today i installed my high output alternator purchased from excessive amperage in my civic hatchback. everything was properly installed, belt tensioned, all wires connected etc. when i fired up the car...the vehicle charging system light lit up in my cluster (the lil battery icon). usually this means that the battery isnt being charged, however i was able to crank up my system to high volumes. (jl 1000/1 to 12w7) in which case when the bass hit hard...the charging indicator light turns off for a split second, then when bass is gone...lights back up. later on when im driving at night...i noticed that my headlights got brighter as my engine reved higher. they got so bright that the bulbs blew out. kinda gey cuz i ended up having to tail gate a big rig to get home since i had no lighting at all. what could be causing this? faulty voltage regulator on the alternator? or is my excessive amperage alternator just too strong for my car? i know some of you other honda owners on the board have ho alternators....any of you guys purchase from excessive amperage? if so how is yours working? i am happy with my sound system in my car right now....but kinda irked that maybe the alternator is putting out more voltage than the car can handle?
measure it! thats the 1st thing u can do, how big is the HO alt? on morning its normall to have high voltage, mines like 16V on the dashboard meter.. The current draw however, is dependent on the load presented to the alternator.. It will only put out, as much that is needed.. Did u contact Nathan @ excessive amperage & explained? I also take it u did the big3 upgrades, and what size wires??
Use a DMM and measure the voltage on the alternator. If it's above 15.5v, you'll damage not only your light bulbs, but also other electronics in the car, as well as the battery. You could have a faulty regulator on the alternator. That battery icon means you're getting too much voltage.
geez...i hope its not a faulty regulator cuz that would suck if i had to uninstall it, reinstall the stock one....then send it back. nah i dint do the big3 upgrades....what good is doing that? i'll buy a dmm and test it out in the morning
yes, and also check the voltage at the alternator. positive dmm lead on the alt output terminal, negitive dmm lead to chassis or negitive battery terminal.
geez...this really sucks. you guys recommended excessiveamperage and i seem to have the worst luck. so now i guess i have to contact nate at excessive for a replacement or is the faulty regulator something that i'd be able to fix myself? that would really suck if i had to uninstall the alt and send it in cause it would take a while.
contact Nathan like I said, he will take care of you since you just bought it. I know some of the import cars are little harder to get parts for... The regulator is prob inside the alt; i dont think its external on yours. Also you need a big 3 upgrade, cause the alternator wont be able to output half of its power... <<That too, could have damaged your alternator. You need to run atleast 2ga I think for the big 3 if you have a HO!!
well yesterday i did upgrade my big 3. 4 gauge ground wire from engine to chassis, 4 gauga from battery to chassis, and 4 gauge from alternator to positive battery. before doing so..i only drove the car about 5 miles so no damage to alternator as i only drove to auto parts store and car stereo shop to get the parts. i will try to give nathan a call today though. i emailed him yesterday but got no response so a phone call should do it. it just kinda sucks because thats a lot of work to remove the new alternator, put the old one in, send alternator to nathan, wait for it to be returned, then take out old one and put the ho one back in.
yea, its alot of work if u dont normally do it. lol u said u measured ova 18V thats not healthy.. crank the car parked then measure again.. email is normally the best way, but he is off on weekends, so get at him during the week.. a call will do it too.
well at idle it reads 12 volts but as rpm increases....the voltage progressively increases till it reaches 18 volts and doesnt really get any higher than that even if i rev up to 8500 rpms. i emailed him yesterday and still have not received any response i wonder how often he checks his mail. was unable to call today since was busy at work and he is in alabama 3 hours ahead of me and his hours are till 4pm so i guess ill give him a call when i wake up in the morning. i was wondering if the voltage regulator can be adjusted manually or where i can just get an external voltage regulator
Nathan i have tried to email you about status of my alternator that i shipped to you over 2 weeks ago. i was told by you on april 4th that it would be check fixed and sent back that week or early last week. please update me on status
Hes, I finally got the pulley off of the alternator. I dont know who you had to change the pulley on it but they got it way to tight. It cross threaded the rotor and now I have to install a new rotor as well. Taking off the overdrive pulley I installed on it and not upgrading the wiring is what was causing you to get no reading at idle and high voltage at higher rpms - it blew the regulator. It will probably be finished on Monday and be shipped back to you.
Zepcoe, voltage has nothing to do with how much your alternator can handle.. (Well, it does, but most alternators run at 13.6 - 14.8 volts, dosnt matter if they're stock, or 300 amps.)
What you do, is you take the voltage, and multiply it by the amperage. So if you have a 100 amp alternator, figure probably 60 is getting used by your car, so that leaves about 40 amps.
40 amps x 13.9 = Not even close to powering a 4000 watt system.
also, you have to figure in for the amps efficiency.. Most mono class D amps are about 70-80% efficient, assuming 80% efficiency.. For 4,000 watts RMS (assuming this isnt lanzar/pyle/pyramid/boss etc etc etc) you're actually going to need to supply enough for 5,000 watts, since the extra 1000 would be dissipated in the form of heat. (This is only at peak draw, max bass notes, etc.)
So for a 4,000 watt system, at 80% efficiency, at 13.9 volts, you're going to need a 359 amp alternator. (This is before factoring in the cars needs). However, the alternator you get will probably run at 14.4 - 14.8. at 14.8 volts, it'd come out to around 337 amps of draw.
Now, in reality, in this situation, you could honestly just get a 300 amp alternator and be fine, because the draw wont be a steady 300+ amps, and even after your cars usage, you should be OK with a 300 amp alternator, and a good deep cycle battery. (UPGRADE YOUR WIRING!)
also my explorer came with suv package does that mean i have a heavy duty alt. my dad said i might he knows lots about cars and he said heavy duty in simple terms is between HO and stock
it may have a biger size alternator; NOT HO! 2 diffrent apples...
HO does half its rated current @ idle & FULL pwr @ 2RPM! where as a regular alternator might do 1/5 its rated current @ idle and full power @ 3-4K rpms ....
voltage and current are two diffrent things... Current is essential to the system, the voltage is 2nd... the voltage helps push the current... Current is the hidden killer!
You need to run atleast 2ga I think for the big 3 if you have a HO!!
