possible to replace these tiny surface-mount transistors, no vehicle manufacturer provides schematics for amplifiers at the component level. Likewise, the traces on the circuit boards are often damaged by water infiltration. A replacement amplifier could cost between $300 and $500, depending on the trim level of a vehicle like this.

The image above shows what used to be a ground connection for an aftermarket amplifier that was installed in a Kia sedan. The white “dust” is corrosion from the wire that had disintegrated. The shop that installed this amp used wire that contained a lot of aluminum rather than an all-copper conductor.

We should mention that many BMW and Mini vehicles have audio systems that include an 8-inch woofer under one or both front seats. While this might be a convenient location for producing bass in the front of the vehicle, it leaves them susceptible to water damage — the woofer in this 2013 5-series needed to be replaced for precisely this reason.

How To Protect the Electronics in Your Vehicle

Most of us drive our cars and trucks and only start paying attention when something breaks. Few of us have the time or patience to perform regular inspections to ensure that everything is operating correctly. Unfortunately, that’s the only way to catch these issues. A quarterly inspection of the carpet is a good starting point. Lift the floor mats to make sure everything is dry. Check the cargo area in the back to ensure that no water gets into the spare tire area or the corners of the trunk. Look for traces of water having been there and get things resolved before something expensive is damaged.

For those living in the northern states, Alaska or pretty much anywhere in Canada, consider investing in floor mats that prevent water from snowy shoes and boots from getting into the carpet. Companies like WeatherTech, Husky Liner, U-Guard, TuxMat and Advent have vehicle-specific products that collect water, slush and mud. These mats protect the electronics in your vehicle and help keep the carpet looking new — and improve the resale value when it’s time for a trade-in.

As with any accessory purchase for your vehicle, there are some questions to ask about these floor mats. What is their warranty? What does the warranty cover? Are they soft and flexible or rigid? How well do they fit the vehicle? Are there any openings that might cause leaks? How well does the color match the vehicle interior? It can cost a bit to outfit both the front and rear seating area, so make sure what you’re buying is good quality.

Your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer should be able to answer the above questions for you and help you get a set of mats that perform well and look great. If you’ve waited too long or haven’t noticed a water leak, these same shops might be able to help restore your audio system with an aftermarket amplifier or radio for significantly less than an exact replacement component from the dealership.
This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Since the 1980s, car audio enthusiasts have been using large-value capacitors to improve the performance of their car audio systems. Aside from people believing that distortion damages speakers, few topics are as misunderstood as the benefit of adding a high-quality capacitor to your car stereo. So, let’s take a look at what a capacitor is, how it works and how it can be of benefit to a high-power car audio system.

What Is a Capacitor?

A capacitor is similar to a battery in that it stores energy between plates. Unlike a battery, the charge is stored directly as a difference in voltage (called an electrostatic field) and doesn’t require a chemical reaction to release energy. As such, capacitors can release large amounts of energy very quickly, whereas a battery releases energy at a slower rate. Another way to look at the difference between the two is that a battery is intended to be a source of energy, whereas a capacitor is used to store energy for a short period of time. Access to large amounts of energy storage is crucial to the performance of your car’s audio system.

In a capacitor, two or more plates are separated by a dielectric known as an insulator. This insulator prevents the metal plates from touching each other and draining the stored energy. When a voltage is applied to a capacitor, current will flow into the device until the potential of the electric plates matches the source voltage. If you connect a capacitor to a car battery, it will charge (very quickly) to the same voltage as the battery. If you disconnect the cap from the power source and connect it to a load, it will drain equally quickly.

The Capacitor Analogy

If you are into high-performance vehicles, then you may have heard of a small fuel storage canister called a swirl pot or surge tank. These tall, skinny tanks are added after the feed from the main fuel tank to act as a reserve for those instances when a vehicle is accelerating, braking or cornering such that the fuel in the main tank may slosh away from the pickup. Rather than starving and potentially damaging the engine, the fuel injectors or carburetor are fed from the fuel stored in this small reserve tank. The engine doesn’t know or care where the fuel is coming from so long as it has what it needs to keep running.

