Weak Alternator.

daewhorider · Post by **daewhorider** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:27 am

Well im in a bit of trouble. I ahve an amp pulling out 1000watts RMS and it keeps cutting out clipping and overheating. The problem is my alternator. This animal is simply not getting its food and its starving. Right now i have taken pens colored am black and used em as spacers under the amp so the amp is just kind of floating in my trunk, underneath i hooked up a computer fan to help with cooling. The instal did help with a lot of issues. So then i went and got a 1 farad capacitor. Well i can now brake normally before i had to slam on the brakes and throw the car into neutral and pull up the parking brake because the electricity needed to power my tail lights was jsut enough to starve my amp and make it cut in and out and eventually turn off. So now that you have read my novel you all know my problems. I need a deep cycle batery the big 3 upgrade and a new alternator. The only problem is i cant find any after market alternators. Does anyone know of a car alternator from another type of car thats compatible with the dae woo. or do you know of any place that can rewind my alternator to run at around 170 amps and somthing like 120 at idle. Any help appreciated, BTW its a 1999 Lanos SX Hatch.

daewoomofo · Post by **daewoomofo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:24 am

what guage powere wire areryou useing, it sounds to me like its an issue with your power wire being too small or a bad ground, im running 1200 watts rms and my amps dont cut out (0 guage wire)

daewhorider · Post by **daewhorider** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:48 pm

daewoomofo wrote:what guage powere wire areryou useing, it sounds to me like its an issue with your power wire being too small or a bad ground, im running 1200 watts rms and my amps dont cut out (0 guage wire)

I have a 4 guage wire and another 4 guage for the ground. I grounded it behing the piece of plastic in the trunk, behind the plastic is the cars metal and there are 4 boolts and i connected it to one of the bolts. Maybe i got a bad amp? The lights flicker like no other though. The cap has solved some of the problems. My amp pulls 60 amps and the alternator only creates 85.

Slammed · Post by **Slammed** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 3:32 pm

And how old is your battery?? Sounds like you need a new one

lanos2001 · Post by **lanos2001** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 3:34 pm

what you really want to do is go to autozone and get a free alternator and battery check. b/c i was pushing 1400watts rms and no problems. oh and find a better ground spot from what it sounds like you chose a bad spot.

nick

daewhorider · Post by **daewhorider** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 3:53 pm

lanos2001 wrote:what you really want to do is go to autozone and get a free alternator and battery check. b/c i was pushing 1400watts rms and no problems. oh and find a better ground spot from what it sounds like you chose a bad spot.

nick

What did you ground it to? Ive tried all the bolts in my trunk. The battery is fairly new, its an interstate 550 cca.

lanos2001 · Post by **lanos2001** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 3:57 pm

i grounded it to the bolt that holds the back seats down. it'lls be under the carpet on the backside of the seats. and even if the battery is fairly new i would still get it checked out jsut rule anything out or find the problem.

nick

daewhorider · Post by **daewhorider** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 4:01 pm

Ill try that but im not sure if its the ground. My amp, down by the screws holding it down, sparks.like you see a tiny bit of electricity going from the amp to the screw and it gets brighter and dimmer with the music. I think my amp is crap and somehow the housing is getting power.

daewoomofo · Post by **daewoomofo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:20 pm

did you scrape the paint off of your ground spot?

daewhorider · Post by **daewhorider** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:37 am

It was bare metal.

lanowoo · Post by **lanowoo** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:05 pm

kinda seems like 2 wires are crossing somewhere and its not blowing fuses.

daewooluvr · Post by **daewooluvr** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:09 pm

daewhorider wrote:Ill try that but im not sure if its the ground. My amp, down by the screws holding it down, sparks.like you see a tiny bit of electricity going from the amp to the screw and it gets brighter and dimmer with the music. I think my amp is crap and somehow the housing is getting power.

yeah that's odd, very odd, check to make sure you don't have any crossed wires and such.

Also you should probably bump up to thicker wire.

daewhorider · Post by **daewhorider** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:26 am

Are you guys talking about wires on the inside? Im thinkning on just taking the thing apart and having it inspected.

daewooluvr · Post by **daewooluvr** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:00 pm

daewhorider wrote:Are you guys talking about wires on the inside? Im thinkning on just taking the thing apart and having it inspected.

I was talking about your power and ground wires going from the battery to the amp and so on.

Also try upgrading your power and ground wires in your engine bay (the ones that go from the alt to the battery and so on.

My $.02USD.

lanowoo · Post by **lanowoo** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:06 pm

you may have a hot wire touching the body of your amp, and whatever your screws are touching, is grounded. try putting insulated mat material under the amp, and get insulated screws.