Oh, and I'll unlock this to open it up for discussion! I'll try to finish the update soon.

 

Great job on contributing the updates in the first place, its rarely ever done by anyone else in this forum.

Yes Im alive and back in the US for a while now. Im taking a break from the increasingly risky security business for a few months to spend time with family and friends again. Then I'll re-assess any future plans to continue.

Errrr.... excuse me. I meant positive lead from the alternator to the battery. I was so caught up in thinking about grounding cable upgrades at almost 2am, I kept talking about grounds and no positives right?

 

That cable is about 4 feet...it follows the factory lead the whole way - pretty direct route under the intake manifold. I left the factory lead in place too. So now there's an additional 4ga run.

 

Did you notice anything at all by doing this?

 

I just recently did this, and NO. I did not notice any huge changes.

I upgraded the NEG - Chassis. Engine - Chassis. And I added a 4 Gauge power to the battery from the alternator.

This could be because my existing system was good enough.

 

All i got running is a 200w RMS to a sub and I notice some dimming to the lights when i play it realllllyyyyy loud.

Would this magic 3 wire replacement do anything at all to help this cause i already know a better Alternator will? Even an Optima battery is sufficent for me since this Amp strain is not that much added to the requirement of stock electrical.

 

How old is your car? A 200w amp shouldnt be stressing the alternator like that. You should just check the condition of those wires and the battery post. Maybe all it needs is some cleaning and sanding. I swapped the Big 3 mainly because it didnt cost me anything but a pack of connectors and an hour. I had some extra 4gauge wire left over.

 

I've read up on how to calculate to see how much amperage your adding ontop of what the alternator can handle.

The nominal voltage of a car battery is 12V, reaching about 13.8V when charging (i.e., engine running). You take that number and divide it by the total RMS wattage your pumping. In my case my sub amp is 200 and my headunit is 20x4 = 80w. Thats 280w just for the audio being a 20amp draw added to the stock alternator that only does 65amps. This is constant as apposed to peek wattage which it will hit rarly. So my peeks are 50x4 (Hu) and 400w (sub) all being 43amp draw. This also doesn't include the other accessories that are all on at night such as the headlights and A/C since I'm in FL hehe.

If this is right then its meanning that at peek state its drawing more than 50% of my alternator amps just to keep in power which im sure is the cause of the dimming and the very low idle.

BTW... its a 98 Civic Ex with no vacum leaks

I've also read up on a trick said on this forum that you can do to see if your alternator is the main key problem. Just run the car, wait till its at normal opperating temp then put the radio up loud to where it dims the lights. Now dissconect the Possitive terminal to the battery. If the car dies out to a stall at that point then you are stressing your alternator beyond what it can handle.

I havn't done this yet but, I will soon to tell you results but, before I attempt this.. is this bad for the car or can a sudden spike of power short something?

 

Your system is drawing nowhere near 50% of your alternator output. The amp does not put out rated RMS power continuously under normal conditions. That equation is just a rough estimate of how much your system could potentially draw, given certain conditions. You'd have to have your gains set up pretty high, be running at near max volume, and be running sine waves continuously to be near the 20A draw, much less the 43A. Most music will make your system use only a very small fraction of the amp draw from the RMS rating of the amp.

Upgrade your Magic 3 and check your grounds and you should be fine.