The Big 3

[The_Grimy_One 10+ year member]

Welding cable is cheap you can get 25ft rolls for $50. Check your local AirGas if you have to get #1 it's not that much smaller than 1/0.

****! I couldnt find it for that cheap. My airgas said $135 for a 50ft roll :/

 

[Ninesvnsicks 10+ year member]

****! I couldnt find it for that cheap. My airgas said $135 for a 50ft roll :/

hmm well I got my #1 radnor welding cable from my airgas 25ft for $50. I went back for only 10ft the guy said they don't sell under 25ft rolls so he went into his shop cut some 1/0 into 10ft for me and charged me $20 lol.

 

[The_Grimy_One 10+ year member]

hmm well I got my #1 radnor welding cable from my airgas 25ft for $50. I went back for only 10ft the guy said they don't sell under 25ft rolls so he went into his shop cut some 1/0 into 10ft for me and charged me $20 lol.

Well I will stop by and see what I can work out.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

The 'big 3' is not going to magically bump up your voltage another 3v. In many cars it's a complete waste of time and money but it gets repeated over and over in online forums and people start to believe it.
Do the wires going to your battery get warm? Probably not. If that's the case, you can spend a couple hundred bucks on nice fire hose copper wiring and connectors while not improving a thing. 1/0 is a waste and don't listen to anyone who says otherwise. You know if you add a run of 4ga in addition to the factory wiring it'll have **** near the same resistance as 1/0, right? Marketing departments prefer to sell dumb kids 1/0 though as there's a ton of markup in accessories even though two runs of 4ga will be less expensive and perform just as well.

If you want to get rid of your dimming and your charging system is in good order; turn your subsonic up and your gain down. There's a good chance that you're clipping the amp and turning down the gain will reduce that wasted energy. In addition, a subsonic will make your amp a bit more efficient as it will not be drawing current to reproduce freq. you can't hear & your subs can't play. Furthermore, your car is terrible for bass and BMW owners experience diminishing returns much more quickly than other cars. If worse comes to worst; buy a cap. A good capacitor will help dimming with normal music but will be rather useless with bass tracks, sine sweeps, and drawn out notes. If anything, it'll help keep a more stable voltage going into the power supply and filter noise. Used Stinger caps can be had for around $30.

Like "the big 3" mantra, plenty of people will chime in saying caps are worthless. They've heard this over and over and are just repeating what they heard. A good cap can help dimming and they've done so for many people. I had a car with a surfboard amp + cap and the lights didn't dim to the music at all. No "big 3" and I even had underdrive pulleys. And if you think about it for a bit; if caps are so useless why are they used in 100% of quality amps?

If I were in your shoes, I'd try playing with amp settings and verify that this isn't an install related issue. Something as simple as not using a star washer or grounding to a bad piece of metal can cause this issue. Unlike 20' of 1/0 copper, turning a few knobs & checking the ground is free.

You drive a BMW and worry over the price of a piece of wire?

If we didn't have rules, I would rip you two //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

OP, awesome name, I run Fi too. Where in TN are you?

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

Yea, BnGRacing has a lot of skewed posts man... Unfortunately I'm out of groans for him right now.

Audio Savings | Cadence 0G100-BLUE 0 AWG Gauge 17 Feet Car Amp Power Wire Cool Cable Technology

There's some 1/0 on the cheap. I'd definitely do 1/0 for engine to chassis ground, and battery to chassis ground. And while 2 gauge is a good size from alternator to battery, it is a much longer run, so you'll probably benefit from adding 1/0 there too.

 

[Fi-brations 10+ year member]

hmm well I got my #1 radnor welding cable from my airgas 25ft for $50. I went back for only 10ft the guy said they don't sell under 25ft rolls so he went into his shop cut some 1/0 into 10ft for me and charged me $20 lol.

Well Knu does have their KCA series for $87 for 50' of 1/0 gauge, that doesnt sound too bad, if it's good wire

If we didn't have rules, I would rip you two //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif
OP, awesome name, I run Fi too. Where in TN are you?

