battery question

beelay · Post by **beelay** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 9:40 pm

i'm going to buy a new sub and amp after one of the wires on my jl audio 12w3 broke. the amp i have now is a 600 watt jbl i believe (i bought it off a friend and he did the install). i'm thinking of getting one jl audio 12w6v2 and a jl audio 500/1 amp. before my 12w3 crapped out on me i was getting some dimming of lights. My question is if i should get a cap or not with the new setup, or if there would be any damage with living with dimming lights.

Also, on the jl audio website it says the effective battery voltage for the 500/1 amp is 11V to 14.5V (maybe for best power). What batteries come stock in 2003 sxt? would it be recommended to replace the battery?

eastwoodsn352 · Post by **eastwoodsn352** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 9:49 pm

a new battery will only help a little bit if u want to do any good you will need to buy a new alternator cause i believe the factory alternators are only like 95 amps...i might be wrong about that though

2003silverneonsxt · Post by **2003silverneonsxt** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 10:24 pm

whts going to help the most with dimming is updating all ur ground wires under the hood (engine bay)

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 10:26 pm

do the big 3 upgrade, and make sure there on bare metal. also a cap is usless.

beelay · Post by **beelay** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 1:09 am

what's the big 3 upgrade?

do neons come with 12V batteries?

lilolneon · Post by **lilolneon** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 2:04 am

Big 3 = Upgrading your ground wires. If you pop your hood and look aroudn you will find the grounds. The locations for them are from the Neg bat terminal to the Engine block (by the starter) from the block to the battery tray, from the Neg batt terminal to the Frame (small wire to the driver side fender beside fusebox), theres a wire also from the rear pass. side of the engine to the pass fender, and from the pass fender to the top motor mount area. I used some 4awg wire from CarToys and some eye clamp things from homedepot for 4awg wire. clamped em hard on the wire then re bolted to the frame w/ the paint scratched away some.

Yes. The neon uses a 12v battery, as do most cars.

As for a battery alot of people use Optima brand. I had a Optima YellowTop D35.

Caps = Useless. They store electricity for the amps to use, but when your using alot of sub realyl fast, the cap doesnt have time to fulyl recharge so it puts a greater load/stress on the electrical.

The stock altenator i believe is an 80amp. You can use the altenator off of a PT Cruiser i believe its a 100amp(?) or you can even have one custom built like scneonchic.

If it were me, i would do the big-3 if you have problems still, get a better battery, and if your STILL having problems, get a bigger altenator.

I had no light dimming problems w/ just the big-3 and the yellowtop, and i was running a 1600w amp and a 600w amp w/ two 12's.

If anyone sees anything wrong w/ what I said, plz correct me

Hope that answers your questions.

Nick Drake · Post by **Nick Drake** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:25 am

lilolneon wrote:Big 3 = Upgrading your ground wires. If you pop your hood and look aroudn you will find the grounds. The locations for them are from the Neg bat terminal to the Engine block (by the starter) from the block to the battery tray, from the Neg batt terminal to the Frame (small wire to the driver side fender beside fusebox), theres a wire also from the rear pass. side of the engine to the pass fender, and from the pass fender to the top motor mount area. I used some 4awg wire from CarToys and some eye clamp things from homedepot for 4awg wire. clamped em hard on the wire then re bolted to the frame w/ the paint scratched away some.

Yes. The neon uses a 12v battery, as do most cars.

As for a battery alot of people use Optima brand. I had a Optima YellowTop D35.

Caps = Useless. They store electricity for the amps to use, but when your using alot of sub realyl fast, the cap doesnt have time to fulyl recharge so it puts a greater load/stress on the electrical.

The stock altenator i believe is an 80amp. You can use the altenator off of a PT Cruiser i believe its a 100amp(?) or you can even have one custom built like scneonchic.

If it were me, i would do the big-3 if you have problems still, get a better battery, and if your STILL having problems, get a bigger altenator.

I had no light dimming problems w/ just the big-3 and the yellowtop, and i was running a 1600w amp and a 600w amp w/ two 12's.

If anyone sees anything wrong w/ what I said, plz correct me

Hope that answers your questions.

Nice writeup, I was gonna do a full on howto about this with pics this summer.

beelay · Post by **beelay** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 2:57 pm

thanks lilolneon that helps alot.

i'll be ordering the sub and amp hopefully within the next two weeks when i get all of the money together. after that i'll do the big 3 upgrade and i'll let you guys know how it went

lilolneon · Post by **lilolneon** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 3:38 pm

ill make a howto in a few... so keep an eye out for it in the how-to section.

scneonchic · Post by **scneonchic** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 4:17 pm

lilolneon wrote:
The stock altenator i believe is an 80amp. You can use the altenator off of a PT Cruiser i believe its a 100amp(?) or you can even have one custom built like scneonchic.

If it were me, i would do the big-3 if you have problems still, get a better battery, and if your STILL having problems, get a bigger altenator.

Pretty much what I was going to say. The Alt I had custom made came w/ an overdrive pulley and is 165 amps I believe.

www.excessiveamperage.com

nice, helpful guy that runs it...but Id do what lilolneon said first...and go from there.

Im running a red top optima, the higher amp alt, and I have one 12" TREO SSX sub and 2 1000watt rms Bostwick amps. The lights still dim a little, but I think once I upgrade the ground wires, ill be fine.

lilolneon · Post by **lilolneon** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 5:43 pm

Heres the how-to I promised

http://forum.2gn.org/viewtopic.php?t=9909