gettin confused on lights dimming

alright. ive asked people on here before, and i dont know if the ones i talked with didnt know what they were talking about. or what. im having a problem with my charging system. ive got a MA Audio amp, 1800RMS x 1 @.5ohms; 14.4 volts. and another 4 channel directed 500. i have the yellow top optima battery, a 1 farad cap, and a 200 amp altinator and STILL my head lights dim. im begining to get a little pissed. does anyone have ANY quggestions. and if its to put a second batterie in my car, i really dont think thats goin to happen. i got a 95 thunderbird with a 4.6 in it, so theres no room up there, and the trunk has my 2 amps and 4 15" kickers so its pretty well packed.

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front leaning rest postion MOVE

with that much of a charging system you shouldnt have any issues...that a real tough one to answer, The only other suggestion you could try would be to run an isolated line from your alternator to a second battery in the trunk.   

Or have you looked at your grounds on the amps, and under the hood,   alternator and other such items,   

what type of 200 amp alternator do you have and wht type of cap?

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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
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my alt was made by a company down in TENN that makes them for hig output vehicals like emergancy vehiclas and such. and what do you mean by looking at the grounds? what am i looking for. i head that if you run a direct wire from your batterie to your alt that helps (power side) and give both batterie and alt a 2nd ground as well. i dont know though. and as for the second batterie. i have NO room for one. like no room. i thought about gettin a bigger cap, but i dont want to waste the money if its not goin to help. the cap i have now, im not sure of the manufactor. i bought it from a friend, and most of the writing is gone.

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front leaning rest postion MOVE

If the cap you are using is bad it will hurt your system. I would try omiting it and see if it gets better. That is what happened in my case and I don't use one at all now and I don't have any problems. What Jeff means by looking at your grounds is to make sure that they are bare metal, no paint or rust, and that they are of sufficient size and tight. Also, you might want to get the alternator checked to see if it is charging what they said it is supposed to.  These problems can be confusing sometimes, and are not always what you think they should be. The people on this forum are some of the best I've seen, so be patient and take their advice. Good luck.

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'85 Toy

I had the same problem. The grounds were bad on the car. This is what I was told to do and it worked great. use 2 guage power wire from your alt to the batter with a 300 amp fuse. run 2 guage ground wire from your battery to the frame. run a 2 guage ground from your alt mounting bracket to the frame, and then run a 2 guage ground wire from your engine block to the frame. omitt the cap the cause lots of problems. from your amp try to run your ground through the trunk to the frame.

I am banking on a grounding issue. I could see a little bit of a problem if you are really blarring your system and you have your lights on and heater or AC or whatever then mabye but under normal use you should have enough of a charging system to keep up. Clean up your grounds and upgrade the size of cabling if need be.

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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

Upgrade your grounds on your car.  You may need to  get a different type of battery terminal.  There are some that will allow you to double ground your car's battery with two 4 gauge cables.  Also, look into upgrading your power cable on your alternator. 

alright, thanks.ive got alot of 0awg left over from my instal. can i use that for all the wires up in the engine area? (for the alt and the batterie) as for my grounds. ill check them again. but i know its all bare steel thier attached too. but ill look again to make sure. so, what your all tellin me is that a cap is a waste? im confused though, howd they be a waste if so many companys make them? and alot of ppl use them. any suggestions?

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front leaning rest postion MOVE

What kind of vehicle is this in, is it a GM by chance? You must remember this fact. Electricity is an algebra equation, what you do to one side you must do to the other. If you have big power wires to give these amps current, be aware that current flows from negative to positive, making the ground path the most imporant circuit there is. This is the reason why people have been asking you about your grounds. I too suspect a grounding issue and quite possibly a high resistance on the ground return circuit. This, to draw and accurate picture for you is simple, you eat a foot long sub and then you get your butt sewn shut, get the drift? What goes in, must come out. If the ground is struggling to complete the circuit, it is going to manifest itself as a host of other problems at the same time.

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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

A foot ling sub, eh?  Ouch!  Chew man, chew.

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A cap will not help your electrical system. All it does is stores energy for a brief period of time and then discharges it rapidly when there is a voltage drop in the alternator output.


Ok, I think I know what the problem is. You said that you have a 200amp alternator. Well, at idle, it is probably putting out less then 50amps. What RPM is the alternator rated 200amps at?

Do the lights still dim if you are driving agressively? Meaning you are getting the engine near redline often? If not, then we have just figured out your problem.

If the lights still dim when you are driving aggressively, let us know, and we will go from there.

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alright, first of all what the heck is a foot ling sub DYohn? moving on, ill check my grounds like i said, besides grinding the area to bare steel what else would be a good idea for grounding the amp?  and poormanq ill have top check on that when i get the car back around. im painting it now, so its goin to be a few days. why what would be the problem if the lights dimmed when i drove aggressivly?

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front leaning rest postion MOVE

Well, then the problem would be alot more difficult to diagnose. When you drive more aggresivly, that allows your Alternator to reach its maximum output potential.

If you drive aggressively and your lights still dim, things get a little more complicated. See, when your car/engine is running, the electrical Should Be running completely from the alternator. If you are draining your batteries when the car is running, then your alternator is not powerful enough, but it is obvious that that is not the case here.

Now, if you drive normal, cruise at 70mph for 1 hour or 45~55mph for 30 minutes, without revving the engine high in the rpm range, then the alternator is probably not putting out enoughpower. This would result in the battery starting to drain. I think that this may be the problem as it is what happens most often.

The problem with High Output alternators, like I said before, is that they are not really usable for everyday driving. They simply do not put out enough amps at lower RPMs to keep all the electronics working.

If indeed this is your problem, I would suggest that you get two alternators. Neither of them should be high output. They could both be 100~120amp alternators. This should remidy the problem.

Now, an "easier" fix would be to add an additional battery to the system. This would allow you to go extended periods of time without Revving the engine. For the second battery, I would suggest any brand of Deep Cycle batteries. I say Deep Cycle because you can fully discharge them without many adverse affects.



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Most high out put altenators put out their peak charge at around 2500 rpm, so you dont need to drive aggresivly, you just need to not sit there and idle. As for caps, their use is fairly simple. When you have a large drain on your electrical system they provide a immediate, albiet, short lived boost. In car audio this large sudden drain is caused by a really hard hitting deep bass note. The cap is simply to help out a healthy system, not fix a sick one.

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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer