Did the BIG 3 and lights are still flickering????

[dvader]

Like the title says I did the big 3 with the exception of the wire from the chasis to the block. Replaced the wire with 4ga and my lights still flicker. I am still trying to find a place to put the 3rd wire. My car is a 2004 Grand Am GT and I am running an Orion HCCA 225r on 2- 12" MA Audio on an 1 ohm load. Any suggestions.....

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[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

yeah......

try upgrading your battery and alternator

 

[Ford302Redneck 10+ year member]

It happens like that sometimes...

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

i still have the same prob too. but i still need to upgrade my chassis to block from 4 guage to 0. I currently have 0 from alt to batt and -batt to chassis. Also 0 guage from stock batt to yellow top in trunk. still dim.. bleh.

Im guessing that's not enough for my system that is running about 2kwrms...

upgrade my alt just might be next on the list. that or upgrading my stock battery to another yellow/red top.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

It's a cheap lil beef up, it doesn't solve miracles. It's basicially just making your electrical system more efficient because bigger wire will decrease resistance.

 

[dvader]

I have to say that the flickering is not as bad as it was before the upgrade.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif The stock alt to bat wire is like 10ga.

 

[enzowho 10+ year member]

Finish your big 3 and see how things work then. If I were in your shoes I would check my voltage with a DMM and see exactly what kindof voltage drops you are getting, then evaluate if you need to do more electrical upgrades. If they are dangerously low then add a deep cycle battery or HO alternator. I seriously doubt this is the case though and would probably just call it good after you complete the big 3.

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

Don't know how people expect to get gold out of upgrading wiring on the still insufficient charging components...

Upgrade alt/batt.

 

[thatkidbob 10+ year member]

upgrade my alt just might be next on the list. that or upgrading my stock battery to another yellow/red top.

if you do either, do the alt first.

think about it... your average battery puts out 12.8v TOPS... if your lights are dimming that means that your electrical system is sagging to your battery voltage. So a new battery doesn't fix the problem of your alt not being able to keep up, and you'll still get dimming (typically).

The alt on the other hand puts out somewhere between 13.8 and 14.4. if it can keep up with demand your battery never comes into the picture.

 

[AJ²06 5,000+ posts]

I noticed a difference with 1/0 gauge... but now I ned an HO alt! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/up2something.gif.dd110ecf3ae4b76050d87598f2f8de7c.gif

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

Finish the Big three. Think about using a bigger gauge wire too.

 

[questionaire 10+ year member]

Finish the Big three. Think about using a bigger gauge wire too.

Would upgrading wire be useful if recommended size is a higher number??

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Get away from using a chassis ground. Rather than grounding the amp to the chassis, the battery to the chassis and the alt/block to the chassis, ground everthing right to the neg battery post. Unless you are grounding the block to the same point as the battery on the frame, the frame is going to cause more resistance than you think and limit potential gains from further upgrades.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

the frame is going to cause more resistance than you think and limit potential gains from further upgrades.

I once said this and got a bunch of shit for it. People were telling me that it's a theory that's not true.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Think about it this way, steel has 10x the resistance of copper. For the chassis to provide as good of a ground path as a section of copper wire, the actual conduction path would have to be 10x the cross sectional area of the wire it is replacing. All seams would have to be fully welded. All sections bolted together would have to be free of paint or primer. Sound like how you're car's made? Nope, mine either.