Lights dim?

[Kranny]

dont those cars have a stock run from the alt going to the fuse/relay box?

I dunno. I wouldn't use that anyways. There is positive plugs by the fuse box for accessories. I figure straight to the battery would be better

well i mean if all your interior stuff is run off of that fuse box, and it has like 8 gauge on it, it would make sense (in my eyes at least) that it would cause the lights to dim. wouldnt hurt to add like 4 gauge to it from the battery or something.

[jmilch]

dont those cars have a stock run from the alt going to the fuse/relay box?

I dunno. I wouldn't use that anyways. There is positive plugs by the fuse box for accessories. I figure straight to the battery would be better

well i mean if all your interior stuff is run off of that fuse box, and it has like 8 gauge on it, it would make sense (in my eyes at least) that it would cause the lights to dim. wouldnt hurt to add like 4 gauge to it from the battery or something.

Exactly where I was going with it. This makes the most sense.

[KHRISS]

do you still have 4 gauge run from front to back? If yes upgrade to 0 gauge. For what i hear in this forum optima battery's arent that great. They are good but not like XS battery's.

blue optima = boats red optima = hot rods yellow optima = car audio

[KHRISS]

So I just put two DC lvl 2 8"s on a DC 1.2k into my wife's 05 Monte Carlo SS. She has a optima red top under the hood 4 guage front to back, and her lights dim really bad so I did the battery to alt, and battery to ground with 1/0 guage still dimmed. Then I put a mechman 270a alt in and the lights still dim at idle and at 2500 rpm. I checked the voltage at the amp and it does not drop below 14.07 at idle but the lights still dimm pretty bad. Do I need another battery just to help with the voltage pull? Any thoughts?

i have a yellow optima and stock ALT and no big 3 and 0 gauge front to back with a fosgate t2500cp & t1000.4cp and my headlights barely dim

[2007TBSS]

Getting ready to try to stop the dimming issue in my SS as well. Tuned in.

[Bump4life]

i didn't see anywhere about you doing all of the big 3. you did alt to bat and bat to ground but did you do the alt chasis or engine to ground in 0 gauge as well? that could be the problem too. with that H/O alt you deff should not have electrical issues especially with that 1.2k

[herbykw]

i didn't see anywhere about you doing all of the big 3. you did alt to bat and bat to ground but did you do the alt chasis or engine to ground in 0 gauge as well? that could be the problem too. with that H/O alt you deff should not have electrical issues especially with that 1.2k

I did not upgrade the chasis to engine. I didn't have time yesterday. I figured the mechman would stop all the problems. But it didn't. I think the draw on te battery for the car and the system is more then the battery can keep up with.

[techforce]

you could also contact mechman and ask him about a smaller pulley for the alt to get the voltage and rpm's up on the alt at idle.... (If it only happens at idle)

[Airborne]

it makes sense that the rest of your car gets a little starved when the amp sucks all the juice out of it. I couldn't hurt to open up the pathway to the fuse box

[Bump4life]

i didn't see anywhere about you doing all of the big 3. you did alt to bat and bat to ground but did you do the alt chasis or engine to ground in 0 gauge as well? that could be the problem too. with that H/O alt you deff should not have electrical issues especially with that 1.2k

I did not upgrade the chasis to engine. I didn't have time yesterday. I figured the mechman would stop all the problems. But it didn't. I think the draw on te battery for the car and the system is more then the battery can keep up with.

if you don't have every part of the big 3 which means one of those parts is your stock 4 gauge or smaller usually stock 6 or 8 gauge wire then your H/O alt will do you no good. That stock wire can not handle the amount of current that alt puts out at idle (160 A) let alone at its max output. thus your amp with 4 gauge wire or 0 if you up grade will do no good. it will help a little but a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. thus your engine block to chasis or frame as people call it may be the only porblem you have. just install that 3 ft of wire and watch the results. i hope that solves it. as far as running 0 gauge to your amp you can buy reducers from 0 to 4 gauge or you can cut 0 gauge down to fit into amp.