stereo killed alternator

tanto · Post by **tanto** » 17 May 2005, 22:24

hi to all
my car stereo seems to have killed the alternator in my xantia all was well untill i cranked up the volume shortly afterwards the alternator warning light came on and alternator was not pushing the right voltage it is a sony headunit and cd changer 4x45w it ran fine for weeks right up until i cranked up the volume have now replaced the alternator and is running fine but no fun with stereo on lower volume
why did it kill the alternator and how do i stop it from happening again

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 17 May 2005, 22:27

Probably just coincidence
Stewart

tanto · Post by **tanto** » 17 May 2005, 22:32

i am surprised that a forum of this size does not have a dedicated I.C.E section

wilkobob · Post by **wilkobob** » 17 May 2005, 22:48

Its more likely that the alternator was on its way, cranking up the volume used up some more power, and in the process, the alternator gave up. Are you sure your battery is ok? If its not holding charge properly it could cause problems. The stereo wouldnt kill the alternator, probably just blow a fuse, so dont be affraid to turn it up!

tanto · Post by **tanto** » 17 May 2005, 22:53

brand new battery couple of weeks ago as stated it was only after pumping the volume up that the alternator died

Post by **Peter.N.** » 17 May 2005, 23:17

4 x 45 watts only equates to a load of about 20 amps, your alternator should be good for about 80 amps so as previously said "coincidence"

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 17 May 2005, 23:34

I'm in line with the general opinion here - coincedence.
No stereo can kill an alternator - not even a 4x500W streetbanger.
(but it CAN make the engine stall at idle [:p] )
There is no ICE forum as the man in charge onboard has quite enough to do [;)]

Mosser · Post by **Mosser** » 18 May 2005, 02:53

My stereo in my Xantia pulls just over 110 amps when i crank the volume right up, if i run it for more than 20 minutes at that sort of volume then my headlights start to dim and the engine runs a bit rough, but i know to just turn the volume down then, only ever happens at night when the headlights are on too, in the day its fine

Robin · Post by **Robin** » 18 May 2005, 02:58

Mosser, if we SHOUT really loud can you hear us? What on earth do you want 110 amps of amplified power for in a car?
If this is the kind of volume that disturbs the peace and general quiet in our village every night from cars driving through with bass and volume up high then I personally think it should be illegal. Which it possibly is under the environmental legislation in existance.
Sorry no sympathy Mosser from this quarter. Robin.

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 18 May 2005, 03:20

Those won't be RMS amps, they'll be mpo or pmpo or whatever else marketing scheme could be dreampt up. My stereo is supposed to be 4x45w, in reality it's more like 22w.I've seen little sets of computer speakers rated at ridiculous ratings, mine are rated at 62.5W RMS and are a pretty big set, when I see smaller sets rated at 800W it does make one chuckle.

Sl4yer · Post by **Sl4yer** » 18 May 2005, 03:26

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Robin</i>

Mosser, if we SHOUT really loud can you hear us? What on earth do you want 110 amps of amplified power for in a car?
If this is the kind of volume that disturbs the peace and general quiet in our village every night from cars driving through with bass and volume up high then I personally think it should be illegal.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Actually, it is illegal Robin. But as usual the police can't be bothered, unless they happen to pull alongside one at lights.
I'd have them all pulled, then prosecuted if they don't have correct insurance on their (usually heavily modified) cars.
As for an ICE forum, there is probably one on the Max Power website.

James.UK · Post by **James.UK** » 18 May 2005, 05:46

I seem to recall that they changed the way they described the output on amplifiers when I was playing keyboard round the clubs many years ago..
The new small amps were being rated at twice the output I was using. But when I tried them they were very poor compared to those I already had, in fact my Quad hifi out performs most of them, and its about 15 years old now! [:D]
.

Post by **RichardW** » 18 May 2005, 12:39

110 Amps? That's 1.3 kW!! You won't need to worry if your heater matrix packs up, just bypass it and turn the amp on to generate plenty of heat....

Post by **Peter.N.** » 18 May 2005, 13:48

If that's what it does to your car's power supply, what's it doing to you ears!.....Pardon?
Output power used to be measured by RMS (root means square) which measures the average power, now its the peak power which is often quoted and they are substantially different!

ActivaV6uk · Post by **ActivaV6uk** » 18 May 2005, 14:36

Not that I am saying this is a good idea but the ICE in my 2.1 can put out 100 wats RMS X4 (max 200 wats RMS per chanel at 2 ohmes) and 2x 600 wats RMS (1300whats RMS max at a 1 ohm load which means this amp isn't having to work hard to produce the 600 wats RMS) the resoning behind it is that the music plays very clearly at any level but the quality is amazing (very good quality amps). however io have an in line powercap with each amp and i would be amased if my system ever gets used very heigh at all as i'm only interested in sound quality and not SPL (ime using 2 8" subs rather than anything bigger as car subs especialy big ones dont have the reaction time to be any good at producing undistorted music). Doing some general math this works out to 2KW MP and 4KW PMOP. The thing you have to do with something like this is just to be sensible no one wants to hear thump thump thump going down the road and often if every one out side the car can hear it well your losing sound from in the car too so your not getting the best out of it. make sure you also wire in a kill switch for the amps and the sub seperatly as it can help with electical problems and you cna turn the subs off in the evening.
Ive got a Full in car PC to build here and ive still not botherd! shamefull considering its all paid for and ready to go!
Andy