Is it my Alt??

[Below20hzonly 10+ year member]

Ok without my audio system hooked up everytime I click the button to roll the window down my lights will flicker for a second and when I do hook the amp up (which is about 700rms), my lights will dim really hard at like half volume on the deck and both amps not even turned half way up, my ground for the battery is the factory location and I have multiple runs of thicker wire my ground for the amp is right near the rear wheel well, my battery is less than year old from home of economy(its a cheap $75 one), do you think it could be my alternator its stock 95amp and i have 110,000 miles on the car, any help would be great.

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[Dtrom 10+ year member]

Could be alt. Do you have the big 3 done

 

[frogcase2002 10+ year member]

Have you done the big 3 and have you sanded everywhere there is a ground to bare metal?

 

[Below20hzonly 10+ year member]

yes big 3 done and sanded very well.

Have you done the big 3 and have you sanded everywhere there is a ground to bare metal?

 

[frogcase2002 10+ year member]

Batt/batts and/or alt is going to be what you need then. Some stock alts just **** ... I bet just a nice batt will help alot

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

I would disconnect your audio system until you get this problem figured out. Easiest thing for you to do right now is make sure your grounds are good under-hood and make sure all connections are good and tight. Then you may want to have your alternator and/or battery checked out to see if they are any good. But you want to figure this out before you connect your audio system, the additional draw is not good in this situation.

 

[Below20hzonly 10+ year member]

can I just go to any auto place and they will test the alt and batt, or can i check it myself?

I would disconnect your audio system until you get this problem figured out. Easiest thing for you to do right now is make sure your grounds are good under-hood and make sure all connections are good and tight. Then you may want to have your alternator and/or battery checked out to see if they are any good. But you want to figure this out before you connect your audio system, the additional draw is not good in this situation.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

can I just go to any auto place and they will test the alt and batt, or can i check it myself?

If you have the tools you can do it, or you can see if they can test it for you. Simplest way to test the battery is to just check its resting voltage.

 

[Below20hzonly 10+ year member]

ya the weird part is when the lights dim, the voltage from the battery(which my headunit is reading) still reads 13.8 to 14.2volts, same as idle.

If you have the tools you can do it, or you can see if they can test it for you. Simplest way to test the battery is to just check its resting voltage.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

What have you done to the vehicle? Have you done big 3, messed with anything under the hood? Is the light dimming bad or just noticable? Does your engine sputter at all when that happens?

 

[Below20hzonly 10+ year member]

big three is done with 4 gauge kinda small, very noticable dimming, i ran a large rms sub amp years ago on this stock alt too so that might be the problem, i was probably clipping the amp hard come to think of it, i had the gain and bb turned almost all the way up on a hifonic brutus 2000 I was dumb

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

big three is done with 4 gauge kinda small, very noticable dimming, i ran a large rms sub amp years ago on this stock alt too so that might be the problem, i was probably clipping the amp hard come to think of it, i had the gain and bb turned almost all the way up on a hifonic brutus 2000 I was dumb

Very possible your alt is taking a dump right now. Call around to local shops to see if someone can test it for you.