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Hey I got a 2003 civic and my sub died so I'm thinking of upgrading to a 15 inch 750 watt RMS subwoofer. My speakers are already 400 watts RMS, would my lights dim with this? If so what alternator should I buy?

 
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as long as you dont blast it full every moment of it's life, ur alternator will be fine.

i would look into getting a cap for ur sub. it'll help with ur light dimming if it starts happening

 
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I've read mixed reviews on sources that say capacitors are just like a band-aid for a car audio system. They say that even if you have a cap, your alternator still has to overwork to keep the cap from draining. That's if your blasting it a bunch but still, the drain is there. Any thoughts?

My lights dim at night, so this is an issue for me as well. Especially if the ELD doesn't recognize any additional load we put on our batteries right?

Oh and in response to OP. Check out "the 12 volt.com". they have a spreadsheet that tells you everything. You edit the spreadsheet to your specifications and it will tell you if your 70amp alt is enough or not and how to set gains etc...

 
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IMHO, Capacitors have no place in a car audio system.

1. Did you do the big 3? (And don't do it with like 00 gauge or something dumb, use 4ga with the stock alt).

2. Your alternator is likely not putting out enough voltage while your amps are on, you may want to augment the ELD in this fashion to compensate (and kick the alternator into high output when your amps are on): http://forum.sounddomain.com/ubbthre.../3#Post1806627

 
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you dont need a 15 inch sub you can make 10s sound like twelves and twelves sound like 15s if you set it up properly with the rite box.

 
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Duralast Gold Top with Electric130's "big three upgrade" bought on here. So your saying hook up a resistor or something to fool the ELD into thinking the bat is drained?

 
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I'm saying to use keep_hope_alive's schematic as-is. By being able to switch it on and off manually (like only when you're listening to your music loud), you can keep your lights from dimming and get peak performance when listening to your music. And by not running the alternator at high output 24x7, you won't be killing it prematurely (and losing HP when not listening to music, which our Civic's don't have much of in the first place).

 
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Right. I listen to the radio more than my own music and every once in awile a good song will come up and I'll wanna crank it up. Or when my car is loaded with people they wanna hear some jam's for awhile. I want it for those "certain moments" when in fact my alt SHOULD be charging my batt at 14.4 like any other vehicle should.lol. Thanks for the input green!

 
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Capacitors do help, a lot in fact, if you have a decent one.
But if you don't plan on upgrading your alt,
I'd look into a power cell (Like kinetik) as a second battery
It'd work 100x better than a standard cap

Honestly, I dont understand why people need 700w+ RMS in their civic
I have 300w RMS and it's already too loud
...though, I do want to upgrade to a JL 12W6

 
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Im thinking about upgrading my amp from its 361rms to a pioneer 600rms for the subs. Totaling to 900 watts rms on the car. I seriously don't think 900rms would call for a new alternator. I'm not gonna be blasting 24/7. But a cap will help for the peak notes I guess.

 
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CAPCELL. it's that easy.
used to have current draw problems. now i dont. stock alternator. two 12''s 3 amps. 1300 watts rms altogether. 2500 peak. here's one in my old car with an extra little 1/2 farad cap. lights stopped dimming, battery never died, nothing.
this was a power acoustic. 300 amp.

 
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the eld bypass is the best idea so far if you dont want to buy anything new.

 
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just do it big!
big 3. o guage, 3 amps, two 15''s, components, 1000amp capcell. amps are capable of 3900 watts rms altogether. subs are rated at 1000 rms each, speakers put out another 200 or so.
that's at least 2200 watts rms from the speakers. capcell prevents alt. drain.
whole civic on flex!!!

 
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To little, too late on this one. I already ordered and received my stuff this last THU and FRI. It will take till next monday to install it when I get my three day weekend coming soon...Brakes, sand caliper(maybe paint), door actuator, and car audio stuff. Stay tuned.

 
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good grief lol that a lot of serious stuff in there. is that a second battery in the back seat?

 
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I believe its one of those power cells with the LCD voltage monitors

7thgen, did u eventually get the power cell? or just bought a cap?

 
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whats up with your seat belts ??

 
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whos seatbelts? mine? not black cuz i gotta stock beige interior that i sprayed with duplicolor vinyl spray. doing the front doors soon. then lower part of the dash.

gearbox. its a capcell. combination of capacitor and power cell. www.soundstream.com

everything in the car is soundstream except the head unit(panasonic) and wires(streetwires).

 
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I totally agree with kenny there, the cap really helps with supplying a constant stream. I am also running only 250 watts rms and at like 70% volume my windows shake LOL. I dont understand the huge output either. But with the output Nusky wants I would get your alternator re-wound for a little better output, but thats just me being safe lol. If you didnt blast it you probably wouldn't have an issue. That being said, i have Electric130's big 3 upgrade kit and that alone helped overall with stabilizing the voltage a little better. As in i used to get a little bit of an idle fluctuation when i blasted music and ran all the electronics. Now its Smooooooooooth.