Hi, I am going to make this post a little bit long because I feel I need to include the whole picture to be able to get some help... but in a nutshell I have a 380RMS amp with a 1.0 farad capacitor, got new battery, new alternator, big 3 and the lights still dim when the volume is a little bit above the middle point (30 or plus of 60 available)....
What I have is:
Car: Dodge Stratus 2003 SE 2.4L
Deck: Pioneer DEH-P3500 (
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130DEHP...ures_and_specs)
Amp: Sony XM-ZR1852 (
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=9907093)
Capacitor: TKO Audio BH-CAP18
http://www.online/CarAu...roductid=19831Subwoofer: 12'' Kenwood KFC-W3011 (
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Jf7GL39...KFC-W3011.html)
I am using 4 AWG wire for the amp and the big 3... with a 60amp fuse for the amp and a 150 for the one from the amp positive to the batt positive...
The history is this: I started by getting my amplifier, subwoffer and a 3 way speaker installed... lights started dimming...i went back with the guy who did the service he told me i needed a cap, so i got the 1.0 farad... didnt' do anything... take it again and he told me my electrical system was bad, that i needed a battery and possibly an alternator... a month later i got the battery... nothing... another month later a 120A alternator... nothing happened... started to look around on the web and found out about the big 3 upgrade... went back to the guy and apparently he never heard of that... he even told me to get my amp rewinded (according to the guys who rewind i can only get about 20 more amps for the dodge stratus)....
anyway, just did the big 3, 4awg all the way, alt positive to batt remote terminal positive (my car has the battery in front of the front wheel), remote terminal positive to batt positive, batt negative to ground, ground to engine chassis (one of the bolts of the alternator)...
i have some pics of my system (The blue circles are the new wiring, the yellow ones are the stock wiring):
https://img16.imageshack.us/img16/834...ositiveyr5.jpgPositive alternator to battery positive
https://img16.imageshack.us/img16/910...oenginewp9.jpgchasis to engine wire...
https://img27.imageshack.us/img27/755...ositiveqd1.jpgBattery positive to alternator positive
https://img16.imageshack.us/img16/904...ochasisof3.jpgBattery negative to chasis
https://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6262/ampyh3.jpgAmplifier wiring
https://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5072/ampgroundpa6.jpgthe ground for the amp and the cap
https://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4227/capacitorbn2.jpgCapacitor wiring
The guys in my regular shop are telling me to get a second amp... but the rule is 1.0 farads for every 1000RMS, right??? therefore a 0.5farad cap should be enough for my configuration??? I got my alternator online, i guess there is always a chance to get screwed and not have the 120amps I paid for... how can i check that??? I took it to autozone and they told me that it was throwing 6 amps... can it run with only 6 amps???... i checked for amp meters online and they are about 250$ and plus... there a few ones below 50, but are they accurate??? Are they cheap because they suck or because the other ones have extra features that i shouldn't care??? I also got one of the baterry meters that plugs in the car lighter... my volts range from 13.9 to 14.8 when the lights dimm... the lights in the capacitor blink, does that mean the energy from the cap is being used when they blink????
I am starting to get desperate... my plan was to get the amp and subwoofer, then get a cool deck (with ipod control), then component speakers... at this point i believe i have already thrown almost (if not more) than twice of what i paid for the amp and subwoofer and i cannot pass from the half point in the volume unless i disable the woofer... i am starting to seriously consider to take the whole thing out and sell it on craigslist to get at least a few $ back...
please, i need all the help i can get...
does anybody know a place where i can get that checked on Rochester, NY??? the guys who did my amp installation seem not to know about the big 3 (they didn't even bother checking my current wires) and they want me to get a new alternator (again)... they guys in the regular shops (midas, monro muffler, etc) seem not to know about car stereo and they told me to get a second cap....
what can I do???
I already rechecked that the grounds are in bare metal and disconnected the capacitor... Could it be that the amplifier is consuming more energy than it should (my volts don't drop below 13.9, most of the time aroung 14.3-14.8....
thanks...