Voltage drop problem, any advice?

[bassmaniac 0]

i have an 03 mazda protege dx...it's i tiny four door car similar to a civic in size....the alt is a stock 80 amp

the problem is they do not make a HO alt for this car...i have one yellow top under the hood and i guess it's getting old now considering the voltage is getting lower when i am hittin hard.. i do have s 2.5 farad cap and i know it doesn't cure the problem! but i'm afraid of adding another battery in the trunk because wouldn't that make it harder on the altenator to charge 2 batteries??

Amp is a titanium 2400

Subs 2 15" fi Q's

voltage drops to like 11.8 to 11.3 the lowest!

any way of working around this? or do i need to add another batterie?

[RidnClean 0]

that sucks they dont make alts for your car, ever ask about making brackets?

ditch the cap, and add a second batt. get a new upfront batt first. always helps.

[oxsign 1]

Ditch the cap,add a 2nd batt, and do the big3 with 0awg.

[shizzzon 461]

take out the cap and add a minimum of 60aH in the rear.

It won't hurt the alt to charge more, it will just take longer.

If you start smelling something under the engine bay getting hot all the time, that's the alternator. If it does it frequently, it's trying to output more power than what it can do at a given rpm. That's bad for longevity.

[bassmaniac 0]

thanks for clearing that up for me fellas, i'll get another bat and run some 0 guage....also will this give me better voltage or will it just not drop as low?

[shizzzon 461]

wouldnt not as low be better voltage, hehe.

It will prevent it from dipping as low for sure. By not dipping as low will prevent the voltage regulator from stressing as much as well. As long as you dont keep it at full blast the entire time you are driving, you should be fine as you must give the alt a few minutes every now and then to keep the batts charged.

[bassmaniac 0]

wouldnt not as low be better voltage, hehe.

It will prevent it from dipping as low for sure. By not dipping as low will prevent the voltage regulator from stressing as much as well. As long as you dont keep it at full blast the entire time you are driving, you should be fine as you must give the alt a few minutes every now and then to keep the batts charged.

alright bro i appreciate it!

[bassmaniac 0]

what battery would yall reccomend putting in the trunk?

[shizzzon 461]

XS Powermaster

A D5100, D2400, D2700 or D3100 should be fine.

I would also purchase a battery solenoid as well. If you do not, you may eventually prematurely kill your starting battery.

A solenoid will keep the batteries separated while the car is off. While on, they are mixed together just so they can be charged and isolated again once car is off.

You do not want different battery technologies, brands or usage hours mixed together without a solenoid.

[bassmaniac 0]

XS Powermaster

A D5100, D2400, D2700 or D3100 should be fine.

I would also purchase a battery solenoid as well. If you do not, you may eventually prematurely kill your starting battery.

A solenoid will keep the batteries separated while the car is off. While on, they are mixed together just so they can be charged and isolated again once car is off.

You do not want different battery technologies, brands or usage hours mixed together without a solenoid.

ok man thank's alot!

[kryptonitewhite 1]

big 3 and couple new gooder batts.... may as well keep the cap, but it won't do much

do you run the system a lot with the car off? no sense paying the extra $$ and doin xtra work if not... I find if youre gonna drain 1 or all batteries, it or they all have to be recharged anyway... so if you use %20 of one battery vs 10% of 2 batteries, you still gotta recharge what you used up... and if you're not fully discharging by playing for hours at a time with the system off, all batts should be fine

[bassmaniac 0]

big 3 and couple new gooder batts.... may as well keep the cap, but it won't do much

do you run the system a lot with the car off? no sense paying the extra $$ and doin xtra work if not... I find if youre gonna drain 1 or all batteries, it or they all have to be recharged anyway... so if you use %20 of one battery vs 10% of 2 batteries, you still gotta recharge what you used up... and if you're not fully discharging by playing for hours at a time with the system off, all batts should be fine

makes sence..but no i don't really knock with the car off, if i do it may be for only like 10 to 15 minutes at a time..

[kryptonitewhite 1]

I'm a bonehead, I'm 1st to admit it... but I'll continue anyway...

I had 3 red tops and 1000 watts @ 2 ohms from my amp, I had dimming. I did the big 3 and it may have helped a little, but didn't fix it. I added 3 more batts, problem solved.

I'll then was 1700 @ 2 ohms and not much changed, still no more dimming. I have a 120A alt though which certainly helps more than 80... but I know I need to get a 2nd alt and/or HO alt too... but all I'm saying is more storage does help. This will bring the "more batteries is more drain" argument, but ya... 2 drycells would be sweeet and Big 3

[bassmaniac 0]

I'm a bonehead, I'm 1st to admit it... but I'll continue anyway...

I had 3 red tops and 1000 watts @ 2 ohms from my amp, I had dimming. I did the big 3 and it may have helped a little, but didn't fix it. I added 3 more batts, problem solved.

I'll then was 1700 @ 2 ohms and not much changed, still no more dimming. I have a 120A alt though which certainly helps more than 80... but I know I need to get a 2nd alt and/or HO alt too... but all I'm saying is more storage does help. This will bring the "more batteries is more drain" argument, but ya... 2 drycells would be sweeet and Big 3

i did the big 3 about 2 days ago and it helped out a little bit, cheapest upgrade i can think of. instead of dropping to 11.6 when the bass drops to 12.8...so you could say it added a volt to it, it doesn't drop below that though which is fine by me!

[///M5 2,833]

What are you using to measure the voltage drop?

[bassmaniac 0]

What are you using to measure the voltage drop?

hate to say but right now i am going off of the capacitor....but i am gonna get a voltage guage in a few days! so don't worry!

[///M5 2,833]

What are you using to measure the voltage drop?

hate to say but right now i am going off of the capacitor....but i am gonna get a voltage guage in a few days! so don't worry!

Step one, remove stupid useless capacitor and sell on craigslist or throw it away.

Step two, go buy a multimeter from some electronics store. Get one with a reasonably fast response time otherwise you won't see the drop anyways.

Then tell us what it is really doing. You may have no drop at all. BTW voltage gauges are not meant to do the measurement that you are doing, their sole goal is to show you that your alternator is working. In many OEM cars the voltage gauge isn't actually a gauge but an on/off switch that shows you a voltage.

[GTDropTop 0]

I may be miss understanding ,..I don't get it.

So if your alt goes out...are you just screwed? o.O

If you can get more alts..even if they are stock for that car,wouldn't it help with the voltage?

[kryptonitewhite 1]

I may be miss understanding ,..I don't get it.

So if your alt goes out...are you just screwed? o.O

If you can get more alts..even if they are stock for that car,wouldn't it help with the voltage?

I saw a thread somewhere a few weeks back of a dude that had a bracket built for him and he used a stock alt from a different vehicle... so he had his stock hooked up plus another stock from a different make/model also. I think this is what I am going to do if someone knowledgeable can make a thread on it. I'd just get a used one from a junker that did 120A or more. If it goes bad, chit, but another one and drop it in for cheap. I would guess my stock 120A and another 120A would do the same as a HO 240??

IDK....

[mattxc 0]

you might be able to have your alt re-spun

[shizzzon 461]

Possible but you better have alt knowledge when requesting such project to be done because some companies will only add more wire without taking into consideration the heat it will produce and will charge you just as much as a company who would do it right.