quick ?

[taylor 10+ year member]

why do you guys always say buy an alternator buy an alternator??? (not trying to be a dink) An 80 amp alternator will do most systems absolutely fine. Unless you drive around listening to test tones every day then you will need one (or if you are a serious SPL competitor)

My 01 neon has an 85 amp alt and i run 2 class ab amps, screen, Eq, red neon in the trunk, and 2 cd changers. with a 60 amp fuse under the hood. I have yet to blow that fuse since it was installed in 01' (yes there is a spare in the car) or have a dead battery (still on stocker neon battery from 01)

with properly set gains, upgraded grounds, the car should do fine.

but anything under 80 i'd say try to upgrade unless you run very very small system.

sorry, not to flame, but it seems like people say get a new alt regardless, I'd hate to see people spend the $$$$ if it's not necessary.

http://www.sounddomain.com/id/tayls

to see all my equipment.

Click to read more...

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

How many watts RMS total are you running? peace

NG

 

[slick316 10+ year member]

i think my stock alt is 70 amps, i was running a 1200watt class d and 300 watts class a/b, and i had a 60 amp fuse under the hood. ran that for 7-8months, no blown fuses, so does that mean i am okay? i got dimming lights when i really cranked the sub, but never at my normal listening volume.

i'm doing a little upgrading, and i'm not worried about my alt, but am i doing okay with what i have, or am i, in some way, vastly wearing down the life of my alt (car is 2 years old and has 20k miles on it, so its fairly new).

 

[kingpin_jeffie 10+ year member]

Well lets put it this way. Would you rather have a smaller alternator running at close to 100% percent during normal system usage to power your system or a larger alternator that could run at say 60 % during normal system usage. It basically comes down to less wear and tear on the alternator.

 

[Boomin Granny 10+ year member]

If you have extreme dimmage(like I don't need any strobe lights I just turn up the volume kinda dimmage) you are killing your alternator, and you are robbing your system(and MAJOR car components) of precious juice. Everytime your headlights dim, all those sensors and electric components on newer cars are also getting a voltage drop, which is not good at all. If you aren't dimming, or only dim at high volumes with hard bass, you're fine, any worse and yes you do need a new alt. One day when you go to start your car and it won't start because you wanted to be a mobile dance club with an 80 amp alt, you will understand. Most people also recommend a new alt over a $400 20 farad cap cuz the alt is cheaper, and it will actually fix the problem(I know caps can help some situations, but they don't do miracles.)

 

[taylor 10+ year member]

yeah i suppose, lots of you guys probably like to be wankers lots //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif , my car is and SQ car so it doesn't see alot of loud sub bass....it's all well balanced...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

my car is and SQ car so it doesn't see alot of loud sub bass....it's all well balanced...

And that would be the reason you have no problems...