Battery Gauge

[Choppers]

I just finished hooking my amp and subs up. My battery gauge now stays in the red. Do you think that its my battery or my altenator?

[bbplayer133]

Re: Battery Gauge

how is it without the amplifier hooked up... it kinda sounds like u need a capacitor although im no audio expert... thats what it sounds like to me... you can take ur battery to autozone and they can test ur battery and ur alternator for free

[Choppers]

Re: Battery Gauge

i have my amp hooked straight to the battery

[StrtRacer98]

Re: Battery Gauge

could be either / or.

Go to wal- mart tire center or auto zone, they have a portable battery load tester that will tell you if your battery or your alternator is bad.

[factoryfreak v6 firebird]

Re: Battery Gauge

well depends on actually how long have u hooked to the battery.. could have drained it but still might be the alternator also why dont u hook the amp to the ignition fuse j/w so that it only comes on when the key is turn on not and on all the time just my .02 :banana: p.s im no audiotech just a car tech

[gman2000]

Re: Battery Gauge

What size amp have you got?

[factoryfreak v6 firebird]

Re: Battery Gauge

also if u have a high bass and high amp system this is why u need a cap. without a cap. the amp with rob power from w/e it needs whether it be the engine/a/c/or accessories. sometimes u can tell u need a cap when u have ur lights on and u bass seem not as loud as when the lights were off. ur light will actually start diming and seem like there moving to the bass because the fact that the amp is robing power.

['97RedBird]

Re: Battery Gauge

I personally wouldnt waste money on a cap. Just get a High output alternator.

[factoryfreak v6 firebird]

Re: Battery Gauge

thats a also a good alternate as well. good point 97

[gman2000]

Re: Battery Gauge

The cap is for a high load. The cap charges up then when the amp pulls more voltage than the alternater can put out, the cap will discharge helping to reduce power load. But this all happens in a split second. In no way is a cap a replacment for not enough power. This is why I ask what size amp do you have?

[Choppers]

Re: Battery Gauge

800watts max x2

but its 200watts rms x2

[Choppers]

Re: Battery Gauge

where would i get a high output altenator

[gman2000]

Re: Battery Gauge

Well on the RMS side you will draw around 17 X 2, 34 amps. I guess you are fussed for around 40 amps? A large cap could help with the peak demand. Also if you are drawing that much make sure your wire is large enough. If you are running to the back of the car you would need nothing smaller than 4 AWG. And you will have some voltage drop with that. Here is a link that may help.
http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

[Bird_Of_Prey]

Re: Battery Gauge

I personally wouldnt waste money on a cap. Just get a High output alternator.

And a high amp alternator will do exactly what for him when idling? Jack. Caps are the way to go.

['97RedBird]

Re: Battery Gauge

And a high amp alternator will do exactly what for him when idling? Jack. Caps are the way to go.

The point is to get one that puts out high amps at idle. High output alternators versus caps has been discussed many times, and from my understanding caps are garbage.

A cap is something that holds energy. It needs to be charged by the alternator. Now when there is a lot of bass a lot of power is drawn. If the alternator cant put it out it gets taken from other places hence dimming lights and whatnot. If you have a cap the power comes from there, so that does temporally fix the problem. As I said before, a cap needs to be charged. If the alternator doesn't have enough power to handle the bass in the first place, how will it ever keep a cap charged?

Even though cap does patch the symptoms the problem is still there. Why wouldn't you just spend the same amount to get a fix rather then a patch?

Now I am nowhere near an expert in electrical systems in a car. This is just what I have gathered from doing research and is the reason I am saying to get a alternator rather then a cap. If something I said was wrong I hope someone corrects me.