A capacitor in an electrical system works the same way. If a capacitor is installed across a load like an LED, it will provide current to the load when the supply voltage is removed until its stored energy has been depleted.

In most direct current electrical applications, capacitors are used as filtering devices to reduce the voltage peaks and dips in an electrical circuit. If you know how a DC power supply works, capacitors are a crucial component in converting energy pulses in a relatively smooth waveform.

Capacitors in Car Audio Applications

If you’ve ever looked inside a car audio amplifier, you’ll see two banks of capacitors. There is a small group of capacitors on the power input to the amplifier and a second set on the output of the switching power supply, also referred to as being on the “rails.” These capacitors are there for two reasons. They smooth the voltage ripples that are caused by the power supply switching devices turning on and off quickly. Secondly, they store energy. Power supplies, especially the switching style used in audio amplifiers, take a moment to react to sudden demands for current. During that time, without having capacitors present in the circuit, the rail voltage level would drop. The presence of the capacitors helps supply energy to the output stage for these sudden and dynamic bursts of energy.

If we look at how most amplifiers work at lower load impedances, it is the maximum current delivery capacity of the power supply that limits power. At 4 ohms, when pushed to their limit, amplifier output power is usually limited by the rail voltage. When we need twice as much current to drive a 2-ohm load, the power supply typically can’t deliver and the rail voltage drops. This is why many modern amplifiers don’t double their maximum power when the load impedance is halved. Capacitors don’t help in constant current draw conditions.

Benefits of Stiffening Capacitors

Think about everything we’ve stated. If you’re building a car audio system designed to play music at high volume levels, the current drawn by the amplifiers will vary dramatically. Capacitors are a perfect way to help fill in voltage drops that might occur when a battery or alternator can’t deliver enough current or when wiring and connections waste energy. For dynamic loads, capacitors can provide an audible improvement to your audio system.

The benefit of adding a capacitor is going to depend on the amount of power your electrical system can supply, how loudly you listen to the audio system and the efficiency of your amplifiers. If you listen at moderate volume levels, the system might only draw 20 or 30 amps of current. The stock electrical system in most vehicles can keep up without much fuss. If you listen really loud, you might draw 50 to 100 amps of current during the most dynamic parts of a song. In these applications, a capacitor will help maintain the voltage available to your amplifiers. The difference in performance between having a capacitor in a system or not is typically most audible in loosely or unregulated amplifiers powering midrange and high-frequency drivers. We can hear the clipping distortion from these amplifiers much easier than from a subwoofer system.

If your car audio system is designed to play test tones, as you’d find at SPL (Sound Pressure Level) competitions, capacitors are of little value. They might reduce some regulation issues from a high-current alternator and help with the initial demand for energy when you burp the system. After 100 milliseconds or so, they do nothing of significance to make an audio system louder over long periods of time.

If you’re looking for the best possible performance from a high-power car audio system, drop by a local mobile enhancement retailer and ask them about adding a high-quality stiffening cap to your sound system.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Two factors limit how loudly a car stereo system can play: how much power you have to drive the speakers in the system, and the maximum output capabilities of those speakers. We see a lot of amateur and poorly executed audio system installations that play good and loud when the volume on the radio is barely over a quarter of its maximum output capability. What does this mean in terms of system configuration? It indicates that the sensitivity controls on your amplifiers or integration processors haven’t been configured properly. Why does it matter? Let’s have a look!

Audio System Gain Structure

Gain control on a car audio amplifier exists for two reasons. First, it allows that amplifier to produce its maximum rated power with various input voltages. Suppose you had an old or inexpensive source unit that could only produce 1.5 volts of signal on the preamp outputs. In that case, a setting somewhere in the middle of the amplifier’s sensitivity range might be appropriate. If you have a modern high-performance source unit that can produce 5 volts of output, you can likely drive the amp to full power with the gain control turned most of the way down.

