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Brand X Alternator Install Help


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So I recently had a 250amp brand X installed into my 2008 Hyundai Elantra... Everything seems to work fine at first but then I've encountered some weird behavior when I'm really hitting the system. My amplifier will all the sudden shut off, power cycle, and turn back on. This happens without any clip indicator and didn't happen with my stock alternator. The amp boots back up and start working again just fine. I can't recreate this issue when the car isn't moving. It only happens while driving. All connections and grounds are good. I do have an ioxus ultracap in-between the battery up front and the amplifier in the back. At this point I can only see a few failure points. Either something went wrong with the amp with the higher current. The amp is a sundown sia 3500 and rated between 9v to 16v so that shouldn't be a problem as the brand X charges at 14.8v. the other option is the ioxus ultracap doesn't like that much current possibly? Or, the alternator has some fault within the hardware, OR the installer didn't wire the harness correctly. From what I can see, one of the wires coming from the alt harness is wired to the positive alternator terminal , and the other is wired to a line that goes to the positive battery terminal.

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How long are you hammering on the system for before this happens?

The wire from the alternator harness plug to the positive stud on the alternator is most likely the sense wire, if you look at the voltage regulator on the alternator (where that harness gets plugged into) there should be a S on the regulator. That is normal. 

Have you tried recreating the problem when parked but holding your foot on the gas for a steady'ish 1800-2100rpm which would be similar to the rpms when driving instead of just being parked and idling and not being able to recreate the problem? 

If it would do it parked with a higher engine rpm like that then you might have an issue with one thing or another such as the alt, ultracap, or amp. 


If there is still no problem parked with the higher engine rpm then I would definitely say something is lose and the vibrations caused by the road when driving are wiggling something around enough for a bad connection someplace or another!

Regardless I would go through every connection with a fine tooth comb and check to make sure everything is tight (even though you said it is).
You have no idea how many times I was told things are tight by a customer only for them to bring their vehicle by and I will find a loose nut holding on a ring terminal, a piss poor solder or crimp job on a ring terminal, wires falling out of fuse blocks, melted fuse blocks, and so on. 

Also was the serpentine belt replaced when the new alternator was installed?
Due to the smaller diameter pulley on the alternator you need to run a belt that is typically 1/2 inch shorter than the factory size, if you don't then the belt tensioner will be pretty much maxed out and not allow for it to properly tension the belt throughout the rpm range and will cause massive slipping issues.
So if it wasn't changed, look up your car online for a belt number, and see the length listed, then find a smaller belt size, then proceed to get a new belt from your parts store of choice and give them the belt number and not your vehicle info or you will end up with the factory length belt which will be too long again.

 

 

 

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Yerp. Do all said above. 

 

 

The amp ill bet is just fine. Ill bet the amp is shutting down from low or high voltage. If you have a decent meter, stick the probes in at the amp (Pos and Neg) and set to min/max, .... go for a ride, or do whatever you need to cause the issue. Ill bet you see the amp shutting down being out the boards wanted voltage. Either spiking high, or, dropping to low. Then, know which and why, move to the next. 

 

(you dont mention any vehicle issues, dimming, battery lights or anything, and happens at RPM, makes me think your spiking for some reason, just over the boards wanted VDC range ;) ) 

 

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To answer your question first and foremost. If this problem happens (which it usually always does), it happens within the first 5 to 10 minutes of driving while playing the subwoofer high. The first song I played on the way home from work, I cranked it up and my amp cut out for about 5 seconds while it power cycles, and comes back on. No clip indicator displayed before happening. It did this 5 or 6 times during that first song. It seems I'm able to recreate this more easily without the ultracap connected. When the cap is connected I usually only have it happen once or twice during a 15 minute drive.

 

Ok so this past weekend I removed the ultracap and let the power flow directly. The problem still persists and all connections from front to back are solid as can be. I just read your replies and I think y'all may be on to something because I was able to recreate the problem a bunch of times on my drive home from work... It seems right around that 2000rpm mark is when it's cutting power to the amp and that's exactly where the high output alternator is supposed to increase its current from 150ish to 250ish...The problem occured 5 or 6 times during a single song. Even though the belt seems snug, the installer didn't use the shorter belt I supplied because my vehicle does have a manual tensioner on it. I'm wondering if you are correct in that they maxed out the tensioner and I'm losing power right at that 2000rpm mark where the alternator is supposed to provide more power. I'm going to pull the stock belt off this weekend and use the shorter belt that I supplied (but they did not use). The area I live in only has two audio stores and they only do generic audio installs. The one wouldn't even agree to install a high output alternator and the other who did, didn't listen to what I said about using the shorter belt. It took them 5 hours to install the alternator from 1pm to 6pm. Much longer than it should have. They also stated they had an issue getting it to charge at first so I'm wondering if they did something incorrect with the harness adapter. I have a spare skar 2000d amp lying around so I'm going to swap the belt out first and see if I can solve the issue. If not I'm going to swap the amps and try that. Honestly I hope one or the other solves the issue because I don't want to get into an disagreement about the alternator with the seller because I have a feeling it won't be easy to get a replacement if the fault lies within the alt. 

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Also I just want to include my specs to y'all so you know what I'm using. Big three has been done with 1/0 wire and clean ground points. All ground points cleared of paint with a Dremel. Alternator is a Brand x 250. Vehicle is 2008 Elantra 2.0L. I have a single sundown xv3.12 in a 3 cubic foot box running on a sundown SIA 3500 at 1 ohm. Also have an ioxus ultracap between the battery and the amp, and the battery is the largest size AGM I could fit under the hood. I did notice yesterday when I was driving home, I'm getting voltage drop into the 12s right around that 2000rpm mark with music playing. I get very minimal headlight dim only when hitting the sub really hard. Again I have checked all connections because everytime I've had my vehicle worked on by a garage, I've had to go back and tighten the connections properly because the garage actually did a shit job tightening everything down. I'll try to provide some pictures later today of the setup and wires.

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On 9/17/2022 at 6:25 AM, Kyblack76 said:

Yerp. Do all said above. 

 

 

The amp ill bet is just fine. Ill bet the amp is shutting down from low or high voltage. If you have a decent meter, stick the probes in at the amp (Pos and Neg) and set to min/max, .... go for a ride, or do whatever you need to cause the issue. Ill bet you see the amp shutting down being out the boards wanted voltage. Either spiking high, or, dropping to low. Then, know which and why, move to the next. 

 

(you dont mention any vehicle issues, dimming, battery lights or anything, and happens at RPM, makes me think your spiking for some reason, just over the boards wanted VDC range ;) ) 

 

I think you may be right... I was monitoring voltage closely and the voltage range I'm getting during a song seems way too broad. At one point I seen the voltage drop down to 12.6 and then right back up to 15.3. I have to get a better voltage readout because the refresh rate on my voltage readout is a bit slow. It's like every .5 of a second or maybe even every 1 second it does a readout on my head unit display.

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Ok so Im pretty sure you guys were right about the belt on the alternator. Today I had the timing belt on my car replaced which required the garage to remove the whole motor cover and I'm pretty sure they had to remove the alternator to get to that area of the motor because the tension on the belt is much tighter than before. I just picked up the vehicle, cranked the music louder than I usually do and I couldn't get the power to cut out. Before I get my hopes up though I'm going to go for a longer drive after work and try to recreate the problem because the drive back to work upon picking up the vehicle was only 10 minutes. Usually I can get it to happen easily within 10 minutes but this time it didn't. I'll update this thread later tonight with results. Either way I'm going to be putting on this shorter belt this weekend .. they got the stock one super tight but I can tell the manual tensioner is almost maxed out. 

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