willis

iTrader: (2)

Hey all,

I'm running an alpine mvr-f450 five channel amp, pushing a set of diamond audio m3's and one kicker compvr 12". Lately I've been noticing a couple things on bass heavy songs. For one, the amp is going into protect mode after a few minutes of a really heavy bass song. I noticed this over the summer, but thought that maybe it was just too hot and the amp was overheating, so turned the bass down so the amp didn't shut down.

However, now i'm noticing the same thing, and being that it's much colder now, I dunno if the problem is overheating or not. Because I'm also noticing my lights (interior / headlights) dimming when the bass is up. So I'm thinking maybe the amp is shutting down from underpowering, as opposed to overheating. (does this even happen, i would assume so, but not sure).

So my question is, what would you suggest to do. I'm thinking I need to upgrade the wires from battery to alternator / starter, upgrade the grounds on both of those, and possibly upgrade my battery (dunno how old, bought the car used, i'm assuming the battery wasn't new when I bought it) to an optima.

Also, do you think the lights dimming could be a sign that my alternator is going, or that I should get an upgraded alternator. With the setup I have, the amp shouldn't be drawing that much power so I didn't think the lights should dim.. but I dunno.

Anyway, thanks for reading, sorry for the long message, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

willis

oh yeah, for anybody that has upgraded the wires to starter / alternator.. what size wires do you use? I'm running 4-guage (i think) to the amp, so do I use bigger than that, or smaller? again, any help is appreciated

reygarcia

iTrader: (9)

First take the car to AutoZone and get the battery and alternator checked. If they check out fine no need to replace them. My lights used to dim, but it was because the battery was starting to die.

The amp might be going into protect mode if the subs are getting a lot clipped signals. It has happened to me once.

Kojiro_FtT

Most of the time, it's just a poor ground. Check that first.

Second, checkout the battery and alt at autozone like raygarcia said.

I'm not sure what gen max you have, but if you have a 5th gen, there are all kinds of threads from people in the 5th gen topic who have done the grounding. Search for "hyper ground" since that is usually what starts the topic, and there are a few org members who were cool enough to take pics of each ground point as they did it.

Good luck.

Alchemy

I believe most 5th gen maximas have a 120 amp alternator, which should be MORE than enough for what you're running.

I'm running a 1000 watt crossfire amp with 200 watts to my highs. I have barely noticeable light dimming and no amp turn off problem. Everything is stock and I'm using 1/0 gauge. 4 gauge should be enough for your amp, so if I had to guess I'd say it's either a bad ground or your alternator's going out.

willis

iTrader: (2)

I have a fourth gen, but yes, I still thought the alternator should be more than enough for what i'm running.. Thanks all for the autozone tips though, I was unaware they do that.