Alternator belt shredded due to alpine sound system

T

Targaryen420

Member
:
2002 Mazda Protege5
Hey yall, its been a while, i was wondering if any of you could recommend a good but inexpensive capacitor for my system?
I spend 360 dollars in labor and parts and towing wondering why my battery died, my alternator gave out, and excretac excetra...
So i hear from a Ford Mechanic that the belt could have shredded, the alternator seizing due to so much power being drawn to the amp, and the alternator is just not doing its job.
The Alternator is new to this car and re manufactured from Ford.

Would you recommend a capacitor for this? Or something else to help from the battery draining, and the belt snapping?

I have A: Alpine x12 x2 12" subs
Brutus hifonix 1110w
8guage wire
Standard battery
New alternator
 
There is a high power alternator available... 100 Amps or something...
 
Capacitors do little to nothing to help an overexerted alternator. They may reduce voltage drop momentarily, but once discharged they do nothing but pull more amperage from the alternator.

If you're running a true 1100 watts, 8 gauge won't cut it. You need 4. Get some extra wire and do the Big 3 upgrade at the same time.

While theoretically possible, the sound system stopping the alternator dead and shredding the belt is very far fetched. Check the bearings in the water pump and alternator, if they're good, install a new belt and tension it correctly. I'm betting that the belt was just very old and in need of replacement, or a bearing failed and seized.
 
The thing is, gents, it was a new serpentine belt, and it had to he tightened down. My car started to over heat one day, and after i finally checked the alternator, the belt was gone. So im sure the belt had to snap or something. Im going to guess they put in a similar or stock alternator for the protege5. is it going to be efficient enough? i would rather not pay more money for another alternator, as this ones practically new.
 
Targaryen420 said:
The thing is, gents, it was a new serpentine belt, and it had to he tightened down. My car started to over heat one day, and after i finally checked the alternator, the belt was gone. So im sure the belt had to snap or something. Im going to guess they put in a similar or stock alternator for the protege5. is it going to be efficient enough? i would rather not pay more money for another alternator, as this ones practically new.
Click to expand...

The stock alt is plenty for that amp. You have a different issue.

Your amp has a fuse rating of 60 amps, which is well under the alt's peak output. The amp will not draw anywhere near 60 amps just listening to music either.

Additionally, if the belt were slipping, you'd know it. They squeal pretty loudly.
 
MrGiggles said:
The stock alt is plenty for that amp. You have a different issue.

Your amp has a fuse rating of 60 amps, which is well under the alt's peak output. The amp will not draw anywhere near 60 amps just listening to music either.

Additionally, if the belt were slipping, you'd know it. They squeal pretty loudly.
Click to expand...

to give you additional info. the amp has two 70amp fuses.
 
Thanks pcb, and thank you to the rest of you. I didnt know my alternator put out 77 amps. Looks like i might have to just sell the damn system, because thats a new alternator and im not gonna put a new one in again just to have the sound system.

No wonder my battery died so many times...

Can anyone recommend an amp that will work for my car?
 
Targaryen420 said:
Thanks pcb, and thank you to the rest of you. I didnt know my alternator put out 77 amps. Looks like i might have to just sell the damn system, because thats a new alternator and im not gonna put a new one in again just to have the sound system.

No wonder my battery died so many times...

Can anyone recommend an amp that will work for my car?
Click to expand...

What model is your amp? This one shows a single 60 amp fuse.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/inde...nznqDLOtbNnEGw22YixQYaAu4X8P8HAQ#&gid=1&pid=4

The fuse rating just a maximum rating anyway. Under real world conditions the current drawn isn't anywhere near that. There are a lot of people that run amps of similar power with no problems, me included.

Like I mentioned earlier, you need bigger wire. 8 gauge is only adequate for 600 watts or so.
 
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the wires pretty thick, about the size of a thumb. i dont rememeber what guage exactly, but i got the wire to hold the power going to the amp
 
Targaryen420 said:
...but i got the wire to hold the power going to the amp
Click to expand...

Even if you're only drawing 40 amps for your amp, you still need to save some amps to run your car or you're gonna drain your battery...
Don't forget your ground wires... They need to be high power too... (the big three)

There's better batteries available too... Better designed to handle bring drained then recharged... (gell-cell or something ??)

OR... You could listen to one song, then skip two songs while things recharge....
Choose your playlist carefully...
 
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Targaryen420 said:
Im sorry, i mean 1200w hiphonics brutus.
Click to expand...

Targaryen420 said:
the wires pretty thick, about the size of a thumb. i dont rememeber what guage exactly, but i got the wire to hold the power going to the amp
Click to expand...

8 gauge is about the size of a pencil. 4 gauge is typically finger sized.

Assuming you are wired to 1 ohm right now, you might try wiring to 2, 4, or 8 ohms temporarily to see what that does for you. You might be surprised, as driver efficiency goes up with higher impedance. The subs in my sig are wired in series to 8 ohms, and you'd never know that I was only running a 200 watt system by the sound.

I highly recommend that you install a voltage gauge, even if only temporarily. A round voltage gauge can be had for 20 dollars, and there are small digital gauges available as well that are even cheaper. This way you can watch for voltage drop, and be able to tell if a modification actually improved the situation.
 
Upgrade you wire, big three, and if it doesn't work wire two batteries parallel to each other with a isolator.

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk
 
agr99 said:
Upgrade you wire, big three, and if it doesn't work wire two batteries parallel to each other with a isolator.

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Sorry i wasn't thinking batteries wired parallel wouldn't help your situation i retract that

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk
 
agr99 said:
Upgrade you wire, big three, and if it doesn't work wire two batteries parallel to each other with a isolator.
Click to expand...

You still need to generate as much power as you're using.... We only have 77 amps...
 
That's why i retracted it, didn't have my coffee yet when i posted it

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk
 
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