hi all had a quick question i have a 00ex civic and recently installed two JLW7's and two 1000/1 JL amps with a 1farad cap. Even with this cap sometimes the lights still dim at night and i am afraid if i keep it running like this i will drain my battery and cause too much stress on the stock alternator.

Does anyone know how many amps the stock one puts out versus an aftermarket one? I thought the stock was something like 90amps or so? or even if a more powerful alternator comes with any other engines then the d16 i could swap out for? Any help would be appreciated, not sure whether to post this in the audio section or here.

 

You'll probably get a better answer in the audio section. I'll ask a mod to move this there.

 

what guage wire is your battery ground?

 

civic alts put out 70 amp. look up how to measure for amp draw in other forums i can tell you though youd be better off with an alt putting out at least 180 amperes. i got mine from excessiveamperage.com.

you shouldnt swap one from another engine.

 

Modified by CardDealer at 9:36 AM 11/16/2006

 

i just killed my optima yellow top and had to switch over to a dry cell, stupid alternator couldnt handle it. it still works for now but when the alt dies ive heard the best thing is to get your old one rewound to handle more. thats just what ive heard, i know fosgate used to make crazy like 200 amp alternators.

 

Right now i am just running the stock guage for ground, im not sure what that is? something small like 8awg? The ground from my amplifiers is 4guage, and my power wire is 2guage. Adding a second battery will not help i have read in many audio forums, adding it will only extend the life of your system while the car is off, batteries can't give you a large supply of instantanious power, thats what a capacitor is for. I think ill try the site 4drhonda posted, looks like a kick *** alternator!

maybe ill think about rocking a third W7 after gettin that 300 amper!

 

whats the RMS of your amps?

Getting alternator rebrushed isn't really all that worth it.

I run a 2 guage wire as my battery ground, it helped with my system response as well as my grounds overall.

 

JL audio amplifiers have a R.I.P.S (Regulated Intelligent Power Supply)...which basically there is no RMS value, the amp outputs whatever its rated at (mine is 1000watts) as long as the amp is operating in its impedance range 1-4ohms, and the voltage doesn't drop below 9V. JL 12W7's have an impedance of 3 ohms each, so im well within the range for optimal operation, the cap has a digitial voltmeter display which sometimes dips below 11V if they are really hitting hard. Other than the ground from the amps (which are run directly to the chassis and are less than 2ft in length), which other grounds do i need to change? The one from the valve cover needs to be bigger? Or are you talking about the actual negative battery terminal cable? I was never really sure what wires to change in the engine bay to increase the size of my ground I'm willing to give it a shot if someone knows where ground wires are located (besides the negative terminal, i figured that one out!)

 

I just replaced the terminal cable.

went to advance auto, bought 12" of 2 guage clear coated wire (they sell by the foot, just trim it down to the size you need). they have the connectors you need, just make sure you solder them to the wire well.

if you want more ground stuff, there are plenty of grounding kits out there. you could reference the info about them for the location of the grounds that they use.

 

you should never add another battery with out making your charging system stronger. not only willl you drain your main one and the second one, your alternator still wont be able to charge the both of them andendup dying anyways.

caps are good for little spurts of hard bass, after that your, ALTERNATOR, has to charge the cap and the batt and keep everything else going. and if it ccant do that. it will die.

 

i still think it is always a good idea to work with the grounds first. it'll also look damm good.

cheap solution, and can only help and not hurt.
If it fixes the problem, then you end up not spending the $250+ on the alternator and the amount of time to install it.

resistance in the battery ground is resistance added to your whole electrical system.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Znypar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i still think it is always a good idea to work with the grounds first. it'll also look damm good.

cheap solution, and can only help and not hurt.
If it fixes the problem, then you end up not spending the $250+ on the alternator and the amount of time to install it.

resistance in the battery ground is resistance added to your whole electrical system.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i highly doubt a slightly larger ground wire will make up for the fact that you could get an altnerator that puts out double or triple the original current, you might save an amp at most with a larger ground wire, not enough to make a noticable difference... i have done mucho testing on grounding wires as i have a BSEE and i think i know what im talkin about, spent shitloads of time in labs

 

There's nothing that you can do other than upgrading the alternator. Don't get it rewound and make sure you get something reputable.

Most upgraded alternators put out less than or equal to what the stock alternator does at idle. &lt;- this doesn't help much.

 

lol at stading idle, 25% of 220 amps is alot better than 25% of 70 amps.

your alternator only puts out what your car needs at the present load. youve never noticed that, at night, when you turn your lights on the car raises its idle a few tens of rpms?

the only reason you should still consider a HO alternator is so that it charges everything when presented with a load thats higher than what the stock alt puts out. ie. if you add a huge system in your car.

this doesnt mean your should upgrade it when running low amounts of watts for your music.

getting thicker heavier wire, like a 4,2/0 gauge wire is very helpful because it does helkp the power move quicker. which is why they have those grounding kits for the cars. but it can only help so much.


consider this. you wouldnt want to run 20 psi of boost on a d series with out upgrading it right? (considering you want to keep the engine)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4drhonda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lol at stading idle, 25% of 220 amps is alot better than 25% of 70 amps. </TD></TR></TABLE>

lol at standing idle, you're super-d-duper 220 amp alternator might put out less current than stock.

Power production of an alternator is not linear.

 

You should get an optima battery and a Stinger Alternater works really Good!

 

Optima batteries are crap. You're better off running you're regular old run-of-the-mill Interstate deep cycle.

 

you obviously didnt read the rest. of course the output isnt given in a linear fashion since the alt. only puts out the necessary amperes with the load presented along with the rpm its at. a car the has a huge system but never uses its full potential will probably never see 220 amps out of a alt. because it wont require it. if your car is at idle and you turn your system on full blast, your alt wont be able to supply the whole thing with power because it might only be RPMing at &lt;1000 rpms, you have to rev the engine for it to make power, which is why its so help ful while your actually DRIVING the vehicle rather than having it standing still. at idle it might only be producing a voltage of about 12.7 volts but once its get a certain RPM it should put out somewhere around 14.5 volts.

thats like saying your a b16b puts out 180 HP at idle. of course it cant! you have to rev it to make power!

a 220 alt isnt the end all to car elec solutions. you have to firgure out how many amps your car requires. if you dont have any extra auxilary components on your car you wont have a need for a HO alt.

excessiveamperage.com helps you out by making a brand new alt. at whatever amperage you need.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4drhonda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">at idle it might only be producing a voltage of about 12.7 volts...</TD></TR></TABLE>

If this is the case, your alt is no good or a belt is loose. A healthy charging system stays well above 12v.

 

On my old car I went through 2 alternators (1 was HO) within 2 years when just had the stock battery.
I finally got sick of buying new alternators so I added a second battery and put a cheap OEM type alternator in it and ran it for like 3 years with no problems before I sold the car

 

If I were you I'd hook up some compacitors...

 

capacitors will only help with sound quality, the charging system would still be an issue

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Znypar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">capacitors will only help with sound quality, the charging system would still be an issue</TD></TR></TABLE>

how would they do that exactly? DC voltage is linear time invariant , the only step you will get is from 12-14V or from 12-10 or so V depending on how hard you are pushing your amp, the cap will filter out minimal noise in the power signal, but explain how that relates to the noise coming from the RCA cables out of the HU please? yeah thanks man u have no idea what the hell your talkin about