BIg 3 Upgrade???

[[email protected] 6]

Ok so everyone keeps telling me to go get the big 3 upgrade done cuz its a pretty simple way to relieve stress from numerous things. Ok so i go to my local shop today to get a quote and learn a lil more about what it takes to do it. The guy comes out and looks at my car and i tell him the 3 wires that i want to upgrade to 0g. so he comes in and starts crunching numbers on his calculator and comes up with a price of $263??? I almost walked out of the store right there haha but all the stuff was good quallity. all was RF power and ground wires and new terminals and rings and the whole 9 yards. but nobody every told me that i would need all this stuff for a big 3 upgrade. So is this guy out of his mind or is it around that to have someone do it for you cuz the looks of under my hood it looks really complicated but im not spending 263 bucks on some wires and other stuff and labor lol. so what all exactly do i need to do the big 3 on a 2000 nissan maxima?

[S.DeYoung 968]

It should only be 10-15ft of wire and 6 ring terminals for parts. Labor costs are not cheap. He probably quoted you high so he wouldn't lose money. The price doesnt sound bad to me. If you want it to be cheaper do it yourself.

[[email protected] 6]

well if its going to be that high in price then id way rather figuring out how to do it myself because thats just crazy haha. does anyone else have anything on this because everyone says they have the big 3 but did you guys pay to have it done or did you do it yourself cuz it seesm like you have to take out half the engine compartment to get to them all and i only get 1 day off a week to do that and i use my car for work so any suggestions would be great, or if i can buy everything online and then have the shop install it for me.

[S.DeYoung 968]

I didnt have to move anything to do it myself in the vehicles I have owned. It depends on where your battery and alternator are. Do you know where they are located?

[[email protected] 6]

yea i know where they are, but i dont know where the ground goes i loose sight of it under some stuff, and then chassis to engine block dont know how id do that or where that wire is.

[Mac N Cheese 90]

yea i know where they are, but i dont know where the ground goes i loose sight of it under some stuff, and then chassis to engine block dont know how id do that or where that wire is.

Ground can go anywhere on the chasis. For the engine block that can go straight to one of the engine bolts, or the bolt holding the alternator. If you could take a pic of your engine we could provide much more details.

[S.DeYoung 968]

yea i know where they are, but i dont know where the ground goes i loose sight of it under some stuff, and then chassis to engine block dont know how id do that or where that wire is.

Ground can go anywhere on the chasis. For the engine block that can go straight to one of the engine bolts, or the bolt holding the alternator. If you could take a pic of your engine we could provide much more details.

Beat me to it.

[[email protected] 6]

ok lemme go take a picture and try to upload it on here, im pretty sure my alt is under a bunch of stuff cuz i lose sight of the pos wire going down to the alt but ill be right back

[[email protected] 6]

wow i dont know how to get the pictures on the post, i have a memory card i take out of my phone and have an adapter to plug into my computer, so how do i get the pictures on here, it requests a http or something?

[Ohjay 116]

I use photobucket, upload to a site like that, right click on the image and copy image location. Then you just paste it in between [ img ] and [ /img ] without the spaces

Edited May 5, 2011 by Ohjay

[[email protected] 6]

theres 5 photos of the battery and wires

Edited May 5, 2011 by bakedboy08

[Mac N Cheese 90]

I see a grounding point on the last pic. Lower right hand corner theres a bolt, just remove and sand down to bare metal and attach the terminal.

[Ohjay 116]

That didn't help much, looking for pics of the front of the engine to get a better idea of where your alt is. Your engine block to chassis ground is probably hooked up one of the exhaust bolts and run to the firewall. You could do this upgrade yourself for under $50, a bit of your time and a lot of your patience.

[[email protected] 6]

i think the alt is under all that stuff to the left of the battery cuz thats where the pos wire goes, for the grounding thats not where its grounded thats just a radiator bolt, the ground wire also goes way down under the battery somewhere i dont understand it and not too sure where the alt is, so frustrating lol

[Mac N Cheese 90]

i think the alt is under all that stuff to the left of the battery cuz thats where the pos wire goes, for the grounding thats not where its grounded thats just a radiator bolt, the ground wire also goes way down under the battery somewhere i dont understand it and not too sure where the alt is, so frustrating lol

Just because your battery is grounded somewhere you cant get too doesnt mean you have to ground to the same point.

