Voltage Issue HELP!!!!!

[Heel4lyfe 10+ year member]

So I finally upgrade my wires to 1/0 ga. Havent connected anything else up yet because im waiting for new subs and amp to come in. I check my voltage meter and i'm its at 11.9-12 volts at IDLE!!!

Also, when i play my radio at my normal listening volume (which is 24) it shuts off and turns back on.

Nothing is connected to my battery or alt right now. what do you guys think it could be??

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[Flastrongman 10+ year member]

bad battery possibly.

 

[UsafBordeaux 10+ year member]

Which wires did you upgrade?

Big 3?

Or just power and ground for the amp?

 

[Heel4lyfe 10+ year member]

bad battery possibly.

thats what i thought 2... hoping its not the alt

Which wires did you upgrade?
Big 3?

Or just power and ground for the amp?

i upgraded everything... big 3, power and ground but as of right now nothing is connected

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

go through double check all the connections, make sure everything is going where it needs to be, go through it with a fine toothed comb, once thats done start the car then unhook the power wires off of the batt, if the car keeps running your alt is fine, if it stops, then its time to upgrade.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Does the car start normally? Do your headlights seem OK? Where are you measuring, and is your meter good?

 

[Heel4lyfe 10+ year member]

go through double check all the connections, make sure everything is going where it needs to be, go through it with a fine toothed comb, once thats done start the car then unhook the power wires off of the batt, if the car keeps running your alt is fine, if it stops, then its time to upgrade.

i will do that this weekend...thanks for the info

Does the car start normally? Do your headlights seem OK? Where are you measuring, and is your meter good?

yea its starts just fine. headlights are good. ive seen the lights Dim due to the system once and thats probably bc i was on it pretty hard. my meter is ran from the dash to the battery under the hood

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

If you raise RPM's to about 2 grand, does voltage go up? What's the battery voltage read with the car off? And not recently turned off, like in the morning before you start it. Check the battery with a DMM at the battery and compare it to what your voltage meter says, just to make sure that isn't bad.

So you do have a system connected or not? Post #1 and post #7 are a little conflicting.

Did you have the voltage meter installed before doing the big 3? If so, and you know you were getting higher voltages, then there has to be a shitty connection somewhere. That's the only thing that changed.

 

[Heel4lyfe 10+ year member]

If you raise RPM's to about 2 grand, does voltage go up? What's the battery voltage read with the car off? And not recently turned off, like in the morning before you start it. Check the battery with a DMM at the battery and compare it to what your voltage meter says, just to make sure that isn't bad.
So you do have a system connected or not? Post #1 and post #7 are a little conflicting.

Did you have the voltage meter installed before doing the big 3? If so, and you know you were getting higher voltages, then there has to be a shitty connection somewhere. That's the only thing that changed.

Ill be sure to check my voltage when i get off work today. I brought my DMM so we will see what it says.

right now there is nothing but wires ran in my car. no subs and no amps as of yet. actually the wires arent even connected right now they are just there.

I had the voltage meter installed before the big 3 was done.

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

also with the power your looking at running your going to want to have an extra batt or 2 in the back.

me personally i like to keep my volt meter hooked up as close to the sub amp as possible, call it ocd but it makes me feel better...

once you test if the alt is charging correctly then we can go from there, when you do the disconnect trick have the headlights, ac, and any other feature that draws current turned on and up...

 

[Heel4lyfe 10+ year member]

also with the power your looking at running your going to want to have an extra batt or 2 in the back.
me personally i like to keep my volt meter hooked up as close to the sub amp as possible, call it ocd but it makes me feel better...

once you test if the alt is charging correctly then we can go from there, when you do the disconnect trick have the headlights, ac, and any other feature that draws current turned on and up...

so i should connect my cables to my volt meter. with me being this far away from the states its hard to get a quality battery here right now (shipping is a bish)

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

so i should connect my cables to my volt meter. with me being this far away from the states its hard to get a quality battery here right now (shipping is a bish)

Your volt meter cables would go to somewhere near the amp, even in the amp connections if you wanted. Where are you located?

 

[Heel4lyfe 10+ year member]

Your volt meter cables would go to somewhere near the amp, even in the amp connections if you wanted. Where are you located?

yea thats what i was thinking.. right now im in Germany. Euro prices for batts are throught the roof

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

If the car starts normally and the lights don't change with engine rpm I'd suspect your meter is lying.