Big three installed, no gains, and check engine light is now on..

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Did you leave all the stock wires or replace them with the new wire?

Also, may be clipping. If you're wired to 2 ohms on that amp, you may be trying to get more power out of it than it can produce.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Seat belt bolt grounds svck for most vehicles

Proof? Again, I find the steel is thickest where the seats and seatbelts mount, but suit yourself... this is two pages of people flapping off at the lips trying to look smart to "fix" something that's not broken anyway.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Proof? Again, I find the steel is thickest where the seats and seatbelts mount, but suit yourself... this is two pages of people flapping off at the lips trying to look smart to "fix" something that's not broken anyway.

I agree with you about it being a thick secure mounting point that is attached to the frame.

I think people have a problem with some having paint in the hole's threads, but you can still sand around it so the flat surface of your ring terminal touches bare metal. I am not grounded this way in my car, but I have done this in trucks on low power and it has worked fine.

Just my two cents

 

[MrAcd]

Did some early morning test, found that with a DMM i got a 9 ohm reading from my seat belt ground ring terminal to the negative on the battery, to compare it. That wire i made running from the alt to the frame had a .1 ohm reading and from the alt to the battery (no wire here, only measuring to compare) i got around a 1.2 ohm reading. I understand that the Big three is not going to give me more voltage output but rather clear up some of the voltage drops.

I keep reading some people say the seat belt bolt is fine others say they are horrible. With a 9 ohm reading from the ground wire terminal on the seat belt bolt, to the battery is it safe to say i need a better ground?

I make sure im not clipping, again i use soundqubed's bass knob with a clipping indicator. Granted i dont know if it is totally right or not. I tuned with a DMM. my gain on the amp is maybe at like 25-30% if i remember correctly, give or take.

I left all stock wiring, i only added wire

 

[massivespl]

Proof? Again, I find the steel is thickest where the seats and seatbelts mount, but suit yourself... this is two pages of people flapping off at the lips trying to look smart to "fix" something that's not broken anyway.

My proof is in my Tahoe when I first started puttin car audio in there I used a seat belt bolt ground. Amp kept shutting off. Then I grounded to engine block and ran a ground to back battery's and grounded amp to batt and never had that problem again.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

read this: https://jlaudio.zendesk.com/entries/46369170-Getting-Grounded

you're not going to get an accurate measure of the resistance unless you do a voltage drop test in isolated conditions. the seat belt bolt might be the best ground, but maybe on your model vehicle there's some sort of weld in the way, something to cause more resistance, we don't know. I do know that the voltage drop you're getting is probably completely normal considering you have a 130 amp alternator. Your truck is pulling 30 amps alone maybe more, so you're down to 100 amps available MAX (cold, not at idle, and in ideal conditions) to run the rest of your electrical if you want alternator charging levels.

that amplifier has the exact same fuse rating as my powerbass asa1000.1dx and i have no doubts it pulls a full 100 amps when you're running it at high levels. did anyone mention if that amplifier has a bass boost knob, turn it completely off?

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

My proof is in my Tahoe when I first started puttin car audio in there I used a seat belt bolt ground. Amp kept shutting off. Then I grounded to engine block and ran a ground to back battery's and grounded amp to batt and never had that problem again.

Yea, his seatbelt bolt ground was pretty bad too. 9 ohms! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

My proof is in my Tahoe when I first started puttin car audio in there I used a seat belt bolt ground. Amp kept shutting off. Then I grounded to engine block and ran a ground to back battery's and grounded amp to batt and never had that problem again.

That's very scientific.

Did some early morning test, found that with a DMM i got a 9 ohm reading from my seat belt ground ring terminal to the negative on the battery, to compare it. That wire i made running from the alt to the frame had a .1 ohm reading and from the alt to the battery (no wire here, only measuring to compare) i got around a 1.2 ohm reading. I understand that the Big three is not going to give me more voltage output but rather clear up some of the voltage drops.
I keep reading some people say the seat belt bolt is fine others say they are horrible. With a 9 ohm reading from the ground wire terminal on the seat belt bolt, to the battery is it safe to say i need a better ground?

I make sure im not clipping, again i use soundqubed's bass knob with a clipping indicator. Granted i dont know if it is totally right or not. I tuned with a DMM. my gain on the amp is maybe at like 25-30% if i remember correctly, give or take.

I left all stock wiring, i only added wire

I repeat, your charging system is not going to magically make more power by changing wires around. You will NOT maintain 14.4V while playing music hard without a larger alternator or possibly a very large (and expensive) capacitor bank. If your voltage is staying above 12V you're within safe operating limits of your amp. This whole thread is a bunch of fuckwittery from people who want to look smart but don't understand how a car's electrical system works.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I agree with you about it being a thick secure mounting point that is attached to the frame.
I think people have a problem with some having paint in the hole's threads, but you can still sand around it so the flat surface of your ring terminal touches bare metal. I am not grounded this way in my car, but I have done this in trucks on low power and it has worked fine.

Just my two cents

I also suspect this theory is pushed by those who don't properly sand. It's not like one spot on the chasis is any different from the next and it has been proven that in most applications running ground wire to the front battery gains little to nothing.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

I also suspect this theory is pushed by those who don't properly sand. It's not like one spot on the chasis is any different from the next and it has been proven that in most applications running ground wire to the front battery gains little to nothing.

I don't ground my amps to the frame. I'm doing ten runs of SHCA 2/0 OFC from my amp to my battery bank. I will know for sure that my ground is not the issue, haha. Don't care one bit that it's unnecessary

 

[Jbake1975]

Its on the seat belt bolt but, that seat belt bolt seemed like a really soild ground, at least half inch thick bolt. Put a dremel tool to it and sandpaper and cleaned off everything, it was the best ground for under the seat.

I thought that too and all my voltage drop was related to my seat belt bolt grounds(i had 2).Moved my grounds to the frame and that cured my problem.My seat belt bolts weren't on the frame or closely connected(hard to explain).Idk but cured mine.Good luck.Lot of good advice in here for you op.

 

[MrAcd]

So are we thinking it is a bad ground with 9 ohms of resistance? Should i drill a hole and ground it to the frame? The ground has to be it, being i heard a bad ground is requiring more current thus creating the drops. I am going on a week vacation soon, so when i get back i am going to try to fix the ground if we can conclude that it is most likely it. I did do some more testing after driving all day and found that it likes to stay closer to the low 13's now rather than dropping down to 12v as often as it did (still happened ever now and then).

 

[fly_marlin]

So are we thinking it is a bad ground with 9 ohms of resistance? Should i drill a hole and ground it to the frame? The ground has to be it, being i heard a bad ground is requiring more current thus creating the drops. I am going on a week vacation soon, so when i get back i am going to try to fix the ground if we can conclude that it is most likely it. I did do some more testing after driving all day and found that it likes to stay closer to the low 13's now rather than dropping down to 12v as often as it did (still happened ever now and then).

Seems there was disagreement, probably isn't a bad idea to try.