Hello everyone, it's been a while since i"ve been on here, but I am posing a question that I should have had posed last summer.

I"ve owned a car stereo for about 6 years and for the first 3 years everything ran smoothly as I was only running 800rms.

A couple summers ago I put some more power and am currently running 1900rms. Two rockford 800a2's and a soundstream rubicon 702. I knew that was hard on my alternator and battery so I took my car to a shop in Regina (to a family friends shop)
and he upgraded the 3 big wires, put in a 50amp alternator (give or take a bit) and an 800cca battery.

After all that was done, we hooked my car up to the volt meter and I turned up the bass and turned the heater in my car on etc and he said that the upgrades he did was sufficiant enough for what I would use them for.

I don't drive my car in the winter and nor do I play my stereo, but I make sure I charge up the battery and start my car up a few times over the winter. I probably should have taken the battery out for the winter (the dummy I am left it in), but I was told that if I charged it up every once in a while and started my car etc that it would be fine to leave it in my car.

Well as it sits now I think my battery is dead from playing my stereo over the summer that the winter killed it no matter how often I charged the battery/started my car.

I am wondering if I should be using the Optima Yellow TOP batteries, if that would help and if my alternator is too small for the amount of power I am running? According to the volt meter it is fine, but I notice my lights still dim a bit when the stereo is playing.

I should have asked people with car stereo's before asking someone who's never owned a stereo before but I guess it's never too late. Any suggestions or reccomendations would be great, thanks!

-DF

 

(4:30am and not in bed because of a bad toothache... guess I may as well "hit the boards")

50 amp alternator? Is that a typo? Was that supposed to say 150 amps? If not, you need a much bigger alternator... What kind of car are we talking about here?

Most cars made since '86 take about 20 amps just to run. Flip on the headlights, that's another 12-20 amps. Flip on the heater and... well... a 50 amp alternator just wouldn't cut it.

1900rms is also about where I stand, and if I AVR my system at full pumping volume, my stereo (with it's four amplifiers), not the whole van, just the stereo, draws over 100 amps. At "normal" volumes, she's still pulling 30-60 amps. I have just a stock 105 amp alternator, and two spiral cell batteries (Orbitals, not Optimas, same sh__ different pile), one for the stereo, one for the van. My alternator is adequate for daily use. If I was nuts and drove around with my stereo at full tilt all the time, I'd need a bigger alternator. I will put a bigger one in, or perhaps a second one, when the need arises, when my existing one dies.

However, your car sits in the winter you say, so we could be talking about a 50 amp alternator I suppose... say if you're driving some old 70's Toyota or MG or something...

You need 100 amps as a bare minimum, and if you're going to upgrade to get to that 100, may as well go beyond and head for the 130-150 amp range, for longevity and future growth.

Storage is hard on batteries, generally harder than daily use, batteries don't like to sit. They're like milk, after the shelf life, they just don't "taste" right anymore. To long after it's shelf life, and it goes bad. Batteries self discharge as they sit doing nothing. A battery, in storage, has a shelf life of three months. I like to go by the two month rule, just to be safe. And if you're leaving that battery hooked up in a high electrical car (90's and later), go one month.

Safest is to disconnect the negative during winter storage. You can leave the battery in the car, just disconnect it. If the car is stored in a heated enviroment, the battery will discharge faster than if it were left out in the cold. Starting your car for 15 or 20 minutes every month or two is harder on the battery than not starting it. It takes a good hour or more to replenish a normal battery that just started a car, sitting at idle. Add factors like cold weather storage, or a battery that hasn't had a charge in two or three months, and now you need to leave your car running at idle for two or three hours. This is why you need external charging sources in the winter. If you have an electrical outlet handy, then an automatic charger is required. Plug it in, leave it plugged in all winter, it's fully automatic and designed to be left plugged in all the time. These types of chargers can be had in the $40 to $70 range. Then you won't need to disconnect your battery from your car at all, nor will you need to start the car at all in the winter. In the spring, just go disconnect your charger, start her up and drive away. If you don't have an electrical outlet handy, a small solar panel (in the $30-$60 range) will do the job.

