Rep Power: 786

As the topic states, I would like to find out what the size of the alternator (in amps) is for an 04 civic LX (Canadian model, not sure if it makes a diff).

If anyone can help, please do.

 
Rep Power: 296

very few.

 
Rep Power: 0

70 amps peak... =(

but for daily driving use, a few of us have been able to break the 2 kw mark

 
Rep Power: 786

Interesting... I have a Rockford Fosgate 1001BD amp that has 100amp peak draw. I do not have it maxed out for every day driving, in fact I highly doubt it's been maxed since I've ever used it. Do you think this amp would be fine to install? Along with an aftermarket deck do you think this would just be too much?

Should I upgrade the (410cca I believe) battery if I can? I do have a bigger battery, but I do not know if it will fit in the stock location or not, so is the stock battery fine?

 
Rep Power: 0

ive got an amp that would eat that fosgate for breakfast and the car handles it perfectly

 
Rep Power: 786

Out of curiousity, what amp, and what kinda mods to the electrical system? Also, what is it's rated peak draw?

Like do you have upgraded Big 3? (Alt to battery +, Battery - to chassis and battery - to engine block)

If so, was it hard to do on this car?

Anything else you think would help me out I'd love to know. Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 338

I've run over 3 killowatts in my car on stock electricals. heres what ive noticed:

the alternator is always running. always. while not neccesarly a problem in the short or medium run, in the long long long long term, this might be a problem. my alternator is still always on. it hasnt burn out yet. I dont think i got an amazing civic or anything, nothing special. its still running, 3 years of hard play later.

by turning off the stereo a few blocks before i get to my destination leads to ZERO rammifications running all that power on STOCK electricals. no "big 3" no cap, no new battery, nothing. its a good idea in theory anyways to do that.

playing from the time i start the car to the time I stop the car, hard, medium soft, a constant combination leads to a slow starting car. its died a couple times, but nothing ever seious. a push start or quick jump, and a limp home with me kicking myself for never letting the battery charge! its only happened a couple times, and with over three times the power you are asking if tis okay to run!

a capacitor has th epotential to really do strange things to the electrical system. If you have a volt meter, you can see when the alternator kicks on or shuts off. in my car, a capacitor kept the alternator off till i was at about 3500 rpm. other people in here have professed no problems, but its definitely something to watch if you ever puchase one. they have their merits, so dont take this as an anti cap post!

the bottom line, is that with 1000 rms of class D power, with fully stock electricals, no big three, no cap, no nothing, youll be fine. your car will be "healthier" with small upgrades, but I cant run a six minute mile myself, and I feel plenty healthy.

 
Rep Power: 786

Good metaphor!

In my eyes, the big 3 is crucial, the theory behind this being that if you do not have a upgraded/additional wire from your alt to your bat, and then you have a 4awg (the size I run) from my battery to the amp, this creates a bottleneck in the system, make sense?

The grounds to me are not AS critical, I noticed that I only have a single ground cable that *seems* to lead to my chassis, couldn't tell exactly where it went because it disappeared under my intake, but in this case I think I will leave it.

 
Rep Power: 338

yeah its super short anyways.

 
Rep Power: 786

Anything else I should know?

 
Rep Power: 338

yep, dont trust anyones opinion, including mine, about the value of capacitors or batteries. everyone is full of BS< including me. its all data thats empirically derived in YOUR specific car. what happened to me might not happen to you with the addition of a cap or upgraded battery or secondary battery.

we cant tell you exactly what will happen if you get a new battery or add one, or add a cap, or add seven. anyone who does tell you what will happen is either repeating BS he heard from someone els,e or thats what happened to their car specifically.

there are basics to it, like how deep cycles are generally slower to respond than starting batteries, thus theoretically more prone to dimming problems, but even then, youll hear form people who ran deep cycles and had NO dimming after its installation (jsut start a thread in here asking what happened to peoples 7th gen's when they added a yellowtop replacing the battery up front)

so there are no absolutes. happy experimenting!

 
Rep Power: 786

Sure.. thanks for the advice

Since we are kidna on the topic though, what is your stance on caps?

I have one but I've heard mayn things. Do you have one in your civic and if so what kind of differences have you noticed with the cap and without?

Your apply is appreciated, although it will not be noted ;-)

 
Rep Power: 338

a cap in my car totally cured all dimming, i forget which brand it is, and its a pain in teh *** to take out (i actually tried tonight while building an amprack and failed) so i cant tell you what brand it is. anyways, its a two farad cap, and i was using it when i had about 2500-3000 rms of power in the car, 1500 rms of bass (class D) and 1500ish rms of class a/b power. dimming TOTALLY gone for me.

it was kind of strange though, because I had problems getting hte alternator to bump up to 14 volts. it would do it, but not like it used to. and certianly not based on battery charge, the thing died on me twice. pulled hte cap out, no issues.

I now have a second deep cycle in the trunk, but i havent hooked up the cap again. the SQ judge took points off my car last time because iof exposed wires, and i havent hidden them yet, so its not live.

so i cant tell you what effect it has in my car WITH the second deep cycle in the trunk.

furthermore, ive downgraded quantity of power, and now have 1600 rms, all class a/b. so dimming should be even less of an issue.

maybe.....

 
Rep Power: 786

Good to hear... even in my old car with a cap I had dimming... bad at times, worse at others. Hopefully it's a bit better in this car, but I guess all I can do is see how it goes