Having problems with power... Need suggestions

[Intercooler 10+ year member]

I have had my system in my car for about a month now (see sig for car and system). About two weeks ago I added a 1 Farad Stinger Cap since the first two weeks my headlights flickered when I would crank it. This is what the audio shop suggested to fix it. Two weeks later and it is better but if I crank it the voltage seen on the digital readout goes from 14.2V to 11.5-11.8V when it is up a bit. The flicker is less but still there. They said it wouldn't hurt anything but I am not getting the full potential out of the amps. They said my next step should probably be a dry cell battery or alternator. If it would fix the problem totally I would spend the money but don't want to just keep throwing money at something to not fix the problem //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif A battery is like $150 and they said an alternator is $600. I have plans to get a new timing belt and have all my belts changed shortly so at 85k miles I could do an alternator at that time to save costs. How do most people fix this problem? Wonder how much potential I am really losing?

Click to read more...

 

[mikescanlon 10+ year member]

get an alternator.. 600 bucks seems steep, but you do have an import, and it's harder to do for imports.

the alternator makes a huge difference, a drycell will help your system, and you know your battery wont be dead when you go to start the car... but the alternator = the win

if you ahven't dont the big three yet, do it now, it will never hurt, and usually helps more than just your system... shit it's 30 bucks worth of cable and connectors, cant lose with that one.

 

[Intercooler 10+ year member]

I found this on E-Bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-00-NEW-HONDA-CIVIC-HIGH-OUTPUT-ALTERNATOR-135-AMPS_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33573QQitemZ8003643058QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

If mine is really 75A like it says and I step up to 135A will that be enough? Does a better unit exist in this range? How much do I need to cover it nicely??

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

DOn't buy that alt... its just a refurbed stock alt rewound to produce more output. Do a search.. those alts fail ALL the time. Contact Nathan at Excessive Amperage. He makes alts for imports at far cheaper prices than $600.

 

[mikescanlon 10+ year member]

/\/\ sounds like some good info, the lowest i could get on the eclipse was 465 here locally to make me one the same size as my stock alt.. only could get 155 amp out of the small space..

155 amps gives me a good amount of power for the 2 spl3k amps i had in there for 4 spl3002's.. but i'd still get voltage drops to 11-12.3 not too bad though with one battery, thats all after the big 3 and 0 gauage to the rear from the front.

get 200+amps if you can, if not, you have a smaller setup than me, you should be fine

the big three removed my light diming problem.