What Size Alternator Do I Need For Car Audio

Headlights dim when the music plays

How to give your car's electrical organisation a power-up

Headlights can dim when you need more power

Your headlights dim when the stereo pulls as well much power out of your car'due south electrical organization. This usually happens only in big, multiple-kilowatt sound systems. But sometimes fifty-fifty modestly powered systems tin can stress your automobile's electronics, specially during a sub amp'due south flare-up of energy when it produces the sound of the beat. Every role of the electrical organisation suffers because of the amp's sudden demand on the limited supply of power, even the amplifier itself. Your optics are merely more sensitive to the change than your ears, and you lot observe your headlights dimming along with the beat.

There are a few deportment you can accept to solve this trouble. There are also some potent and differing opinions about the order in which you should practice them, or fifty-fifty their individual usefulness. The post-obit is my contribution to the argument.

T-Spec battery terminal

Sometimes all you lot need is a new bombardment terminal.

Cheque all power and ground connections, and the battery itself

The offset thing y'all should do is make certain all the surfaces used in power and ground connections are scraped down to bare metal, clean, and all the connectors and the battery terminals fastened tightly together. If that doesn't exercise it, take your car and accept its battery load-tested at an auto parts or battery store. They'll often do it for gratuitous and can recommend the proper replacement if they find your old battery has problems. Car batteries rarely alive to be four years former, and so don't call up you're being cheated when they tell you your former battery isn't property its charge. A weak battery tin oft have enough juice to showtime your automobile but not exist able to handle the quick jolt of need when your sub amp hits.

If you do decide you need to supersede your battery, consider getting an XS Power bombardment from Crutchfield. XS Power batteries characteristic a sealed absorbed glass mat (AGM) design, instead of the standard liquid electrolyte design, so they really store energy — meaning you don't have to add a capacitor to your system to go a quick flare-up when you need information technology. We carry a total assortment of the most popular sizes available. We fifty-fifty have models which fit many European applications such as VW/Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Jaguar.

XS Power battery

XS Power auto batteries

Adding a second battery

The adjacent matter to endeavour is to add together a second battery, often back virtually the amplifier. This, in effect, provides another source of ability available to fill up in the gaps when the organization needs information technology. When the power is asked for, it comes from the batteries. 2 batteries wired in parallel act like ane bombardment with twice the capacity.

A second battery becomes almost necessary if you play your music a lot with the engine turned off. Some people use isolators between their batteries, so that the one used to start the machine won't get drained by the amp's pull. And it's a expert idea to only hook up two batteries of equal strength and age. The stress of two different strength batteries constantly cycling charge between themselves to equalize the voltage leads to a shortened life for both batteries.

The Big 3 wiring upgrade

A good, cost-effective improvement is to perform the "Large Three" electrical upgrade. This will vastly improve your vehicle's electrical organization, allowing more than current to flow easier to all components. This upgrade replaces or augments three primal cables in the electrical system with 1/0 or iv gauge wires: the battery ground to chassis wire, the chassis to engine cake wire, and the alternator plus to bombardment plus wire. This increases your electric system's current flow capability, ensuring a more consistent voltage under varying demand conditions.

An unfortunate possible side effect of doing the Large Three is that occasionally it only makes your lights dim even worse. This happens considering the amplifier is now able to suck juice better from the organization through the bigger straw (the new cables).

High output alternator

The alternator is the ultimate source for all of your vehicle's power when it's running. The battery starts the engine, merely the alternator takes over when the motor starts to turn. If your audio system demands more power than your stock alternator can supply, then you will do good past upgrading to a higher output alternator. Replacing your stock alternator with an "HO alt" may seem similar an expensive solution, but if you lot've invested in a sound system that draws this much power, you shouldn't mind solving this problem of supply and demand by increasing the supply of power.

For case: producing a 1500 watt output requires about 217 amperes of current from your car's organisation. It'southward actually about a third of that for music, which doesn't put out total power all the time — but it'south still a lot of current. Virtually stock alternators are in the 80-120 ampere range and tin only supply near 40% to 50% of that for non-automotive uses like amplifiers.

A 250 or 300 ampere aftermarket high output alternator should provide plenty power for all your car's systems and your loftier-powered stereo also. Keeping that in mind, calculating the required output size of a high output alternator is not like shooting fish in a barrel and should only be done while consulting with the new alternator's vendor or installer.

T-Spec cap

T-Spec 3.0-Farad capacitor

Capacitors

Adding a capacitor to your system does not increase your system's power chapters. But if your lights dim only occasionally, and only on the loud drum beats, then a capacitor may just be the cure. A capacitor smoothes out the power demands by providing a brusk burst of free energy when needed. I recommend 2 farads of capacitor for every ane,000 watts RMS of total amplifier power. That's more than the usual recommended dose, but it should ensure a quicker recovery fourth dimension for the cap to be ready for the next thump.

Note: Working with a car'due south electrical system can be dangerous. Tools and jewelry tin exist welded by the inadvertent discharge of a battery or capacitor. Sparks could fly, igniting flammable gases. Batteries accept been known to explode when overstressed. (I know information technology for a fact: I witnessed a friend'southward bombardment exploding and setting his Lincoln on fire.) If you're inexperienced or don't feel comfortable working with loftier-electric current devices, then hire a professional to practise these upgrades and installations.

Only if you lot demand to

And delight, don't let anyone talk yous into doing any of these procedures unless you are experiencing bothersome headlight dimming. Systems with less than 1,000 watts RMS of total output rarely, if ever, need the vehicle'south electrical organisation upgraded.