To all you civic owners and audio experts, Im putting a system in my 01 Civic. I had a 240w Jensen Mp3 player with a 400m 2ch amp and 2 400w mtx thunder 4000 subwoofers in my old car and the stock electrical system seemed to handle it fine at first but as the car got older (95 probe) the lights would slightly dim and idle would be affected by my system being cranked and seemed it might have done more damage than that. I bought a new 200w jensen mp3 player and want to put the same subs and amp in my civic and i know it is nothing huge or special (but still bumps decently for $200), but i want to make sure it wont harm my electrical system. I bought a nice new 8awg. amp kit but i need to know now if i should get a capacitor or transistor or what not or maybe a seperate battery. My goal is to buy an optima redtop for the car and just run power straight from that with an inline fuse like before.

 

it shouldn't be too much of a load for your stock alternator. with your probe it was probably that your alternator was going bad. you figure that your probably only pulling about 20amps.

 

yah, with a jensen.. lol but have you ever replaced the battery yet? if not, that's another thing to consider.

 

I dunno if you have ever had or experienced a jensen but they are well worth the money when installed correctly (and obviously if it is a good one, as with any). My last deck was clearer and more powerful than 2 of my friends alpines, a pioneer, and a kenwood excelon deck. Thanks for the advise really, but don't dis on equipt. that you have never used!