But, not everyone will do that. Maybe you'll pull your battery out and stick it in your basement for the winter. It still needs a charge every two months. If you don't, it's gonna fail after it's second or third winter of sitting. Starting your car for 20 or 30 minutes, then charging your battery for an evening, just ain't gonna cut it. Stop running that car over the winter, or, get an automatic charger. You may stretch your battery's life by an additional year or two.

You say you put the new battery in a couple summers ago. That's three years this spring, yes? The average liquid car battery in Canada last four or five years. Add abuse like winter storage, and yep, you're about due for a new battery again.

Should you get an Optima? Yup. With that kind of wattage, it would be advisable. You can expect a lot more life out of an Optima too, if you treat it right, you can get many many years out of one. My brother's truck has a nine year old red top Optima in it, still going strong. Red or yellow? I just explained that in another thread the other day, read this thread: http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/ubb/...c;f=3;t=010593

Also, redtops have a far better warranty period than yellows. Something you may want to consider since it's a storage car.

 

First of all, thanks for the very informative response GrizZz. It's 6:00am and I"m up studying for final exams, I just thought I would pop by and see if anyone got to this thread yet and thankfully you did.

The said car is actually a 76 chevelle malibu (pics on site below) and I figured right from the day I got the new alternator installed that it wasn't what I needed even though a "professional" said it was plenty big enough even after testing it with my stereo cranked.

It's just a summer/stereo car that I"ve had for a few years that I sometimes drive more than 30 minutes at a time with the stereo on. I figured that it would wear the battery down a lot more and it eventually wore it down to the point where it wouldn't matter how often I charged it through the winter, it was done.

After reading that thread and doing some other reading I am definitly going with an Optima battery and upgrading my alternator to one that better suits my car's needs. As far as the winter tips, I am definitly going to be doing things differently next winter, I didn't realize that I was doing more harm than good by starting my car for 20 minutes every once in a while.

Thanks for all the advice, I appreciate it, and I will definitly be looking more into these things very soon!

- DF

[ April 21, 2005, 05:59 AM: Message edited by: DaFeared ]

 

GriZzZ.........

So I go into this "said" place... and the guy tried to tell me that excide batteries are better for bigger car audio systems than Optima or Orbital's are.

Then he tells me that he knows people with 5,000 watt rms systems running off 80 amp alternators. They must go through a battery a week.

I don't get this place!!!!


CROOOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i would also consider that you might have rusty terminals and such. it seems that you go into a shop to get your work done so either you are careful with your car , wealthy enough to do it , or you dont really know for sure and trust the expertise at a shop instead of your own skills. either way id take it in to make sure that your wires are all good. that there is no corrosion at and connection and see if the battery is still good. get a load test. if you parked your car outside or in a sub zero envoirnment , the water in it might have frozen and the plates inside touched. this is not something that you might be able to tell with the naked eye so a load test should be done. hopefully you can get to the bottom of this.

As far as the battery exide and optima are a nice point of arguement. go with the one readily available to you and that will offer you the best warranty and most warranty. there is no use getting one that is farther away or twice as expensive for your application. i will pm you on that as i dont feel like argueing with others on this. my advice is to go get it checked and then do a purchase if that truly is the problem. (once you know that your connections are good)

[ May 07, 2005, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: Team Shadow ]

 

(GrizZz here on the wif's PC, mine's still packed up from my gig last night)

Assuming he was implying that Exide (or any) liquid lead acid batteries ("normal" car batteries) are better than Optima, Orbital, or other gel technology batteries, then yup, he's speant to much time in the back room smoking his crack pipe. Gel tech. batteries hold loads at higher voltages than normal batteries. End of arguement.

5000w off an 80 amp alternator... It'd work, but as sonn as you turned it up to where the subs just START working hard (let alone full output), you'll bag that alternator to full output. Leave it at that volume for more than a few minutes, and you'll likely burn the alternator right up.

Walk away from that shop, don't go back.

Yes, corrosion is a huge issue, and the first thing looked at when servicing batteries. I have a few other threads with big DIY tips, including a self-load test... lemme find them lessee...

http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/ubb/...c;f=3;t=010675 is a good thread...

ooo Here's another good one... http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/ubb/...c;f=3;t=010641

Good luck!