For the past few days I've been trying to figure out why my car lacks so much electrical power. I bought a brand new battery, sanded down all of my grounding points, and added about six more grounding points on the engine. (Neg bat to body, tranny and engine to neg bat, engine to body, manifold to body) but even still I cannot roll down my windows without my lights (interior and exterior) dimming horribly, and if I try to roll down all four if trips the fuse. I have a stereo system (1000 watt amp powering two 12") but even if I have that off there is no difference. My lights dim if I have the music up too loud (maybe half of the power I should be able to put out) and that was the main thing I was trying to fix, along with some hard starts that I think is fuel related but I wanted to rule out electrical first. So my question is, what are your thoughts on this? Could I be needing a new alternator, or should I just get all new cables? (grounding and power) Thanks in advance

 

buy yourself a voltmeter an check if your altenator is charging the battery properly

 

You are stressing the alternator to much....

 

1st check your belt tension, might be loose. After that check voltage to alternator or just take it out and have it tested. Is your sound system extensive? Ground on amp? is cap installed?

 

do the alternator re-wire and go from there i use4 gauge for my alt but first why not just take your car over to autozone and get it tested?

 

don't bother taking it off ... go to AutoZone or some place like it ... they can check it for free (on the car) and if you need one, PM Fanatickrockford ... (find him in classifieds - 4th gens) and he will take good care of you. Do you have a cap for your system? If not ... add one, well worth it, easy, cheap (for saving your elct system), did I mention easy ... I run 3 amps, total of 700+ watts and with my 2 farad cap, no sweat atall!

If your alt checks out "ok" ... you may have a short someplace. Perhaps from a burnt wire - excessive heat. If the wire is "abused" it will not carry the same load as a "good" wire can. If that is the case ... ahhh ... good luck?

Cheers, hope this helps mate!

 

+1
Altenator, get her checked.

 

The fuse blowing suggests there is no power source problem...make sense? Lights dimming with amp on suggests excessive voltage drop in the light circuit. Where did you connect your amp's power source? Try connecting the amp straight off the battery's terminal (using a fuse). You do need that volt meter as suggested earlier to monitor system voltage (at the battery's terminals) during these occurrences.

 

ok wow, thanks for all the help first of all. I am in the process of getting a cap, I got sick the day I was going to go get it. I'll take her into auto zone to get my alt checked, and I have checked the batt. with a voltometer before and it seemed fine, but this is before this really started up so I'll do it again. I'll try running a new line for the alt too, and then i'll get back to you guys. Thanks so much!