How many amps does out alternator put out? Im thinking of putting in my system but I dont want to kill my alternator like I have done in two other cars. And for people who already have a system installed, how many watts are you running and is it dimming your headlights? Thanks guys.

 

Not sure what the alternator puts out, but I can tell you that with my 2 alpine amps, one MRV-F345 (75wx4 @4ohm CEA 2006 certified), the other MRD-M605 (600wx1 RMS @ 2 ohm CEA 2006 certified) my lights dim. Not sure what I'm going to do about it yet.

 

I've seen Chevy's website put it at 110 or 120...

 

Buy a capacitor it will help but eventually you will need a new alternator.

 

Thanks for the info guys, anyone else have any feedback.

 

Don't replace your alternator just buy a second one. If you, or if you can get some one to, build you a bracket and rerout your pully system a bit you can get a near never ending supply of power. Your original alternator can just run your factory car stuff. Then daisy chain a few stinger dry cells together charging off of your second alternator to only run your system. Feed those hungery amps the full 14.xx V that they really want!

Yeah that or you can just get yourself a kinetics cap killer....

 

Alot of shops near me rebuild alternators into High Output units. I might look into this once I figure how many watts the alternator can hold reliably.

 

If I killed my alternator with my system, how much am I looking at for the repair?

 

I dont think anyone makes aftermarket alternators for these cars yet so you would need to get it form gm which will cost a good bit. The you would have to get it installed. You might as well get it rebuilt into a high output unit if you continue to run alot of juice in your car.

 

i know ive yet to see **** on ho alts for this car... im hoping i can get somethign done...

 

Bad advice. It'll just make alternator do more work. Capacitors discharge quickly and they discharge even when they're not being used and the alternator will have to recharge it accordingly.

 

Add a second battery. Get an Optima battery to run the system only, that will eliminate quite alot if not all of the dimming and no worries about all that alternator stuff. Capacitors are nice, but all they do is store the current so that it is more of a constant draw off the battery and when the bass hits it pulls at a not so constant from the capacitor. Supposed to help alot, but not so much. I have a 1,000W D-class amp pushing my 2 Rockford 10's and my lights dim if I turn em up pretty high.

 

lol no offence becasue your ideas and thinking arent wrong but its funny how you worded it

"Capacitors are nice, but all they do is store the current so that it is more of a constant draw off the battery"

since when do batteries make significant power? yes i know they do make small amounts of power but they mainly store power hence why my cell phone has to be charged often.... the alt makes all the power needed for the car and while 2 batts can be good any battery is just a load on the alt since its just another thing the alt has to deal with

 

I can see what you're saying, but with adding a second battery the sole purpose of that battery will be to supply power to the stereo and nothing else. Which would keep from draining power being led to other equipment in the car. This is how it was explained to me. I am still new to car stereo..I have a bit more knowledge of car mechanics then electronics.

 

lol its all good... and like i said i wasnt saying you were wrong it just made me laugh.

anyway yes a 2nd battery is often helpful especially when put close to the amps location (gm already hooked us up there) but since the alt makes all the power i would have to say the final result is alt>battery... now most cars dont need a hight output alt and for most sytems a 2nd battery could be perfect and the price and ease of installation makes for a grea upgrade... but for larger systems adding more batteries is just making it worse if your alt cant keep up in the first place

 

So then would you think adding a second battery and a capacitor would stop the dimming, without having to even touch the alternator?? I'm sure if you start puttin like 4 subs and 4 amps and whatnot the alternator would have to be replaced but for smaller applications.

 

OH CRAP!
I run those exact same amps... and i hate light dimming!
Cap and ungraded alternator for me i guess...

 

actually yes... although depending on how much dimming youve got you may want to replace the stock battery... reason i say that is because it may have developed a memory so it may not be able to hold much charge and depending on how you wire each battery the second on can be completely independent of the first or the second one will never be able to hold more then the first if they are wired together. A good way to check if your battery can still hold the whole 12v is to drive a day or so to recharge the battery (highway speeds help the most) then when the car is off check the voltage of the battery with a multimeter or voltmeter... if it runs 12v ur in good shape to add a new battery running in parallel (just connecting the pos and neg)

 

All I wanted to know was how many amps the alternator is putting out.

 

My lights dim badly. I have a Memphis mcd-1000 amp and 1 Fosgate T210. I have added a 5 farad cap and it helped some. I wish we knew of a Higher output alt.

 

im running a punch600.1 @ 2ohms. and a punch450.4 @ $ohms... i have upgraded the stock battery to a Kinetic 1800cca... at first i grounded back to the battery and the lights dimmed terribly... but when i moved the grounds to a seperate point it all cleared up...

 

is the 1800 the biggest we can fit without height issuses?

 

lol the 1800 is too tall for the stock trunk liner... i had to cut it... buuuuuttt now i have my truck redone, so it all fits

 

i have a mean green H/O alternator that does 200 amps and also did the big three in 0 guage and i have no dimming what so ever