CS144 to solve battery mystery

[tyr0981]

okay, so lets keep this in simple watt's, actual power usage (and pretend they're on max all the time) : Amplifier 250W, p7700 MP stereo 88w RMS 200W Peak, DEI remote start alarm minimal draw all the time, 2 35W HID projectors, 6 LED off road lights 27W each, & 2 100W landing lights off road again, and rarely used.

so my total power consumption of my accessories is 35A (without the off road lights, rarely used) then the draw of what the engine uses, and i have some LED interior lights that replaced the Dome light & dash lights.

I do have a little bit of draw all the time.... but i start her up and drive nearly every single day so i thought even with that draw she should re-charge after start up, no?

 

[IBallEngineer]

so my total power consumption of my accessories is 35A (without the off road lights, rarely used) then the draw of what the engine uses, and i have some LED interior lights that replaced the Dome light & dash lights.

I do have a little bit of draw all the time.... but i start her up and drive nearly every single day so i thought even with that draw she should re-charge after start up, no?

Double check your math, though, I came up with 51 Amps at 13Volts without the offroad lights. Still...

You are exactly correct, what I have been saying from the beginning is that you need to solve the problem before upgrading anything. As we stated, and you are guessing, it appears your alternator is not up to par. You can have it tested on the car, or off the car. If it's bad, have it rebuilt or buy a quality replacement. If it's good, and your battery fails the test, you have really bad battery luck!

For the record I have 12 55W lights and 2 35W HID lights, and amp, CB, Scanner and DVD player, blah blah blah. I run it all off a 95 amp Delco. I pull 87 amps with the fan, headlights and all accessories on. At idle it is a struggle, but a little throttle and I'm all good.

 

[e46inperrycounty]

I always try to have more than ample electrical for any vehicle I run. To me, a $300 alternator is cheaper than running my accessories into low voltage, cooking an amp, killing a battery, and having to get a tow. The BMW shuts down below 10.9v. The ecu goes nuts and just hoebags the entire system. With that being said, having nearly double the Alt power from stock is never a bad thing. There is no such thing as too much Alt power (as far as amps, voltage can easily be too high and create other issues). They have a nice dual rectifier bridge setup for the cs144 and with a big boy stator you can get 350amps out of one. Anything under 100amps is walking a fine line when you start putting electrical accessories onto a vehicle. The 85amp rating of the factory Alt is probably cold at 2k rpm rated so at idle and hot it is probably much closer to 60 amps of output if that. With it being worn out a bit and getting weak you might find that you have less than 45-50 amps at idle. Also, if you run an 8awg power wire to your 250 watt jl amp, it will be dropping voltage at a much quicker rate per foot compared to 2awg. Starting at 13v and running 17-20 feet on cheap small wire your amp could be seeing as low as 11v. The jl amps have a regulated power supply so they put out rated wattage from10.5-14.8 volts. They just pull more current to make up for the low voltage. Long story short, your Alt is either not up to snuff, or you have the worst battery luck in the history of mankind having automobiles...

 

[tyr0981]

yeah my battery "luck" is pretty miserable, but it shouldn't be as bad as it is.... and this ALT has 260k miles on it! may not even be putting out 50A.

:roadkill:

 

[tyr0981]

replaced the ALT with the CS144 a few minutes ago, this is one STOUT Alternator!!! i noticed when i re-attached the battery cables there was 0 spark, unlike before there was always a small one... time will tell if this is the fix, but i'm charging @ 14.8 volts cold now! new record for me!

:girl:

 

[dgoll75]

replaced the ALT with the CS144 a few minutes ago, this is one STOUT Alternator!!! i noticed when i re-attached the battery cables there was 0 spark, unlike before there was always a small one... time will tell if this is the fix, but i'm charging @ 14.8 volts cold now! new record for me!

:girl:

Congrats bro. I remember that it sure was a great feeling how much it eased my mind after having been stuck w/ a dead batt a few times. Had no problems since the swap.