so i was listening to my system today (nothing crazy kenwood amp 520RMS and one rockford 12") but i had it thumpin pretty good and all of a sudden my radar detector kept turning on and off as well as the headlights, and other accessories. thought i smoked my alternator so i turned off all accessories and limped it to work. it was so bad that when i hit the brakes my guage cluster lites would cut off from the draw of the brake lamps. anyway, i leave work (car had obviously cooled) and now everything works fine. no dimming lights, nothing. is it possible that i just overloaded the alternator and it just needed to cool? if so i know this cant be good should i just replace it anyway since i need to rely on the car? thanks sorry for the length

 

take it to autozone and have them check it out. u might want to upgrade the battery to a more powerful one and/or get a 1 farad cap so it wont kill ur batt so quickly

 

I had the same problem... eventually you'll have to start pushing on the alternator plug and wiggling it... What happened with mine, was the head from the headers, had partially melted the alternator plug.. So, you might want to have that checked out too...

 

might want check the belt tension and make sure all the bolts are tight for the alternator same thing happening to me when one of my bolts were loose went to put the new one in and one of the bolts wasnt tightened down after i cranked it down i worked fine

 

DON'T PLAY YOUR MUSIC LOUD AT A FULL STOP it kills your alternator, and if you do make sure your rpms are above 2k. Striker caps help a little bit but, it'll still dims ur head lights if ur rpms are below 2k.


What are some quality batteries to buy? I have a 97 accord with 68k and the stock battery is still good, just for future reference.