Fix the light dimming

[TheAftermath 10+ year member]

Every time bass hits in my car, the head lights in my car dim slightly(not very noticeable). But this morning i wasn't even playing my music extremely loud, and my headlights were dimming like crazy along with all my interior lights(gauges, Warm/Cool Air controls).

I'd understand if i was running something like 2000 watts rms. But my sub amp only puts out 340 rms! What do i need to do fix this, and how come it was so bad this morning? Helpppp =(

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[skmfkr 5,000+ posts]

ground might have came loose

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

Big 3 and a good battery and go from there

 

[Enellz 10+ year member]

ground might have came loose

x2, or you might need to recharge your front battery too

edit: I also agree with the above post, if you can just get a new front battery, like an optima, kinetik, etc...

 

[chunky cumz 10+ year member]

whats the car?

I remember way back when i had a neon, i had 1 12in type e sub and a crappy alpine amp that did 300 rms and **** it dimmed that lights in that pos of a car.

 

[12VoltIsMyBag 10+ year member]

upgrade the chargeing system.

big 3

new batt

and or alt

 

[TheAftermath 10+ year member]

I have a 94 civic. But yeah, it was pretty bad this morning. Will i eventually damage something if this keeps up?

 

[chunky cumz 10+ year member]

I have a 94 civic. But yeah, it was pretty bad this morning. Will i eventually damage something if this keeps up?

lol my wife drives a 94 accord and **** those things have shitty electrical setups. the fan turns on in her car and the whole thing acts as if its gonna shut down.

 

[Pioneer~Saturn 5,000+ posts]

Haha the12voltsux...

And yea, Id replace the front battery with a kinetik, xs power, stinger, etc. and upgrade your power wire run to the back (and also upgrade your ground run, and when you do that make sure your grounding point is nice and clean, scrapped down to bare metal) to the largest gauge you can do sensibly and also do the Big-3.

If things still persist then it may be time to put a battery in the trunk and then if that doesn't solve it, it may be time to upgrade the alt...but everything listed should take care of it..

 

[TheAftermath 10+ year member]

Alright thanks. How much do these things cost? I got my HU and sub/amp installed at car toys. You think they could take a look at it?

Also, about the sudden increase in dimming. Is it most likely that my ground wire came loose? Like a couple stated above.

 

[Mexar 10+ year member]

If it was cold out, the battery has a harder time to push the juice around...

If you were parked differently (Close to a wall or something for the lights to shine on) you might've noticed it more, or really dark to notice the dash lights.

If the system has been installed for a while, there might've been a crimp somewhere on the power wire (More likely than ground) and what will happen is that becomes a point of higher resistance than the rest of the wire, and if you ran the stereo for a long while the night before, it would've heated up in that spot. What happens then, is some of the strands fuse together, and you lose a LOT of surface area, increasing the resistance by a lot again (That whole long winded thing breaks down to, check the wires)

 

[Pioneer~Saturn 5,000+ posts]

Alright thanks. How much do these things cost? I got my HU and sub/amp installed at car toys. You think they could take a look at it?
Also, about the sudden increase in dimming. Is it most likely that my ground wire came loose? Like a couple stated above.

x2 on what Mexar's saying.

But if you take it back to car toys they'll probably try to mislead u into buying a capacitor...dont. As for the loose connection, possibly...take a look at were it's grounded...just follow your ground wire to the bolt where they grounded it and make sure its nice and tight...but also make sure the metal its fastened to doesnt have any paint where it's mounted, it should be just clean metal.

 

[97accordalpine 10+ year member]

lol my wife drives a 94 accord and **** those things have shitty electrical setups. the fan turns on in her car and the whole thing acts as if its gonna shut down.

I know! I have a 97 and 90 accord and my dad has a 94 and they are horrible as far as electrical goes. Dont dare turn on the ac, lights, and your system or itll stall out. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[TheAftermath 10+ year member]

Mine doesn't even have AC haha.

Should i do something about this before risking damage? Or is the dimming just going to be an annoyance, because i could live with that.

 

[Pioneer~Saturn 5,000+ posts]

^I don't have AC either (now..) //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif the way it should be //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif...

But if it isn't crazy-dimming and you can live with it, you could always just upgrade your wiring (pretty darn cheap upgrade) and leave it at that..that alone might substantially help out though, id atleast do the wiring/big-3..