Killing my alternator? im having problems

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:23 pm

Well I recently finished my stereo and im already having some major problems. I'm not sure if its related to the stereo or not for sure though.. but i dont wanna wait till its too late to find out. I have approx. 2600watt max stereo, one 2.4farad capacitor on a 2000watt amp and then a seperate 550watt max amp. I have an optima yellow top, upgraded ground wires, but then I have an UD pulley which hurts.

Anyways.. the car wants to stall alot and sometimes does at idle.. hell sometimes it trys to stall at 50mph at 2400rpms. Then this morning my car almost didnt start.. but it didnt seam related to the electrical really.

Now the reason im not sure if its because of my stereo is this morning was very cold and my car doesnt do well in cold weather (setup more for Arizona track temps). Also, I used to get ruff idling anyways sometimes because when I get stressed out for some reason I cant manage to drive stick shift worth a darn and my exhaust is a tad big so that might also cuz ruff idle especialy in cold weather like we've had this week.

Oh, one other thing, after i've been driving for awhile for work or whatever when i let my car just idle it almost stalls... kicks up the rpms and then holds them for a min. Its been doing that for along along time and even if im driving perfectly, it'll still do it.

Even if these problems arnt related to the stereo, I wanna look into doing something to help her out. Will adding another battery help or not? I mean.. I can see why it would but I'd think after a couple hours the alternators gonna have problems charging it anyways. Are aftermarket (more powerfull) alternators heavyier? What are some things I can do to beef up the stereo?

As always, Thank you for any input
Danny

DomWoo · Post by **DomWoo** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:44 pm

well for starters unplug your amp power cable and after a day see if you still have the problem

PoTsUrFrIeNd · Post by **PoTsUrFrIeNd** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:36 pm

If your car was doing this when you are blasting your stereo then it is likely that it is the problem.....if not I do not see why there are problems being caused to your engine when your stereo is not on....then again I am not too familiar with the fact that if you have an ud pulley if your alternator when it senses a huge lack in battery voltage (through your voltage regulator) it will strain your engine to the point of stalling. I was under the impression that all voltage systems were able to cope with all factors involved.

I know that my 2000 watts of stereo when I would crank it up would make my car rev high (about 2200 rpms or so) at idle. it would go away about 30 seconds after I turned it down... But ever since I switched to more efficient components I have not had that problem!

PoTsUrFrIeNd · Post by **PoTsUrFrIeNd** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:39 pm

What type of components do you have....the reason I ask is because if you are running extremely high draw ones i.e. Pyramid or Legacy - that could be contributing to your problem. But it still sounds like a mechanical problem...

Does the problem go away when the car warms up? Do you get a check engine light?

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:03 pm

CDT componets in the front being powered by an spl amp that ive had for along time now.. the speakers are getting 125rms each.

Then a hifonics 2000watt amp powering my 2 12" kicker L5s at 1ohm each.

No.. it doesnt matter if the cars been running awhile. Actually the thing where it wants to stall at idle seam it maybe worst after the engines been running awhile, even being I had the powerfull system

PoTsUrFrIeNd · Post by **PoTsUrFrIeNd** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:05 pm

do you notice a difference between when your system is up or down?? also are you getting a check engine light or not?
(now that we can rule out the fact that you may have bad components) lol

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:15 pm

PoTsUrFrIeNd wrote:do you notice a difference between when your system is up or down?? also are you getting a check engine light or not?
(now that we can rule out the fact that you may have bad components) lol

Well.. it seams worst with the system.. but I maybe jsut driving crappy cuz i cant hear or feel the cars rpms.

I have a CEL, but its completly unrelated to any of the problems I could be having

PoTsUrFrIeNd · Post by **PoTsUrFrIeNd** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:00 pm

What is the code from the cel? try what the other guy said before and disconnect your system for a while and see if that cures it...

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:16 pm

PoTsUrFrIeNd wrote:What is the code from the cel? try what the other guy said before and disconnect your system for a while and see if that cures it...

I dont remember what the code is, but I know thats not it.

I know if I have the bass ALL the way down and the overall vol. at 12 (I usually listen to it at 22-28) then the car still likes to stall.. even if i keep it that way from start up to as long as 30 mins.

PoTsUrFrIeNd · Post by **PoTsUrFrIeNd** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:25 pm

maybe your car just needs to be fine tuned to compinsate for the added electronics on the ud pulley...other than that I have no clue besides just checking the usual stuff like plugs wires and air filter ect.

Sorry if I can't help more...
Tony

DomWoo · Post by **DomWoo** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:28 pm

well using a ud pulley in the first place lowers the amount of power coming out of the altenator. if you put the regular pulley back on it prolly would work just fine unless it was a ECU problem

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:42 pm

DomWoo wrote:well using a ud pulley in the first place lowers the amount of power coming out of the altenator. if you put the regular pulley back on it prolly would work just fine unless it was a ECU problem

This car is my daily driver (which is why I have the system) but its also a weekend track car. Changing the pulley every other weekend isnt something im intrested in doing.

If I add a second optima yellow top with a 2+ hour charge will that change anything? Im thinking either it'll take a bit over 2hrs before i start running into problems or I might just hit problems right away since the alternator will wanna keep them all charged.

I dont understand why you can slam the bass full blast for two hours.. start the car and drive off yet with the car on it may barley run if you have a really powerful system

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:44 am

Well im starting to think it has little to do with the system. I drove for 4 hours tonight, the first 2 hours I listened to music.. keep the bass at a decent level. Car barley ran sometimes. Spent the next 1hr 15min with the stereo disconnected completly and the car was just as bad the whole time. Then spent 45 more mins with the stereo with high bass and it didnt get any worst.

I think it may have something to do with shortage of fuel. I had a fuel injector come lose once and its sorta the same feeling.. only not as bad.

Maybe I should try restarting the ecu

kroz123 · Post by **kroz123** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:46 pm

It could be your coil-pack too, a friend of mine with his leganza sometimes did this too, and one day the car didn't even want to start. So his mech said that he had a bad coil pack, so changed the coil-pack and now the car's fine.

Maybe it's your coil pack, but it I do not know.

Slammed · Post by **Slammed** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:10 am

also sounds like your TPS I would start there