Big 3, new battery, new alternator... Lights still dimming... HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!

[javisam376 10+ year member]

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.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=19831

Subwoofer: 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):

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/834...ositiveyr5.jpg

Positive alternator to battery positive

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/910...oenginewp9.jpg

chasis to engine wire...

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/755...ositiveqd1.jpg

Battery positive to alternator positive

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/904...ochasisof3.jpg

Battery negative to chasis

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6262/ampyh3.jpg

Amplifier wiring

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5072/ampgroundpa6.jpg

the ground for the amp and the cap

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4227/capacitorbn2.jpg

Capacitor 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 **** 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...

Click to read more...

 

[Enellz 10+ year member]

Have you tried hooking up another amp of the same rms inside the car? Also an alternator upgrade to 120a is not an upgrade of any kind in my opnion. Also lose the cap, it's worthless. I don't care what your 'local idiot' shop says. I thing that your amp is pulling a ish load of current which is notorious for Sony amps. I would try hooking up a friends amp or something and see if they still dim then.

 

[BushJ311 5,000+ posts]

half of the pics do not work for me. But sand the paint away from around the ground.

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

half of the pics do not work for me. But sand the paint away from around the ground.

I was thinking the same thing, Even check to see if the bolt and stuff has that amber varnish they put on it. If it does sand that off.

And try it without the cap. For as few watts as you are running you shouldn't need any thing.

I've ran 3-4 times that wattage on stock electrical with 4 gauge wire with not much dimming.

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

i think someone else had this problem with a sony amp

 

[javisam376 10+ year member]

I did sand both the chasis groung and the engine ground (in one of the bolts of the alternator)... the one on the alternator had the varnish thing but i took it off....

 

[javisam376 10+ year member]

I don't know anybody with a similar amp right now... if i get a new one and that's not it, would it be hard to return it???

Have you tried hooking up another amp of the same rms inside the car? Also an alternator upgrade to 120a is not an upgrade of any kind in my opnion. Also lose the cap, it's worthless. I don't care what your 'local idiot' shop says. I thing that your amp is pulling a ish load of current which is notorious for Sony amps. I would try hooking up a friends amp or something and see if they still dim then.

 

[javisam376 10+ year member]

Is this the right place for the chasis to engine ground???

The red wires are the alt positive going to the battery positive...

the black one goes to the chasis ground...

 

[NewAgeKing 5,000+ posts]

I had a similar issue with an older lanzar amp i had. I would turn on the stereo and my alt would make a horrific sound. Inside the car, doors and windows shut, i could hear the alt winding like crazy. Turned off the stereo and it was gone. I never turned up the stereo at all after i hear that sound so i just pitched the amp in the trash and got a new one, problem solved. Might not be your issue but getting another amp to test would be helpfull. Even if you buy one from the store somewhere and return it.

 

[KyngHype 10+ year member]

Get HIDs, They dont dim //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[snb778 5,000+ posts]

sounds like either

A. your alt is bad or

B. your alt was bad, AND killed your battery...

go buy a battery charger (not a jumper pack) and charge the battery over-night

I had similar problems...its just really weird that you're having problems off that amount of power. I'm going to guess the alt is bad

 

[javisam376 10+ year member]

HIDs????

Get HIDs, They dont dim //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[javisam376 10+ year member]

You think the battery is dead??? I am reading over 13.9 votls... i tought that was good.... the problem was there before i replaced the battery, and stayed there after i replaced the battery...

sounds like either
A. your alt is bad or

B. your alt was bad, AND killed your battery...

go buy a battery charger (not a jumper pack) and charge the battery over-night

I had similar problems...its just really weird that you're having problems off that amount of power. I'm going to guess the alt is bad

 

[cx-7heaven 10+ year member]

With that little bit of power, you should not be having these probs. When your stereo is off, with car running and all lights, a/c fan, interior lights on, do the lights dim when you turn on the blinker?

 

[javisam376 10+ year member]

cx-7heaven,

I put the all the lights on (including the interior light), defroster on, heating on and blinker on (the 4 lights)... no dimming... i even turned on the stero on a low level of volume... no dimming.... however there was a little bit of dimming when i used the power windows....

what does that mean???? can I discard if its the car or the amp with this test???

thanks....

With that little bit of power, you should not be having these probs. When your stereo is off, with car running and all lights, a/c fan, interior lights on, do the lights dim when you turn on the blinker?