[Ohjay 116]

You can ground nearly anywhere. Can you find the belt on that engine? Find the belt, follow it to the alt. Best way to get to the alternator on most the these fwd cars is to take the wheel off, then there are usually some plastic guards and such, take them off and you'll be much closer to the alt. I'm holding out on doing the alt-pos cable on my brothers dodge caliber until his DC power alt comes in, it's a major pain in the ass to get to it, easier to just remove the alt, run new cable and bolt the alt back up.

[[email protected] 6]

ok ill try and find the alt, once i find it i can see how much pos wire i need then i gotta d/c the ground and see what i need there, thanks for the help guys, didnt think the big 3 was this difficult haha, prob would be alot easier on an older car, damn forgnier cars lol

[ssh 924]

ok ill try and find the alt, once i find it i can see how much pos wire i need then i gotta d/c the ground and see what i need there, thanks for the help guys, didnt think the big 3 was this difficult haha, prob would be alot easier on an older car, damn forgnier cars lol

Doing the big 3 and replacing alternator on my jeep wrangler was a cake walk.

My volvo, complete pain in the ass for changing alt out, big 3 was easy though.

[edouble101 314]

I would start by upgrading your negative battery terminal clamp to a similar on that you are using on the positive post.

You can leave all of your factory ground wires where the are. Run a ground wire from the battery to a strut tower bolt or another good location. Add a ground wire from the engine block, or a bracket attached to it, to a strut tower bolt or another good location. Your engine ground wire does not need to be on the same side as the battery.

Adding a large gauge charge wire is a great idea. This maybe the most difficult out of the three. Leave the factory charge wire in place and route your larger charge wire in a similar fashion. I like to fuse my charge wire, some people do not.

Here is a helpful video

The following pictures I had taken while installing my engine ground and charge wire. I retained all of the factory wires.

In this photo you can see my engine ground wire running from an engine bracket to the passenger side strut tower.

This picture shows my battery ground going from the battery to the driver's side strut tower.

This picture shows my fused charge wire running from the alternator to the battery.

Final connections at battery including power and ground runs to rear battery and factory wires.

[SubSam 21]

Car audio shops make their money because they can do things that most wouldn't tackle in shorter periods of time and with a labor warranty. It sucked being a car audio installer for so long as its hard work but when you see how poorly some people wire their cars its no wonder so many people come to a shop for help.

I like how one of the above pictures shows the chassis ground at a main strut. You can ground elsewhere but you run the risk of running charge through bad welds. (the electricity travels through the shortest route to the amplifier ground via the chassis metal and bolts, welds, paint, and whatever else shouldnt get in the way) If you want to ground closer to the battery, check the resistance (with a voltmeter) from that ground point to the nearest confirmed "good ground" and compare with other locations. The spot with the least resistance is the best spot.

The big 3 can really be the big 4 depending how the stock alternator ground is configured. In most cases, the alternator has a very good ground to the engine block, but for those with an 8ga or 4ga stock alternator ground you should upgrade that wire to complete the circuit.

Multiple ground leads are acceptable if you need it. I, for example, had so little clearance between my engine block and air intake that I had to snake three 4ga grounds around the tubing, all terminating at the communal ground point. I added an additional ground on the opposite side of the block, so the electricity can decide on its own what path it chooses (them electrons looove having 'options' ie more conductive conduits and/or less overall resistance).

Edited May 6, 2011 by SubSam

[[email protected] 6]

Yea im gonna probably order 15 ft pf stinger 0 gauge tonight and some ring terminals and then ill take it one step at a time, thanks for the help

[[email protected] 6]

Ok so im finally going to do the big 3 on my new car because i had just purchased an 05 honda civic. What im asking is do i just leave the stock wiring and add the 0g in for more power flow or do i replace the stock wiring with 0g? someone told me i just bypass the stock stuff and add in the 0g but im not too sure, any help would be great

[steveo50 3]

I would suggest trying to find a forum for your car. Most of the time they have step by step ways to do it and pics to help you out.

[NB50 206]

Add to the stock wiring, don't replace. Electricity will choose the path of least resistance and it wouldn't be bad to have a backup path if something failed. Plus it would be easier to just add rather then replace everything.

[[email protected] 6]

could anybody lead me in the right direction to some good but cheap wire, i was looking at this knukonceptz kca wire for 1.95$ a ft but not sure if its good quality or not? or is the kollosses fleks wire better? any advise would help