Haha thanks man, i live just outside memphis

I think what I will do is ask for 50' feet of Knu Fleks KCA (http://www.knukonceptz.com/productMaster.cfm?category=KCA%20Kable) if it's good wire for christmas, what do u guys think? and see what that does to the voltage drop, then if it is still dropping into the 11s i will buy a second battery which will also be good if i decide to upgrade down the road, which is highly likely if i have money in my hands //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif thanks guys

 

[double 07 10+ year member]

In my 3 series I am running over 2000 watts and had the same voltage drop issue. I fixed my issue by adding a very small Kinetic battery and hooked it up in parallel with the factory battery. I did use 0 ga wire to connect the two batteries and then short runs of 4 ga up to the amps. My voltage never drops below 12 now....GOOD LUCK

 

[Fi-brations 10+ year member]

In my 3 series I am running over 2000 watts and had the same voltage drop issue. I fixed my issue by adding a very small Kinetic battery and hooked it up in parallel with the factory battery. I did use 0 ga wire to connect the two batteries and then short runs of 4 ga up to the amps. My voltage never drops below 12 now....GOOD LUCK

I think that's what I'm going to do instead, b/c my dad doesn't want me to replace the power wire from the alt to the battery, so I'll replace the others with 0 and run a kinetic battery in parallel to the other battery, r all kinetiks Agm?

 

[double 07 10+ year member]

Yes and I have the little one. Its the HC600. It works fine for my application.

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

Lulz lots of horrible info itt and some good too.

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

I think that's what I'm going to do instead, b/c my dad doesn't want me to replace the power wire from the alt to the battery, so I'll replace the others with 0 and run a kinetic battery in parallel to the other battery, r all kinetiks Agm?

Well most don't recommend replacing the factory wiring, just add an additional run next to it.

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

If you are gonna get another battery, get an XS Power batt. They make one of the best car audio batts out there. They run a little more than Kinetics/Shurikens (made in same factory) but you get what you pay for.

 

[Fi-brations 10+ year member]

Well most don't recommend replacing the factory wiring, just add an additional run next to it.

the whole thing im trying to avoid though is tearing up my carpet, so unless there's another way...but i think if i added another battery it should be more than enough

i wish i had a van...or an suv...or a truck...why do i have a car? and a bmw? and a battery in the trunk? all of these make car audio installations so much more complicated and tedious...anyone want to trade vehicles? hahaha

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

the whole thing im trying to avoid though is tearing up my carpet, so unless there's another way...but i think if i added another battery it should be more than enough
i wish i had a van...or an suv...or a truck...why do i have a car? and a bmw? and a battery in the trunk? all of these make car audio installations so much more complicated and tedious...anyone want to trade vehicles? hahaha

Adding another battery will only make things worse.

When your lights dim you're going from one voltage plateau, 14v from the alternator, to a lower voltage plateau, 12v from the battery. You can add a dozen batteries, you'll still have voltage drops. Even worse, a battery needs 13v or so +7A of power to maintain charge. If you add another battery you're just adding another load on your current charging system while not addressing the light dimming issue. If anything, it'll make the problem WORSE while needlessly draining your bank account.

1/0 is a waste and is a PITA to work with. Your car has factory 4ga, right? Adding another run of 4ga in addition to the factory wiring will yield the same resistance as replacing everything with 1/0. But people have it ingrained into their thick skulls that 1/0 is better for some reason. I've never understood it...

I still say you should turn your gain down a bit and fiddle with the subsonic. And while you're tuning, crank things up and feel if the factory power/ground wires going to the battery get warm. If they do, then add another run of 4ga. If they don't, don't worry about it and do something stupid like tearing your car apart to install CCA 1/0.

BMWs, in general, trap a lot of bass in their trunk and it causes people to go overkill with their systems and use the gain knob to compensate. If you're certain everything it tuned properly, I still say buy a quality 1 farad cap and see if it helps. A cap & a few feet of power wire will run you less than $50 if the cap is used. If it doesn't work, sell it for what you paid for it. If it does work, you're done. Just stay away from the junk with blinking lights and boasting a lot of capacitance for $20. Monster, Rockford, Stinger, Streetwires, etc. all make a decent product that works as intended and can be found dirt cheap on ebay.

 

[Tek18 10+ year member]

hijacking again.

i don't have to remove factory wiring just add another wire so there are 2 ( 1 being the new 1/0 gauge and the other factory? )

 

---------- Post added at 07:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:12 PM ----------

 

hijacking again.

i don't have to remove factory wiring just add another wire so there are 2 ( 1 being the new 1/0 gauge and the other factory? )