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lights dim after upgradeing to ho alterna


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shadowm891 
Member - Posts: 23
Member spacespace
Joined: March 11, 2009
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Posted: March 11, 2009 at 8:26 PM / IP Logged  
hey guys how's it going im having a problem here i own a 2001 kia sportage with a 180 amp ho alternator running off a red top battery with 4 gauge wire as my big 3 upgrade. for some reasson when my car is siting in one spot and not moving my voltage will read 14v from battery off my voltage meeter but after i turn my system up it drops down from 14 to 12 volts. now for my system setup im running 2 12 inch kicker l5's off a cadence z7000 amp at 1 0hm with a clarion dxz465mp deck which is 1.8v preout and the gain on my amp is set to about 75%. now im post to be getting me a new deck in the mail which will have 4volt preouts do you think that would help my problem with the voltage some.
stang351w 
Silver - Posts: 350
Silver spacespace
Joined: August 20, 2003
Location: Canada
Posted: March 11, 2009 at 8:45 PM / IP Logged  

the deck wont make any real difference in the situation your talking about.  i'm not familiar with that amp but running at 1ohm it's safe to say your working that amp and it's drawing the power to show that.  how bad were the lights dimming befor you put the new alternator in? and what all did you do when you swapped the alt?  as for the voltage. that is pretty much normal. the car itself runs off of 12-13 volts while the charging system is up around 14 volt ( needs to be higher in order to charge) for example. if you have your car running you said you get 14 volts...shut the car off and you'll see the voltage drop back down to 13 volts (roughly)   but i would double check any and all connections you made while swapping the alt and doing the big 3 upgrade, make sure all the connections are clean and bare metal contact (just don't forget to paint or seal them up so they don't rust up)   most likely reason for the issue is your alternator is rated at the 180 amp output at a certain rpm (most alt's are around 2000 for peak output)  when your just sitting there not moving your car is idleing and the alt will put out less current then if you were driving.

Tri County KustomZ
certified installer
shadowm891 
Member - Posts: 23
Member spacespace
Joined: March 11, 2009
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Posted: March 11, 2009 at 8:53 PM / IP Logged  
i see well befor i did the alt upgrade i had a 70 amp alt so yeah if i were to turn it up all the way my car would die lol but now with the 180 amp alt driveing at night with lights on the dimming is not bad really its kind of like a little short flick
shadowm891 
Member - Posts: 23
Member spacespace
Joined: March 11, 2009
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Posted: March 11, 2009 at 9:10 PM / IP Logged  
o yea forgot to ask this question the deck i have dose not have sub control on it so im useing the bass option on my deck as sub control not sure if that could be causeing the voltage drop or not.
j.reed 
Copper - Posts: 716
Copper spacespace
Joined: January 05, 2009
Location: Arkansas, United States
Posted: March 11, 2009 at 11:17 PM / IP Logged  
your alt may do a total output of 180 amps but what does it do at idle? 4 gauge to me for a big 3 is too small. 0 is what i would do but, 2 gauge for your situation would be fine. Since you are just getting a little flicker i would suggest just adding a small audio batt like a xstatic model 800 or an xstatice power pac(35 fared cap with a model 600 batt built in) both are pretty fast charging and would give you that extra bit to draw on while doing parking lot showing off. Also i wold upgrade you big 3 to at least 2 gauge.
lights dim after upgradeing to ho alterna -- posted image.
shadowm891 
Member - Posts: 23
Member spacespace
Joined: March 11, 2009
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Posted: March 12, 2009 at 6:23 AM / IP Logged  
well here the site i went to to have my alternator built www.excessiveamperage.com. and from reading what the faq said the alternators he built start chargeing at idle. so im guessing that means total output but i'll send him a email today and see what he says. as for the big 3 upgrade yeah im starting to think 4 gauge is to small for what i got as well. the only reasson i did 4 was because i call 2 dif places asking if 4 gauge was ok to us with what i got and they said it should be fine. but i guess they were wrong there lol now for the flickering i get it when im driveing down the road at night.
shadowm891 
Member - Posts: 23
Member spacespace
Joined: March 11, 2009
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Posted: March 12, 2009 at 6:34 AM / IP Logged  
well reading his website it has a question about when dose the alternator put out 14.6 volts and this what he said. It will put out full voltage as soon as the alternator cuts on and will remain around the same voltage throughout the RPM range
soundnsecurity 
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Gold spaceThis member has made a donation to the12volt.com. Click here for more info.spacespace
Joined: November 10, 2008
Location: Louisiana, United States
Posted: March 12, 2009 at 8:46 AM / IP Logged  
shadowm891 wrote:
well reading his website it has a question about when dose the alternator put out 14.6 volts and this what he said. It will put out full voltage as soon as the alternator cuts on and will remain around the same voltage throughout the RPM range
it will do 14.6 throughout all rpm's but thats voltage not current. at idle it is not giving you all of the 180 amps of current. maybe closer to 110 at idle.
ayalahomero 
Copper - Posts: 52
Copper spacespace
Joined: February 25, 2007
Location: United States
Posted: March 12, 2009 at 4:41 PM / IP Logged  

I have an alternator from excessive amperage also.  My car idles very low, around 6-800 rpms.  The alt runs the 14.4 at the low rpm's but doesn't put out as much current as my stock alternator at idle.  Once you get up over 1000, or into the 1200 range it makes quite a bit of power.  And I believe puts out full 200a at 2000 rpm's.

You might give him a call and see if you got the overdrive pulley on your alternator.  This will help spin the alternator faster at the low rpm's.  Or if you have a way to adjust the idle on your car, maybe set it to idle at a little bit higher rpm's. 

homero ayala
shadowm891 
Member - Posts: 23
Member spacespace
Joined: March 11, 2009
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Posted: March 12, 2009 at 6:16 PM / IP Logged  
well fix my problem the bass drive on the amp was up so i turn it down and now with the car idle and lights on my system gets 13volts with system up my next step is to upgrade from 4 to 0 gauge on big upgrade and see if that jumps it to 14 volts
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