I recently bought a 95 b150 5.2L wagon and decided to upgrade the already aftermarket stereo that was installed. I swapped out the head unit for a pioneer x4800bt and left the infinity stock(I believe) speakers that were already installed. The head unit alone with the speakers works fine, but when I connect an amp and 12in subwoofer...my head unit cuts on and off,and the gauges go wild. I'm talking the speedometer stays at zero periodically jumping up then back to zero, oil pressure if as high as can be, temperature fluctuates and battery is Loooooow. Whenever i touch the breaks or hit my signal head unit cuts, lights dim, all sorts of funny things. But perfectly normal w/o amp and sub....I don't know much about electrical and cars in general as this is my first vehicle. Any help would be awesome. If im missing something just ask and I'll do my best to answer

 

How are you connecting the amp?

 

The blue remote wire from the amp tothe blue/white remote of the head unit, both connected to the blue power antenna. RCA outputs to the amp for the sub I even connected the amp the red ignition wire with the same results.but thats not even important anymore, NOW A WHOLE NEW PROBLEM has arrised. Someone had had suggested to me that I clean the battery terminals and ground points on chassis, which I did today. The negative battery ground was screwed underneath the circuit breaker, which I broke trying to remove it because of the rust. After replacing, connecting my battery and starting up the engine right away my wipers were going off!! Checked and it was in the off position, and on my dash the left blinker arrow stays lit(not blinking) and after inspection I realized my headlights won't turnoff!! Tried pulling the fuses and disconnected the battery for a couple hours with no luck. I had to disconnect the motor for the wipers just to get around town. And now my van sits in my driveway with the battery disconnected. I'm an idiot whatever I did

 

I was having problems getting my amp an sub to work correctly, when Someone had had suggested to me that I clean the battery terminals and ground points on chassis, which I did today. The negative battery ground was screwed underneath the circuit breaker, which I broke trying to remove it because of the rust. After replacing, connecting my battery and starting up the engine right away my wipers were going off!! Checked and it was in the off position, and on my dash the left blinker arrow stays lit(not blinking) and after inspection I realized my headlights won't turnoff!! Tried pulling the fuses and disconnected the battery for a couple hours with no luck. I had to disconnect the motor for the wipers just to get around town. And now my van sits in my driveway with the battery disconnected. I'm an idiot whatever I did

 

you will have to chase a broken wire, bad connection or insufficient grounding... I would start back in the area that you were working... something is not connected right and these things are working as the electric power tries to get to where it needs to be through various circuits because of the breakdown of one particular circuit that you messed with...
I don't think anyone can offer you a silver bullet...

 

Go back and check your work. Grounding issue. Get a volt meter out and start checking. and since you are unfamiliar with electrical work, I'd be finding someone who is to help you out before you burn your van up.

 

Yea I didn't get a chance to check it out today, but first thing in the a.m. I'll do that. I know for certain the only area I was working on was the battery terminals and the ground that was with this thing that I believe is a circuit breaker. Question: as you can see in the pic it was pretty rusted so I couldn't read it, does anyone know the correct amps I should have replaced it with?? Would a higher amperage than what it should be cause these kinda problems?? Person at the auto store said 40amps is what it usually is, others told me 20amps...I went with 40

 

20 amps or 40 amps does not matter... bad connections at the yellow splices which are rusted on the wires are probably to blame. Put a good pull on the yellow wire connectors and you will probably find they will pull off... get some new ones and crimp them on shiny clean wire that you have treated with contact cleaner and sand paper to get off the corrosion on the wire... those yellow crimp connectors usually do not stand up well to wet corrosive (near the battery) environments

 

Success!Not only did I fix the lights issue but got the stereo slappin!!!!! So I did as suggested went back where I was fiddling around and seen I had accidentally swapped a ground wire with the trailer hitch wire....and being curious if the new circuit breaker would fix the stereo issue and sure enough it did. Thinking back now,i remember what happened was when I was making adjustments to mount the sub and amp I forgot to disconnect the battery and accidently arcked the positive and negative...and i guess that fried the breaker. Thank you guys for all the help. Much appreciated.