has big 3 solved your problem?

[corto 10+ year member]

My lights are dimming decenly bad and was just wondering if 0/1 for the big 3 for big grounds would solve the problem has it solved yours?

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[VOA_NIGHTMARE 10+ year member]

most people i know that is not running to much of a system it fixed there problem and if it didnt it did help alot

 

[Raisedin305 5,000+ posts]

most people i know that is not running to much of a system it fixed there problem and if it didnt it did help alot

Whats your setup?

 

[bikejunkie223 10+ year member]

it may or may not help. Given you dirive a Lumina (sig) I would bet your alternator is a peice of crap, even if you just threw a Napa alternator in there. If this is the case, go to your local GM dealer and have them install an OEM alternator- it will then have a lifetime warranty. Also, get your battery checked- it may be getting marginal too. For the big 3 I would use 4 guage, anything more is just "bling" and may not even be needed. Also, everyone will bash, but for some a stiffening capacitor may help, but is not a substitue for a properly functioning charging system.

 

[dleccord 5,000+ posts]

okay, say i finish the big 3 and still notice the dims, would .5 farad cap work? whats diff in 1 and .5, is it just stores more power or something?

 

[revrider1 5,000+ posts]

When I did the big 3 to the car I drive now it did'nt help abit. I checked all my electrical grounds and found the problem.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

When I first got the car I drive now the first thing I did was upgrade the Big 3 before I even started installing any audio gear so I have no point of reference as to what it might have acted like prior to upgrading the cabling.

As my stock alternator was only rated for 75 ampere peak output I pretty quickly went and had that rewound to a higher capacity (thankfully my Geo had a Delco-Remy alternator rather than the borrowed Mitsubishi design found on some Prizms and as such was rewindable...the Mitsu unit is not)

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

do the big 3 in 1/0 if your gonna do it. and yes, you will notice a difference

 

[MyKuL 10+ year member]

You will notice a significant decrease in dimming and your system should get louder at lower volumes, or at least mine did.

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

^^ I noticed the 2nd part, but not the first until I upgraded the alt

 

[bikejunkie223 10+ year member]

the difference between .5 farad and 1 farad is storage capacity. How many watts are you running, that determines cap size.

 

[Johnny Drama 5,000+ posts]

I currently do NOT hve the big 3 done in my truck. I do notice drop in current. I will take before and after mesurements to let you know. My guess would be yes, it will make an improvement.

 

[hcoronado 10+ year member]

i am still running my little piece of shit 60 amp alternator and when i did the big 3 upgrade; it made alot of difference.

my ground was a problem from the start and after removing the paint and reconecting everything with 4 gauge the dimming problems i was having went away but not all the way.

I think is mainly because my alt is only 60 amps but I have being thinking about upgrading that in the near future.

As far as the cap goes.......I had one but I removed it when the big 3 was performed and I now firmly believe that one is not needed.

I am running 2 500 watts amp and 1 300 watts but I have a yellow top battery. So my suggestion will be to upgrade the big 3 and look in to getting a deep cycle battery.

good luck

 

[Raisedin305 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like im going to need to give the Big 3 a try

 

[ramos 5,000+ posts]

Well I haven't started installing the system yet in my tracker. I'm going to after Christmas however. I did do the big three with 4 gauge wire though. Pre-big three, the car would shudder when the a/c fan was turned all the way up. After the big three this problem went away. Crank it all the way up and the idle doesn't move. Was this fixed by the big three ? In all honesty I can't really say for sure. While redoing the vehicle ground, I discovered suzuki did a rather crappy job with the ground. The oem wire is only 10 gauge at the most. And the grounding spot was painted completely, as well as the bolt holding the ring. There was about 1/8" ring around the bolt, of bare metal exposed forming the ground. I think this was a majority of my issues. I guess if I wasn't a lazy bastage, I could take the other wires loose and see. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif