Lights dimming slightly

[poorfish88]

It's rated as a 300watt amp, that I bet would be closer to 200 watts. If the lights are dimming something is wrong batt getting ready to go bad or alt.

[Ahmed Johnson]

You could be clipping like hell too

[jmc916]

Do a big 3 upgrade and a better under the hood battery and you should be good to go for now

I'm planning on looking into doing the big 3. I haven't had a chance to look under the hood and see how easy it will be on this car. Crappy thing about this car is that there isn't much info about it online as far as tutorials or write ups. I still need to find a different battery that will fit my car without modifications. Kinetik and Optima said they don't have any that fit, and I don't think XS does either...

First things first, you are going to notice any light dimming even with a 0.1v drop in voltage, especially if you are OCD and pick up on the little things like me. Only way to eliminate dimming lights is to install HID lights. No you don't have to grab blue or purple lights. But there are pure white HID or there are yellow colors if you prefer that.. Sure there might be other ways to completely eliminate that, but hid is a for sure answer.

Check to see what your voltage drop actually is at the amp.

But the reason your rpms drop when the bass hits is because your alt is being loaded down because you are calling for power. Which in turn bogs the engine down, ECU notices and raises up the rpm to compensate. My car does that big time with a h.o. alternator at idle. It'll drop almost 200rpm.

Also, never hurts to check your ground for the amp, make sure it is on bare metal and is not loose.

I think I am OCD about it. The light dimming isn't really that bad, you have to be staring at the lights on the ground to notice it. The RPM drop only happens during idle and it's really small. I think I'm just picky lol. I think I'm going to re-check the ground and possibly look for another option for a grounding point.

You could be clipping like hell too

My gain is not even turned up 1/4 of the way. Maybe like 1/8 of the way.

[Guest]

either bad ground

bad battery

or alternator is dying

Check the battery with a volt meter and tell us the numbers youre getting.

check the battery resting voltage with the car off

then check with the car on

finally tell us how low the voltage dips when your lights dim

is your amp getting too hot to touch?

[SIDE SHOW]

upgrade to 4 gauge and a decent drycell battery, should fix your problem

[jmc916]

either bad ground

bad battery

or alternator is dying

Check the battery with a volt meter and tell us the numbers youre getting.

check the battery resting voltage with the car off

then check with the car on

finally tell us how low the voltage dips when your lights dim

is your amp getting too hot to touch?

I'm going to test the voltage tomorrow. I'll also check to see if the amp is getting excessively hot tomorrow ... I'll let you know what I get with the volt meter.

upgrade to 4 gauge and a decent drycell battery, should fix your problem

I was actually thinking about upgrading to 4gauge Sky High cable soon since it's the most affordable thing I need to upgrade at this point. Any recommendations on a battery since XS, Kinetic, and Optima don't have batteries that will fit in the OEM spot on my car?

[SIDE SHOW]

if they wont fit in the factory location, might be worth looking into a second batt near your amp