2001 Acura CL Poor Idling/ May be related to new car stereo

KINDATADPOLE

MEMBER
2001 ACURA CL
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
161,000 MILES

I recently had a 500W amp professionally installed in my car, and after driving for a day or so, I began to notice my car was acting strange, and this only happens if the car is warmed up.

If I come to a stop, the idle will be fairly low, in the 800 rpm range and will waiver. This is the strange part. If I turn off the A/C when I am stopped, the RPM's will drop significantly, and lead to the car stalling a majority of the time. If the engine is about to stall, and I turn the A/C back on, the RPM's will recover, but will still idle poorly.

I disconnected the car amplifier, and tried to recreate these events. I noticed that the RPMs will drop minorly, say 100-200 rpm when I turn off the A/C at a stop, but the drop will never make the car stall.

Is this a mechanical/sensor issue (IE TPS), or is this an electrical issue?

I read a similar post that suggested that my stereo was overpowering my charging circuit, and that I should get a more powerful battery and alternator.

I had my charging circuit checked at autozone, and they verified that my battery and alternator are functioning properly.

Thank you for your time.

3 Replies

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,814 POSTS

Hi kindatadpole,

Thank you for the donation.

The idling speed should be at 700 to 800 rpm and what you described seems correct, except when the AC is turned OFF.

There is a possibility the idling system is not functioning as well as it should as it seems to be delayed.

I would suggest cleaning the IAC and throttle body for a start.

The alternator could be operating within range but with additional load from the amp, the idling is affected as the charging rate could be lower than required. This would cause the control systems to receive lower than normal voltages and this can affect the operations.