New Alt Still voltage drops!

[LuNaTiC 10+ year member]

A second battery or thrid in his case certainly will not cause added stress to the system. Assuming you have all good batteries - they will be of the same voltage through out as everything is connected. We can agree that above 12V the Alt is running the show, but the large spikes are what cause the problems. If you have more reserve capacity below 12V it becomes harder to drop below that amount. Bass is NOT constant, we all know this too. How long do you think it takes a good battery/ALT to recharge if you can see the spikes on a voltmeter and between voltage comes back up?
Anonymous -you have friends right? One of them has jumper cables. PLEASE with Voltmeter in hand (very important) Check your car voltage at the battery car on - system off, no accessories on. Let the car run for 2 minutes at idle, make sure voltage is the same. Connect friends car battery (HIS CAR OFF) Let your car idle another minute, check voltage at your battery and at you friends battery to make sure they are equal.

Now then - Play your system for normal audio tracks you listen to daily at the normally loud level you would (with voltmeter on your car batttery) Make a note of what the lowest number you see. Play 1 or 2 songs like this. Then disconnect your friends battery (allow 2 minutes for your car to charge so the test is fair) And play the same songs at the same level - take note of the lowest number you see and report back to us with your findings and let us know what type of battery you have purchased.........

Most jumper cables should be adequate, but if the clamps are not secure on the terminals, you may have a loss from resistance. Other then that, this litte test should provide factual information on how over blown "stress" from a battery is.

Now I assume this should prove that adding batteries in a daily driver will help?

 

[Anonymous 10+ year member]

I just had my battery trickle charged and it still does not maintain voltage at idle. I had my alt tested and it is putting out what it is supposed to it maxed out his voltmeter at idle which is around 150 amps and he checked the voltage on the alt battery and amps and said everything was working fine. However it still drops to 10.5 at idle. Could this be a bad connection or do i just need more storage capacity?

 

[Anonymous 10+ year member]

He said the voltage was good with alt, amps, and battery

 

[LuNaTiC 10+ year member]

He said the voltage was good with alt, amps, and battery

You have ~2600 or so RMS running through your system at IDLE. Why are you surprised with voltage drops?

 

[Anonymous 10+ year member]

Because i was getting about this much voltage at idle with my stock alt. Oh the mechanic said that he played my system and had the air running and it read 13.89at idle on his voltmeter. But then i play it and my cap reads 10.5 and my batt light comes on.

 

[Anonymous 10+ year member]

I was expecting more voltage at idle since it is more amps at idle than my stock alt.

 

[LuNaTiC 10+ year member]

As mentioned, a higher output alternator does notmagically put out it's rated power at idle, unless specifically mentioned. YOu are probably getting about the same at idle as your old alternator.

Read twice. Now I'm sure you're getting a little more at IDLE than your stock alt but not enough more to make a noticeable difference in voltage drops(Atleast not when running that much RMS)

 

[photocrazy8 10+ year member]

You have ~2600 or so RMS running through your system at IDLE. Why are you surprised with voltage drops?

Lunatic, i think you see what i see, 2600 RMS is still too much for just one alt...

yea you had dimming on your stock alt cause it could not put out enought at idle

yea, now you still have dimming cause your H/O alt cause put out enought at idle...you asking your 150 idle alt to do about 200 or so...not gonna happed...

 

[LuNaTiC 10+ year member]

Lunatic, i think you see what i see, 2600 RMS is still too much for just one alt...
yea you had dimming on your stock alt cause it could not put out enought at idle

yea, now you still have dimming cause your H/O alt cause put out enought at idle...you asking your 150 idle alt to do about 200 or so...not gonna happed...

You win at life.

 

[photocrazy8 10+ year member]

You win at life.

yay //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

its all just simple math in the end lol

 

[LuNaTiC 10+ year member]

my avator > yours

 

[photocrazy8 10+ year member]

my avator > yours

i wish i had an 18...but my 15 is too loud, i do have hearing loss... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

is says you have a mofo lol, please tell me you sold it...haha i have 2 mofo 15 im trying to get rid of...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Because i was getting about this much voltage at idle with my stock alt. Oh the mechanic said that he played my system and had the air running and it read 13.89at idle on his voltmeter. But then i play it and my cap reads 10.5 and my batt light comes on.

The fact that the tech was getting higher voltage up front than you are getting in the rear indicates even more strongly to me that you have a bad connection somewhere.

knu--I see where you are coming from with this but draining voltage down to below 11V is basically a full discharge on a battery. If you are constantly dipping into the battery reserve (long droning bass notes, a lot of transients, heavy bass guitar, etc...) having more reserve is still not fixing the problem. It is only masking it. It will still kill the alt in the long run and depending on the batteries, they will likely go as well. Regardless of how big the reserve is if you are averaging more out than in, it will eventually run dry. If you are draining one battery, you will drain any number of batteries, it will just take longer. It will also take longer to refill once they are drained. And until they are recharged, they are a larger load on the alt. If he was only momentarily dipping into the reserve of the battery and then only doing so infrequently, another battery might possibly be in order, but infrequent and momentary dips into the reserves don't drain a battery down to

edit:There is no way that 2600 watts is coming out of this system with music unless there is some serious clipping involved.

 

[Anonymous 10+ year member]

I am going to take it to the shop that did the install and have them go through it to check the connections. I hope it is just a bad connection.

 

[magic_wizard 10+ year member]

Let us know what happens.