ok heres the situation, i have a brand new car and its still under warranty so i dont wana replace my existing battery, but my amp is drawing to much power from my stock battery, so i wana ru a secondary battery...

now i know ur gona ask if im having trouble with the car or battery but no im not, the only problem i have is that the lights dim out wen the i run it too loud and my battery drops down to a little mor than 10 volts, other thatn that the car starts, runs, and charges fine...

that being said ive heard alot of talk about the use of isolators, do u have to install an isolator when running a secondary battery?

wat gauge wire do i need to for a secondary battery? i currently have a 4 gauge wire ran through the car is this sufficient or do i need to upgrade?

ive never had to install a secondary battery or cap, ive always just upgraded my stock battery to a yellow top optima and thats been enough, so any advise i can get would be greatly appreciated, thank u.

 

Adding a second battery is not really going to help. You will just add play time to your system. With the car off. The alternator is still going to have to charge it. you are going to need a bigger alternator. What are you running in the car make and models and rms how are the subs wired up

 

stock alternator, stock battery, stock head unit, stock speakers, 2 12in solo-baric L5's DVC 2 ohm wired at 1 ohm, powered by a hifonics zx1600, 1600 watts by 1 @ 1 ohm. amp is 1 ohm stable.

and its drawing alot of power...


Modified by 5150CIVIC at 4:20 PM 3/21/2008

 

Well lets knock that amp down to 1500 rms. Its a lil over rated but makes power. When your bumping your pulling about 104 amps from the alternator. And your draining the stock battery because the alternator can not charge it back up quick enough. If you add a second battery your just going to kill that one too like the first one. your best bet is to add a big three upgrade. this will help out alot. then get a bigger alternator to supply the current demand that your amp needs. because in your situration. your amp is not even making the power that it rated to becuase there is not enough amps from the alternator to power it under full load. at one ohm.

 

now with the big three, do u rec. replacing the wiring or just adding, remember my car is still under manufacturers warranty and i already have some stuff to remove b4 taking it to my local dealer if an issue should arise?

now if i can just add wire wat guage would u rec? i did 0 gauge on my civic, and i never had any issues with her..

and as for the alternator again, warranty, dont want to ruin that warranty, once its over and done with, then maybe my girl will let me break loose on her ride but not untill then ...

 

Just add the extra ground, from batt. to chassis and chassis to motor, [leave the stock ones in place and add bigger "charge" line from the alt. to the batt., [leave the stock one in place].

Remember, the dealer can not void your warranty unless they can show it was what you did that caused the problem, and yes they can void the warranty on the alt. if you have any problems with it, if they see that amp connected to it, they will be able to say you overloaded the system.

One more thing, that amp is "current hungry" so it is importent that there is no resistance in the power circuit, make sure all your connections are good, terminals should be soldered to the power and ground leads, you should be using a 150A ANL fuse on the amps power lead. [as close as possible but within 18" of the batt.].
The amps ground should be as short as possible and ideally in contact with the cars floor pan, seat belt and seat bolts or any bolt or stud that is in the floor pan, work best.

A stiffing cap can also help take the strain off the alt., and supply the amp with the current it needs for those "peaks" of output, NO the cap does not replace the need for a bigger alt. and it is not effective unless the other above^^^ things have been done. 94

 

connections are all tight, i have to check them constantly cuz they sometimes tend to rattle loose, and i use a 150A ANL fuse its less than a foot from my battery and my ground is less than a foot long as well, both 4 gauge.

ive never actually had problems with an audio system in a car untill now, im stepping into a whole new world with this stock vehicle, first time i needed a high to low converter (that was a bitch) and first time my lights have ever dimmed.

by the way i thank u both (fcm) and (wrx-killer-Sti-eater) for your help, i really appreciate it.

now in the event that no one actually makes a bigger alt for this car (its an 06) is there any other way?

 

There is no other practical way, a bigger alt. is the only way to get more current.

Try here... http://www.ohiogen.com/ they have always had what we needed, at reasonable pricing and very good customer service. 94

 

oh and i made a mistake my old amp was a ZX1600, my current amp is a BX1605D monoblock. i keep forgetting im not useing their zues series any more.

i did most of the big three upgrade this weekend, some of the ground wires are kinda hard to get to, it made a bit of a difference...

then i noticed that my rca input to my amp was loose and i was only running one channel, so i took it apart and noticed one of the prongs was broken, i replaced it last night, ill put it back in tonight, i hope it worked...

 

keep us posted

 

success, i installed the amp last night and both channels work just fine, i had to lower the amp a quit a bit, it didnt distort or clip out but it was too loud at low volume, i think my hi low converter is acting up, but i might be getting a Avic Z1 for dirt cheap, so i can delete the converter.

with the repair to the amp the power loss at top bass has gone down some, but its still there, so im going to finish the big 3 and see how that goes.