Ok, I own a '96 Protege LX, 5 speed standard transmission (can't tell you what the engine size is, don't know for sure).

My lights like to dim a little bit when I play some good bass with my subwoofer (an Adire Audio Brahma 12"). They dimmed a little bit with my last sub, but it's more apparant here. I think it's because the Brahma is very linear and plays flat notes WHILE playing bass beats.

Does anyone know what the stock alternator for this car puts out in terms of amps? What would you guys suggest for me to upgrade? I know that lights dimming means it's pulling from my battery, and over time that's going to cause problems. A capacitor probably wouldn't work, because to my knowledge they're designed to release stored energy on "beats" and aren't designed for continuous "hums" (which is what the Brahma can do, and does it nicely).

I think the alternator may be my weak link. I haven't looked under the hood nor got anything tested. I found a company online that sells high-output alternators, and while he said he didn't have one for my vehicle, he could have a 150 amp alternator made for 220 bucks.

Would this be the best solution? I plan on checking/upgrading my "magic 3" wires regardless (wire from alt to battery, battery to ground, battery to block).

Any thoughts? Ideas?

-Jomero

 

I would say THANK GOD you're approaching this the way you are.

Hehe - seriously though - I say that because WAAAAYYYY too many people think "I need a cap" or "I need a second battery" because they see it in magazines and think it's the only "right" thing to do. Glad to see an informed user here.....

Start at the beginning - like you already are. Upgrade those "magic three" and see what you get. The increased flow might be enough to solve your dimming significantly, and cheaply, too. BTW - you failed to mention; how much power are you throwing at that Brahma? Nice choice, BTW.

If the wire upgrade doesn't work well, consider the alternator upgrade. However, it will sap even more power from your engine, as high-output alternators are harder to spin. The extra energy HAS to come from somewhere, of course. Sometimes, we want more thump than the car is willing to give. But $220 is a decent price for an upgraded alt, so long as you get some kind of warranty - hate to see that thing burn out in 2 months on you.

Also - not my area of knowledge, but would a newer Protege's alt fit? Maybe with some mods to the brackets or something? I know the 2.0L's have an 80 amp alt, and I run about 700 watts total with very slight dimming only at the most extreme volumes. Under daily use, it's totally tolerable, and I rarely get the lights dimming. For sure, that'd be cheaper than the re-wound alt.

Good luck.

 

I jumped into car audio blindly once a couple months ago, and regretted it since. I took the advice of too many people without doing some serious research or listening on my own, and ended up with a sound system that did NOT suit my ear's needs at all (ended up with what I now know as an "SPL" set up and not a "SQ" setup). I am not making that mistake again, so I do as much reading and asking around as I can. Hence, this thread.

My Brahma is only seeing about 200 Watts (I have one VC wired from my 400W amp). It isn't much at all, at least compared to the people who are pushing these things with more than 4 times that power. It still gets plenty loud enough for me. I'll eventually upgrade the amp, but for now it's fine (and I like my bass to blend in with my music, not drown it out). You'd be surprised at just how loud it can get with so little power. Heck, I wired it up to my room mate's 200W amp and it still sounded dang good.

My front speakers are seeing 60 watts each from a 120.2 amp. My rear speakers are disconnected, and will be taken out entirely (disconnected them to see if I really needed rear fill, andI don't. I enjoy the front imaging more now).

I am hoping the wiring upgrades will help a lot. I'm kind of tired of spending money on my system at the moment. I've sunk a lot of money into it, and it's still not where I want it. I found out I need to have custom pods made for my Koda midbass woofers, the guy is at least giving me his dealer price (and he does good work... he built Karl Malone's -- NBA player -- custom pods in his truck).

I only got into car audio in the first place because my entire cd collection (about 3000 dollars worth) was stolen, and many cds were very rare. I ripped most of them to mp3 on my work PC (only to 128 bitrate though) and figured that one way to help me get over it would be to listen to my music better than I ever could before. 3 months later and it's still not done. Sigh.

Hopefully, after the Kodas are installed, my lights don't dim anymore, and it feels like I have enough power to my speakers, I'll be done for a while.

-Jomero

 

Wow - have you had your alt tested? Only putting out 300-350 watts between two amps and having dimming lights tells me something else might be wrong. Not that an upgrade wouldn't solve it, but that much wattage really shouldn't be dimming your lights that much, IMHO - if at all.

Even if you have a small alt in the car (60 amp, maybe?), 300 watts shouldn't be a problem the way it is, especially with only 200 watts hitting the sub. I'd have the alt tested for output. Forget the stereo - you don't want it to burn out and leave you stranded.

Do the test before changing the wiring, and see if you're putting out the right voltage/ampereage.

~HH

 

A qucik test but a useful one is to meter the amps ground to the batteries negative terminal. The impedance should be as low as possible.

 

and if the test results aren't very good, then what? please let me know quick as I have the appointment to get my wires and stuff done tomorrow afternoon.

-Jomero

 

See about a remanufactured stock alternator. Will definitely be cheaper than the HO one, and might solve your problem.

The test will tell.....

~HH

 

If its more then a then 1 ohm, look for a better ground point. Scrape the paint of the ground point and it should be on a primary body panel.

 

SO Jomero- what happened?? I for one am interesting in hearing what happend!!