The second purpose of the gain (or sensitivity) control is to balance the output of speakers in the system. If you have one amp for your subwoofers and a second amp for the front and rear speakers, the sensitivity controls can ensure that the system’s balance of bass to midrange and high-frequency information is correct. This process can be tricky as it usually leaves some subwoofer amplifier power on the table or, if executed incorrectly, might cause the amp driving the midrange and high-frequency drivers to clip.

What Happens with Too Little or Too Much Gain?

To keep the conversation simple, let’s consider a simple two-channel amplifier running a pair of full-range speakers. What happens if the gain on this amp is set too low? For context, the amp might be set to require 5 volts of input when the source unit can only produce 2 volts; the amp won’t make all the power it’s capable of producing. Assuming the source unit doesn’t distort at full volume, that amp could be turned up a little bit so that it just reaches the point at which it clips the output signal when the recording level goes 0 dB FS.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have a condition where the amplifier gain is too high. It might be set to 0.5 volt when the source unit can produce 4 volts of output. What happens in this scenario? If the listener is paying attention, they should only be able to turn the radio up about three-quarters of the way to get the maximum power possible out of the amplifier. In most situations, listeners tend to continue cranking the volume well past when the amp clips, sending significant extra power to the speaker in the form of harmonics. Not only does this sound terrible, but it can damage small drivers.

There is a scenario where an amplifier should be set to have a little more gain that would be mathematically ideal. In a perfect world, assuming all music was recorded such that it reached the maximum allowable level on the recording media (which should be 0 dB FS), an amp should be set to clip with a test tone at this level. Unfortunately, and especially with older recordings, sometimes the recording level isn’t all the way up. If the recording only reaches -5 dB FS, then we need more gain on the amp to play this music back at the loudest level possible from our amplifier. This scenario requires what’s known as gain overlap. We set the amp gain a little higher than would be deemed perfect so that quiet recordings can still be played loudly.

The Problem with Too Much Amplifier Gain

If you know what to listen for in terms of distortion from an amplifier, then having some gain overlap is OK. If you hear the amplifier clipping, you can (and should) turn the radio volume down until it stops. What happens in a case of having WAY too much gain? Amplifiers don’t know the difference between background noise and an audio signal. If the volume on your radio is adjustable between 0 and 40, but the system is screaming loud at 20, then the gains are likely too high. In this scenario, the background noise produced by your radio and the noise in the input stage of your amplifier will likely be audible all the time. This noise will sound like hiss or static – similar to what you hear when tuned to a radio frequency where no signal exists.

If you can hear a hiss from your audio system and you can’t turn the radio volume up to 37 or 38 (out of 40) and still have everything clear, then you need to go back to your installer and have the gain structure set properly. This hissing noise is also often called floor noise, background noise or fuzz. Any noise or distortion detracts from the listening experience, just as static or improper color or contrast adjustments on a video display would detract from watching a movie.

The secondary problem with having too much gain is that you have dramatically reduced the number of volume levels you have available. If you always listen loudly, perhaps this doesn’t matter, but it’s still a consideration. If your system makes as much power as possible with the volume halfway up, you might only have 20 volume levels instead of 38 or 39.

How To Know Your Car Audio System’s Gains Are Set Correctly

If you’ve chosen high-quality amplifiers and a good source unit, you shouldn’t hear much, if any, hiss from the sound system between tracks. If your audio system includes internet-brand bass-head amplifiers, high-efficiency PA speakers and things aren’t set up properly, you’ll likely be able to hear background noise at even moderate listening levels. Your installer can maximize the signal-to-noise-ratio capabilities of your system by setting things properly, but no configuration settings will overcome the poor performance of low-quality products.

When it’s time to upgrade your car audio system to something that sounds amazing, works properly and doesn’t add noise or distortion to your music, drop by a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer to find out what’s available. You might find that high-quality products cost a little more, but at least you’ll be investing in something that sounds good and can be part of your car audio system as it grows and improves.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.