Electrical problem has me stumped! HELP!!!

[PR1M3R 10+ year member]

O.K. I have a 2001 dodge stratus coupe.

120amp alternator.

Optima yellow top under the hood

Kinetik HC800 in the trunk

All zero gauge wire

Sundown SAE 1200D amp

2 12" Treo TE's

Now for the problem.....

When I turn it up, lights dim badly. Tachometer goes nuts and if I turn it up enough the car will stall out.

Voltage at the amp even before the second battery was never below 13v.

Looks like the stock charging and ground wires are all 4 AWG.

Running the stock deck with a line level converter to the amp.

After the second battery voltage stays almost at 14v

What the hell do I do now?

.

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[ahole-ic]

O.K. I have a 2001 dodge stratus coupe.
120amp alternator.

Optima yellow top under the hood

Kinetik HC800 in the trunk

All zero gauge wire

Sundown SAE 1200D amp

2 12" Treo TE's

Now for the problem.....

When I turn it up, lights dim badly. Tachometer goes nuts and if I turn it up enough the car will stall out.

Voltage at the amp even before the second battery was never below 13v.

Looks like the stock charging and ground wires are all 4 AWG.

Running the stock deck with a line level converter to the amp.

After the second battery voltage stays almost at 14v

What the hell do I do now?

.

Do the big 3. Adding a battery will not raise the voltage so your story doesn't fit if that's what you meant. Why spend the money on batts, wire, amps and subs but keep the factory deck?

Edit: When you say "before" and "After" the second batt... do you mean that's the location you're measuring? Or you do mean a time before you put the batt in? You were extremely vague in your description.

 

[PR1M3R 10+ year member]

I bought all this to go in my old car. But happened upon a deal on a new one. So originally I only had the amp and subs in. No extra battery. Voltage stayed around 13v even on bass notes. But the lights dimmed like hell and the car would start to stall out.

My old deck went with my old car. Bought a new one, should be herein a week.

So to try and fix the dimming issue a buddy suggested throwing the Kinetik in just to see what would happen. Voltage got better (more stable) at around 13.7v

But still have the same dimming issue and stalling.

Sorry for the originally vague description //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/banghead.gif.8606515f668c74f6de0281deb475b6fd.gif

 

[neverfinished 10+ year member]

I bought all this to go in my old car. But happened upon a deal on a new one. So originally I only had the amp and subs in. No extra battery. Voltage stayed around 13v even on bass notes. But the lights dimmed like hell and the car would start to stall out.
My old deck went with my old car. Bought a new one, should be herein a week.

So to try and fix the dimming issue a buddy suggested throwing the Kinetik in just to see what would happen. Voltage got better (more stable) at around 13.7v

But still have the same dimming issue and stalling.

Sorry for the originally vague description //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/banghead.gif.8606515f668c74f6de0281deb475b6fd.gif

first of all nice system, that sounds ****in beast. However your going to have to upgrade your vehicles wires to handle all your beastyness //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif. I got 2 10'' jl audio's in my 76 chevy k5 blazer and my spedometer goes crazy up and down 10mph when i start blasting it and my lights dim. I sometimes think im going to stall but somehow the old beasty alternator keeps it goin.But before going much bigger ill be redoing all the wiring related to my sound system+installing a new alternator as well as adding a battery bank. Which is probably what you should do at this point especially since the newer cars are not designed to supply monsters like what you got in there. Only reason mine survives is because my electrical system was designed to power a winch/fog lights and all that other electricial off road **** i dont have //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[PR1M3R 10+ year member]

I think all te Big 3 wires are in 4 AWG. That should be good right? I hear people doing the big 3 with 4 AWG all the time.

My alt and battery reserve should be MORE than enough to power 1000w RMS. At least I would think so right?

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

I think all te Big 3 wires are in 4 AWG. That should be good right? I hear people doing the big 3 with 4 AWG all the time. My alt and battery reserve should be MORE than enough to power 1000w RMS. At least I would think so right?

No. Your amp alone uses 120 - 150 amps of power on deep bass notes when cranked, not all the time, but when it peaks it draws a lot for brief moments. Your meter is probalby not fast enough to read the quick dips in power.

Your 120 alt does not really put out 120 amps except at high rmps, not at idle. Idle is probalby near 50%- 60%.

Your car needs alot of those amps too. They put in a 120 amp alt because your car needs that much. You don't have 120 amps of spare power waiting for a giant amplifier to be plugged in.

So if your car's electrical is drawing 80 -120 amps, your audio system is drawing 80 - 120 amps. That's 160 - 240 amps of potential draw down a 4 gauge factory wire (~120 amps max), while your alt is normally only putting out 60 - 70 amps at idle. If you look at it that way you can see why your dimming and stalling.

Solution: bigger or second alternator, Big 3 in zero or you can probably get by with an additional 4 gauge on top of the factory 4 gauge.

Before I even opened this thread I already knew this was your problem just from the title. Eveybody wants big amps, but doesn't understand thier electrical systems are not designed to handle them.

 

[neverfinished 10+ year member]

No. Your amp alone uses 120 - 150 amps of power on deep bass notes when cranked, not all the time, but when it peaks it draws a lot for brief moments. Your meter is probalby not fast enough to read the quick dips in power.Your 120 alt does not really put out 120 amps except at high rmps, not at idle. Idle is probalby near 50%- 60%.

Your car needs alot of those amps too. They put in a 120 amp alt because your car needs that much. You don't have 120 amps of spare power waiting for a giant amplifier to be plugged in.

So if your car's electrical is drawing 80 -120 amps, your audio system is drawing 80 - 120 amps. That's 160 - 240 amps of potential draw down a 4 gauge factory wire (~120 amps max), while your alt is normally only putting out 60 - 70 amps at idle. If you look at it that way you can see why your dimming and stalling.

Solution: bigger or second alternator, Big 3 in zero or you can probably get by with an additional 4 gauge on top of the factory 4 gauge.

Before I even opened this thread I already knew this was your problem just from the title. Eveybody wants big amps, but doesn't understand thier electrical systems are not designed to handle them.

what he said lol

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

Yup, I agree with DidUHearThat? I've got an '08 Silverado with a stock 145 AMP alty. There IS a reason they put in the size alternator that they do at time of manufacture. Anyways, I too have 2 10" JL Audio subs and am running 1,000W Max RMS. Not huge by any stretch, especially compared to some of the folks here on CA.

Anyways, I was getting light dimming on high volume and big bass hits. So, here is what I did.

1. Big 3 - with 0 gauge Knu wire people! 0AWG! Nothing LESS! Stock was 8AWG if you can believe it. I removed all of the stock wiring to the battery, alternator, chassis and block and replaced with 0AWG.

2. Upgraded OEM AC Delco battery with a Kinetik HC2000.

3. Added 2nd Kinetik HC2000 (there was a spot for a second battery under the hood, so I added it)

After #3 was done, no more dimming. At each step the dimming was less and less but after #3, the dimming was gone.

Oh, also, I had a real slight alternator whine I was also fighting and when I added the 2nd battery that disappeared too.

If I add more wattage to my system in the future, I may look at an HO alty, but for now it is keeping up just fine and voltage is typically right around 14V.