ALt Bad??

[BigPimpin18 10+ year member]

ok today I was at work all day, than I go to my car and my car doesn't have one light ocme on. I tried jump starting it and it doesn't work, so I got a new battery, the battery works just fine, and I haven't measured to see if my alt is bad. But I just installed my sub amp and I wonder if that's the cause of my problems. I have a kac-x811d to a kicker 12L74 running about 816watts. is this too much for my stock alternator?

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[jrz126 10+ year member]

measure the voltage with the car running. It should be around 14 volts. Autozone has a free battery/alt. checker that they hook up to your car, they'll be ablt to tell you if its functioning properly and what its putting out.

 

[BigPimpin18 10+ year member]

ok I measured my battery at 12 volts when the cars off, than it went to 14.3 volts while running than I drove it around my neighborhood with the sub blasting and come back and check it and it went down to 12.6 volts. I turn my stereo all the way off and it went back up to 14.3 volts. So I don't think I have a bad alternator, but I dno't think my 1 farad cap is working. But than again my lights don't dim at all. I just think I need to install a dual battery with a yellow top just for my stereo.

 

[jrz126 10+ year member]

Go to autozone and have them test it. They'll tell you the amperage output, ect.

I'd look into a high output alt. before adding another battery. If your stock alt cant handle it now, then it wont be able to handle another battery.