voltage dropping

[freakin_rican 10+ year member]

i recently bought a voltage reader and everyone that has them on here has said that they are accurate so when i plugged mine in my volts dropped from 14.4 to 13.2 is this normal should i worry bout this or is it no big deal...i have stock electrical stock alternator and stock headunit my amp is a audioque aq1200d and my amp kit is a rockford 4gauge kit i am in the works of doing the big 3 and i just bought a brand new ac delco professional battery its a month old...and this is all in my impala 2005 should i start looking for a h.o. alternator and if so which one is good enough that is priced decent thanks....

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[All_Logix 10+ year member]

It isn't exactly normal to have a full volt drop, but considering you haven't done the Big 3 yet, and everything is stock, and that amp is relatively large, it sounds about right. Do your Big 3 and I assume you will see significant improvement in voltage.

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

wait are you saying the voltmeter caused a drop from 14.4 to 13.2? what else where you monitoring the voltage with to know you where at 14.4 before the meter?

 

[freakin_rican 10+ year member]

nothing i plugged it in my lighter started my car and let it run for about 2mins then i turned on the stereo and as soon as i turned it up to where i listen to it the voltage dropped to 13.3 and never went any higher than 13.5 till i turned off the stereo then it went back to 14.4

 

[shpatb 10+ year member]

Yeah, you're amp is just causing a large voltage drop, Not too bad for stock electrical, at least it's not dropping into the 12's

 

[freakin_rican 10+ year member]

Yeah, you're amp is just causing a large voltage drop, Not too bad for stock electrical, at least it's not dropping into the 12's

funny that you say that cause i did see a 12.8 reading for a split second but never seen it again...i am planning a big 3 hope that works....

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

nothing i plugged it in my lighter started my car and let it run for about 2mins then i turned on the stereo and as soon as i turned it up to where i listen to it the voltage dropped to 13.3 and never went any higher than 13.5 till i turned off the stereo then it went back to 14.4

well that sounds right to me I see anywhere from 14.2 down too 12.5 on a long hard note the alt kicks out and it's all up to the battery from there, also after a good long ride the alt heats up and the voltage will drop a little with that too so don't be alarmed everything sounds like it's doing ok.

 

[freakin_rican 10+ year member]

well that sounds right to me I see anywhere from 14.2 down too 12.5 on a long hard note the alt kicks out and it's all up to the battery from there, also after a good long ride the alt heats up and the voltage will drop a little with that too so don't be alarmed everything sounds like it's doing ok.

ok thanks for all the info and help...

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

ok thanks for all the info and help...

no problem man.

 

[freakin_rican 10+ year member]

this really ***** cant cruise at night too far headlights are dimming way too much...lol

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

My guess would be with such a large battery bank your seeing a really good peak voltage and every time the bass hits you noticing the slight drop from low 14's to high 12's I really don't get much dimming unless I'm at idle but at that point it's all battery of course try running the biggest battery you have alone and see if it helps, a while ago I tried a dual battery setup and my alt wasn't able to meet the demand of charging two battery's and I have had more success with a single battery so the alt doesn't struggle to keep at 14.4, just a thought?

 

[freakin_rican 10+ year member]

My guess would be with such a large battery bank your seeing a really good peak voltage and every time the bass hits you noticing the slight drop from low 14's to high 12's I really don't get much dimming unless I'm at idle but at that point it's all battery of course try running the biggest battery you have alone and see if it helps, a while ago I tried a dual battery setup and my alt wasn't able to meet the demand of charging two battery's and I have had more success with a single battery so the alt doesn't struggle to keep at 14.4, just a thought?

i only have one battery lol i think i am going to do some big 3 upgrades sooner than i wanted...

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

i only have one battery lol i think i am going to do some big 3 upgrades sooner than i wanted...

It will help a lot.Dont scimp out on not using the 0ga wiring..some i have seen use 2,and 4ga,.It helped mine very well

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

i only have one battery lol i think i am going to do some big 3 upgrades sooner than i wanted...

what battery, and yea do the b3 asap! I thought you had done that already, I only run one g35 yellow top (I believe g35) but my big three was done before I did the first system in this car and actually this is the only car I have done it to with a big notable difference, although I did not see any improvement at all going from 4g to 0g when I re-did it a few weeks ago, leading me to believe for that app 4g would be fine but 0g looks so much cooler!

 

[freakin_rican 10+ year member]

what battery, and yea do the b3 asap! I thought you had done that already, I only run one g35 yellow top (I believe g35) but my big three was done before I did the first system in this car and actually this is the only car I have done it to with a big notable difference, although I did not see any improvement at all going from 4g to 0g when I re-did it a few weeks ago, leading me to believe for that app 4g would be fine but 0g looks so much cooler!

i will be using 0ga for sure and the battery i have is the stock ac delco professional battery