Hi guys,

I have a VE SS-V Commodore with a stereo system that is about 2600WRMS. I've put in an Optima D34 battery, Stinger 5 farard cap (probably does nothing anyway) and I have checked that all the earths are in good shape. However, I am getting some light dimming when I have it pumped up at night.

Any suggestions on what to do to fix this?

Put in a bigger alternator? If so, where from?

Put in another battery??

Any advice would be appreciated.

There's a light dimming tutorial on here somewhere. Maybe worth taking a look at.

If you cant find it (or you are too lazy ) I will give you a few pointers...

Since you have upgraded your battery, thats a good start.

Have you upgraded your big 3 wires in the engine bay. Using the biggest wire you can get, 0AWG if possible, connect battery negative to chassis, alternator positive to battery positive and engine block to chassis. This should help a bit. I am not sure if it will remove your problem completely but it should help. I did this for my car and it helped a lot but didnt remove the problem completely. Im running about the same amount of power as you are...

Hey Moey,

Yeah, I'm already running 0AWG and I've checked that the earths are nice and clean. The alternator is 140A as well...

Sounds like a 2nd battery is the way to go... Just have to work out a place to put the sucker in the boot...

seeing as how the battery is in teh boot, and the lights are up teh front, maybe running another run of power wire to the front will help

whip out a multimeter and test the volts at the battery and the front of the car to check the volts at the head lights, getting to the headlight wires might be tricky though, I'm unfamiliar with the VE's, but generally they're quite easy to find. If the battery is causing the voltage drop (symptoms usually uncover below 12.5V) then it's a ground issue at the chassis, if the voltage drop is at the lights, then, like suggested, running thicker wires to the front will most likely prevent the drop in volts.

I assume you mean you are running 0AWG for the amplifier? Did you upgrade the 3 wires in the engine bay? i.e. Battery negative to chassis, battery positive to alternator positive and engine block to chassis?

Ahhhh...that's something I need to check. I didn't actually do the install myself, but in order to check those 3 connections, I'll have to take off the trim panel in the boot so I can have a look. I'll do that tomorrow when it's a bit lighter.

I'm not up to this step in mine and will have less power than you (only 1600w) but i'm straight out thinking 0G run from the battery positive at minimum the jumping terminal in the engine bay. can notice lights dimming with the stock stereo when the engine is under load at times.

But i'm with Moey - check the 3 in the engine first, that way if it fixes the problem will save you a heap on buying a car length of 0G.

Heres some help...

http://www.s10forum.com/forum/f27/big-thre...-how-to-321309/

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p173/stavenmist/big3.jpg

Do your research before trying anything because you dont want to make the wrong connections...

Its not too difficult though, i did this about 2 months ago after a few days research and it took me about half an hour. It was my first time also...

Good luck and if you need any help, we on this site are all here to help.

Thanks for that Moey.

Problem will be trying to run from the battery + to the alt +....battery is in the boot...alternator is obviously in the engine bay...

Will go back to Tower Audio and see if they will do it for me...properly...

No problem. Let us know how u go...

add a second battery?

2nd battery is an option...but there is no room in the engine bay for one. The 1st battery is already in a compartment on the left hand side of the boot...so a 2nd one would have to somehow go into the right hand side of the boot...

I don't think a second battery would be your best option just yet anyway.

Perhaps have a read here. There's a lot of info in there regarding why 2 batts aren't really the way to go, definately a lot written by cyberpunky, so might be worth a read.

yeah... i run a duel battery setup, mainly coz i hate caps (never had any good experiences with them)

duel battery setup inthe boot would do it i think, one for the car and one for the steza

(cheers louie, thats a nice lil read)

http://www.carsound.com/columns/navone/nav0003.shtml

Thats the article Bruce is reffering to.
Whilst I do agree with it - I dont entirely agree with it.

I'll let you make your own conclusion

as i said in your install page mate upgrade your factory alt earth and batt earths!! stock earth cables on them are only like 4 or 8 gauge wire pull them off and put 0 gauge on and that should fix the problem atleast it did in my vy

I get dimming in my system in my VE as well. I don't have anywhere near as much power as you, but I put it down to the 5m run of 4Ga from alternator to battery. The volt drop you are seeing is probably falling from 13.8-14.4V alternator to the 12V battery voltage with the cable the limiting factor.

not a bad write up, i agree mostly, but yeah no point having a second battery unless you got the power to charge it, and if you do, then theres no point having a second battery

i used to cheat and chuck a capacitor across the headlights, worked fairly well to stop dimming on bass notes

Reading all those articles and other posts.....it's making my head hurt

I think the first thing I will do is looking at chucking in some 0AWG for the "big three"....and see how that goes...

Thanks all for your advice

If there's anyone in Melbourne that want's to come round to my place for a beer and help me do the big three upgrade...let me know

Thats extreemly interesting because thats something I've often wondered about doing. After all its the lights that are dimming.

sucked in
ill help out

Haha....cool! I'll let you know when I have the 0AWG cable. Any ideas where I can get some fairly cheap? Do u have the right tools that might be required? i.e. for crimping? I'll supply the beer!

are you any particular on the colour?

Komodo, yeah i ran i think it was only a lil 220uF cap on the back of the connector to the headlight, one on each side,

cool - I'll give it a go next time after i've exhausted all other reasonable avenues

like i said its just a dodgey fix, better altinator would be the go

they where dicussing this in ca&e about 3 issues back, ill find the article and let you know what they were on about, but i think its pretty much what your saying you did..
thats the first thing i thought id add to this when i read the topic, but ive never done it, nor did i know whats involved to give good advice... good answers by all anyway,

just thought id add, this is the first forum ive been on in a while where i havent come across any smart ass'..... im new here and i hate reading crap where blokes are going at it over a lil issue of whats best, or the best way to do it, must be cos were aussies, oi oi oi.......any way, good site,good members,good info for sure....cheers.
see some of you at the next meet hopefully, Brad......

I've got red Stinger 0AWG at the moment...but the colour doesn't really bother me. As the battery is in the boot behind a panel, u rnt going to see it anyway. So....any colour will be fine. Just want something that will do the job

cool
contact us and ill help out


cool
contact us and ill help out