HO ALT - YES or NO ??

[JDS116]

I have a 2010 Honda Civic 1.8L...can I get a HO Alt or not..some of the civic forums are talking about staying with the fitzall alt and not going HO because the comp. and everything in the car can't take it.....I dont want to blow up my car with a HO Alt but I dont want to blow up my car by demanding too much power when it doesnt have it.... HELP?

[Guest]

you CANNOT hurt your car by installing an alternator that is capable of outputting more current and that outputs the same voltage as your stock alternator. lets say your car draws 50 amps on any regular day with your stock alternator. if you install a high output alternator, the car will still draw only 50 amps, yet that larger X amount of amps is available as a reserve in case you turn on an amplifier or put the defroster on for example. more reserve power = less voltage drop = less light dimming.

also regarding companies, talk to Mechman or DC Power. those are the two that will more than likely be recommended to you from other folks on here.

Edited June 1, 2011 by Kranny

[rickyfromthe407]

I have a 2010 Honda Civic 1.8L...can I get a HO Alt or not..some of the civic forums are talking about staying with the fitzall alt and not going HO because the comp. and everything in the car can't take it.....I dont want to blow up my car with a HO Alt but I dont want to blow up my car by demanding too much power when it doesnt have it.... HELP?

Hey there,

You shouldn't have a problem with a high output alternator. The only reason anything could "blow up" would be if (a)the alternator shorted and sent out a ridiculous amount of amperage out. ( you didnt properly fuse the alternator to the battery/is not grounded properly.

But first, I ask, why do you want a H/O alt? What system are you running? I may be wrong, but my civic stock alternator is 75amps, so yours should be quite close between 75-100. Not sure on the new 2010s. But what type of system are you running? The stock alternator, with a decent battery up front (preferrably a deep cycle car audio battery like XS or Kinetik etc..) would be fine for a system I would say up to 2200-3000watts RMS depending on the battery. Stock battery, non deep cycle, I wouldnt test its capability. It could shorten the life of the battery by months. Also, if your not doing a huge system, why not just throw a decent size deep cycle car audio battery in the trunk? Benifits of doing so would be (a) Looks good if you do it right. ( You can install an isolater, incase you leave your headlights on, the car wil still start using the battery in the back. © Your system will have a better, stable power source. (d) A battery can be switched between cars, especially a trunk battery setup, if anything were to happen to your civic engine, or damage occured to the car causing you to get a new one, an alternator is not as universal, unless of course you got another civic.

Hope I helped, feel free to ask more questions and ill try to answer, or if anybody else has any input?

Good luck !

[JDS116]

Thank you both for clearing this up for me !! I find the 8th gen forums a little hard to find a decent answer...you guys helped big. Thank You !!

Right now i am running 800RMS at 2ohm to one sub. I want to add 4 components, 6 tweeters, and dc subs. I am just trying to figure it all out power wise since id be adding another 2000-3000 watts. i was thinking HO alt from DC and a xs d3100 batt.

Right now my headlights dim real bad so i only have my bass at half. but i am trying to learn more and more and plan it all out so i can make a new system.

THanks again for the help!!

[rickyfromthe407]

Thank you both for clearing this up for me !! I find the 8th gen forums a little hard to find a decent answer...you guys helped big. Thank You !!

Right now i am running 800RMS at 2ohm to one sub. I want to add 4 components, 6 tweeters, and dc subs. I am just trying to figure it all out power wise since id be adding another 2000-3000 watts. i was thinking HO alt from DC and a xs d3100 batt.

Right now my headlights dim real bad so i only have my bass at half. but i am trying to learn more and more and plan it all out so i can make a new system.

THanks again for the help!!

Well with stock alternator say 75 amps. And 800rms being sucked from your subs amp, it's sucking atleast 75amps of current from your battery if it's a quality amp. You can pretty much say the car uses 50amps for lights electronics etc..leaving you with only 25amps for add-ons. Which is why your getting heavy dimming. In all honesty, I wouldn't even bother getting a H/O alt unless you just wanna say you have one. Especially if your considering picking up a d3100 you will be more than set with the d3100 in trunk ran (+ to +)(- to -) to the battery under the hood. But a d3100 with stock alt wired in 1/0 will leave you plenty of room to I would say at least double your power. It will be able to easily handle the mids/high and subs you stated. Shouldn't be a problem, if you notice excess voltage drop after adding the d3100 - then I would have a look on eBay. They have Civic alternators for about 150$ shipped that put out 130amps. Almost double your stock. That is more than enough. Unless you plan to upgrade to say 5kw RMS.

[rickyfromthe407]

Oh & also, make sure you do the "big 3" if you havnt! You'll notice significant difference by just doing that before adding a battery.