Can my alternator handle the system I'm about to put in?

[tgraham09 10+ year member]

I have a 2001 Toyota Corolla. I'm almost positive the alternator is 80 amps.

Currently installed I have an Alpine idax303 HU with a 45x4 in line "power block" alpine amp hooked up to 4 alpine type r speakers (2) 5 1/4in and (2) 6.5in.

I recently bought 2 12" Kicker L5s in the factory box wired down to 2 ohms final impedance. Once I get my amp (Rockford Fosgate T1000-1bdCP) and a wiring kit in a few weeks I will be putting the subs and amp in. The L5s are 600 wattsRMS each for a total of 1200watts RMS. The amp is rated at 1000rms at 2 ohms but since its a rockford it will put out probably 1100-1200.

This is my first system and Ive been working hard to find good deals on all my equipment. Im not educated though in how all of this electrical works so I have no idea whether this alternator is going to be able to handle all of this or not. Please let me know whats going to happen when I put all of this in.

Thanks!

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[schackel 10+ year member]

your light will probably dim but you will prolly be ok

if they do dim there are a few things you can do to fix it.

but i would definitly do the big 3

 

[tgraham09 10+ year member]

What are the few things that i could do other than replace the alternator?

And yea i have heard about the big 3 before...what is the estimated cost of doing that? or the difficulty of installation of the upgrade?

 

[Mookie 10+ year member]

And maybe a different battery under the hood. Can pick one up pretty cheap.

 

[schackel 10+ year member]

the big three is not that much money. generally around 30 bux worth of wire. but yes you asked the right question. it is kind of a pain in the *** depending on what car you have

 

[tgraham09 10+ year member]

yea i just put in a dualast gold so i should be good

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

the big 3 is pretty cheap, just make sure you get some good ofc 1-4/0. can usually be had for around 15/20 bucks

and it would be a good idea do to the main power run in 1/0 with a distro to 4gauge in the back, this will also allow you to easily add a second battery in the back if it is needed.

and depending on the car the big 3 can take around 30min to do. could be more depending on your skill and the location of the alt and grounds.

 

[schackel 10+ year member]

And maybe a different battery under the hood. Can pick one up pretty cheap.

this too. but at the same time the alternator re-wire would be a big help. the stock battery in your car is ment for how much output you are getting from your alt and without more power (big 3) coming from your alt a new battery will not be too useful

 

[tgraham09 10+ year member]

ok thanks for the help. ill prolly end up doing that soon.

is there any sort of mathematical way to determine how much and alternator can handle? something like an alternator of (_) amount of amps can handle (_) amount of watts?

 

[robertoyoung08 10+ year member]

about 90% of your stock atl is probably being used. so you dont have too much slack to work with.

in some cars the amount of power you are running, plus the big three and a decent battery will do it, but in my lexus (also made by toyota) my stock alt hasnt really been able to keep up with the power im running and im runing similar as you. im runing a sub amp at 1200 watts and a 4 channel at 50*4. and i get high diming and up until i did the big three, my amps would often go into protect from low voltage at high volumes. so i had to order a new alt.

soo possibly, be prepared for a new alternator upgrade, just saying that since we have the same car manufacturers. hopefuly not though man.

 

[tgraham09 10+ year member]

How much dimming did u Have when u still had ur stock alt but after u did the big 3?

 

[robertoyoung08 10+ year member]

How much dimming did u Have when u still had ur stock alt but after u did the big 3?

i still have my stock alt. i just ordered my h/o alt on monday, so its not here yet.

now that i have the big 3 done, its helped my voltage stay up higher than it used to, but still, when i crank the volume my voltage goes down to the 11.xxx which is very low. too low for equipment to run at anyways, and i get very heavy dimming. all lights, dash lighting, and everything lit in my car dims like crazy. i hate it. thats the reason why i was forced to get the alt. cus i dont wana mess up my equipment or be forcing my car to handle a load thats too high for it. spent too much on my lexus to screw it up that easily.

i do get pretty heavy diming at high outputs of my subs, and still a good amount at low volumes also.

hopefully you have a different scenario though

but work your way up and hope you can resolve it at early stages.

 

[tgraham09 10+ year member]

thanks for the advice...im definitely going to do the big 3 but still dont know whether i want to throw a kinetic dry cell in the back and keep the stock alt or just buy a completely new alt. what made u decide to go with replacing the stock alt over putting in another battery?

 

[robertoyoung08 10+ year member]

thanks for the advice...im definitely going to do the big 3 but still dont know whether i want to throw a kinetic dry cell in the back and keep the stock alt or just buy a completely new alt. what made u decide to go with replacing the stock alt over putting in another battery?

i did upgrade battery man. look at my signature.

well this is how it happened. first i upgraded to yellow top just cus. then i got bigger system which is the one i have now. i started getting dimming and voltage would get low. so i upgraded to a kinetik 1800 this january hoping it would fix my voltage and dimming. i was set on getting a better battery and not having to mess with any wires on the car, cus the battery was just plug and play, nothing hard or much to mess up, but it still didnt help. so THEN i did big in febuary and it helped my voltage but dimming is still here. so thats why NOW im doing h/o alt and hopefully this should take care of everything for good. it makes sense though, cus my stock alt is only about 80 or 100 amps tops. so its not enough power to keep up with all the electrical in the car plus another extra 1500 watts of audio, its too much. my car has a lot of electrical as it is and all this extra equipment is just too much strain. same for yours, but it can be different in every car.

my friend has a saturn ion and is running similar watts on a stock electrical with just a kinetik 2400 and his voltage never drops lower than 14volts no matter what. kind of trippy to me. but i guess it just depends on the demand of the electricity on the alt and how much it can spare. i hope you dont have to buy an alt, cus trust me, i didnt either, ive been avoiding buying one for almost 2 years now, even though i KNEW it was coming, but i kept avoiding it, now i just have to do it, its what i get for wanting all this loud music lol. all part of car audio.

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

I realize in most cases that running 1/0 or better is the way to go when upgrading the big 3. But guys, he has an 80 amp alternator. 4 gauge wire can carry up to 250 amps of current for 4-5 feet easilly. So realistically he could save some money buy upgrading with 4 gauage instead of 1/0. But, since a lot of you might hate on me for this post, he can also leave the stock runs of wire in place when he upgrades, and that will provide more then enough, even if he upgrades his system down the road.