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New Alt, still dimming....

1K views 46 replies 25 participants last post by  gcguy2169 
#1 ·
I installed my DC power ALt in my car and still am dimming. I know I need to do a wire upgrade but just to make sure I'm not over looking anything anyone know why that could still be? The wire going from the alt to the battery is litereally penicl thin. I have some 1/0 to replace it.
 
#31 · (Edited)
alright, im gonna give a quick cover of all the basis. Ive read every post, im gonna tie all of them together.
Anyone who disagrees, feel free to discuss with me. Im still learning, but this is all the information ive read, gathered, tested, and seen to be true from my experiences.

first of all, soldering makes a solid connection, but solder can add resistance to the connection. Id recommend a solid crimp over solder any day.

alt: you could have a 5,000A alt, but if you dont have the batteries to support it, its useless. Amps dont draw directly from the alt, they draw from the batteries. If you dont have the batteries, the alt is not exactly useless, but exponentially less helpful. add to the yellowtop....or scrap it and go with new, dry cell batts (kinetik, xs, shuriken, ect)

You need the wire to support the current from the alt to the bat. Big 3 is essential.
Good connections....obviously another essential.

Amp grounding at frame:
Your frame may be a bad ground. Sedans seem to have worse grounding to the frame that many other cars because all the welds in it. When you ground to the frame, your purpose is to connect the ground from the batt to the ground from the amp thru the frame. Running a 0g wire between the 2 bypasses the resistance added from the frame welds. 0G cca run of about 50 feet, according to my last measurement had a .06 ohm resistance. Thru the frame on my sedan was so terrible that I couldnt even get a steady #. Something to think about, maybe test in your car.

this being said, I cannot reason the concept of why we should shorten the ground to the frame. Maybe someone can explain why the amp ground needs to be so short (36" max) if a 36" run 0g ground has virtually no resistance. Even if it heats up, the impedance would be super low. In my reasoning, wouldn't it be better to ground to the battery, and bypass the frame welds? The frame is what Ive tested to show high resistance to the front, not the wire.

Hope this helps you, man!
 
#33 ·
Makes sense. Only thing I would disagree with is soldering your lugs to wire just because there's a chance that you may have only soldered the outer strands of the wire to the lug and therefore, it wouldn't be a great connection. Hope this made sense.

Sent from my EVO 3D using Tapatalk
 
#32 ·
Yes, you need an additional battery. But more importantly, how tight is your belt? Did you buy a shorter belt to compensate for the smaller pulley on the H/O alt? If the belt is slipping obviously your alternator isn't going to output anything...
 
#34 ·
Yes, solder adds resistence but not that much really...he said his lights are badly dimming and I don't see it being one of the major problems.

He didn't mention belt slipping, but he'd know it if it was...pretty loud. And yeah it can hurt your voltage

I've never liked frame grounds either. I just do all the ground runs coming off the front battery
 
#36 ·
Ok so this is my input on this how ordeal get a volt meter push the leads in the wire right next to the amp input then have some on turn the radio on to full tilt then check your multi meter and see what your voltage is at .. if It's a horrible number then insert the probes in from the charging wire to the battery play the system check the voltage if It's still bad contact dc power alternators and tell them about your issue it could be a faulty alternator nothing's made perfect. If available get an amp meter and check the amps your alternator is producing hope this helps!
 
#38 ·
I just learned about the draw backs of soldering lugs, the lead and tin in solder does not conduct as good as copper or aluminum. When you coat the copper in solder it makes it just a little bit Higher resistance.

I do agree with the run 1/0 awg wire front to back however he is not drawing hundreds of amps to make it crucial, and we are not talking about a couple tents drop he is having big problems and if his lights are properly grounded could be dropping to 12.8v or lower. His system full tilt will only draw MAYBE 250amps, so something is not right
 
#42 ·
What kind and what year of car is this all in. Most newer cars have an ELD(electronic load detection) circuit in the BCM that controls how much voltage the alternator puts out. That's where I would start looking.
 
#43 ·
The issue has been resolved. I took out the big three wires and hammer crimped and soldered them and that resolved the issue. I hammer crimp then solder the ends, so its a mechanical connection to the terminal, only the tops are soldered to ensure the connection. The only amp running (again) is the PB XA1.5kd. I know there's a lot of personal opinion here the YTs suck, but 1.5k can run on stock electrical with big three so the YT would not have been the issue here. Just some friendly advice, not trying to create an issue, but a lot of you guys on this forum use too much theory and not enough real world. I'm not calling any specific person out, just a generalization I've noticed. Also just because YOU don't like a brand doesn't mean its bad. People have been running YTs for years and years and years, hell Scottie Johnson broke records running YTs before he went to XS. I have 3 d31ts that I've had for 3+ years running anywhere from 4-6k with the various systems without issue.
 
#44 ·
I'm glad you found the root of your problem. On a side note, yellow tops have been going downhill for the last few years. Years back, sure, they were fine but when I did work at the local parts store, I've never had to warranty more batteries out than yellow tops. You can say what you want. I'm sure there are others who have actually had their yellow top battery go bad on them including me so It's not just bashing a brand as I think red tops are still great starting batteries.

Sent from my EVO 3D using Tapatalk
 
#45 ·
I'm definitely not saying they're on par with XS, Kinetic, Deka, Batcap, hell even shuriken, but I've never had any issues. I have people get them a lot just because they're easy to get. Luck of the draw at its finest.
 
#46 ·
You have to remember your asking people to diagnose your problem on an internet forum. We are not there in person to observe the problem. So you will get a lot of theroy. Its up to you to sort out what may or may not be useful in your situation.

Glad you got it figured out.
 
#47 ·
Right...totally right.. however mostly the thread is started for general advice and people giving insight into these issues. Sometimes people give you ideas that you didn't think of.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
 
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