changing the stock power and ground wire to the battery

[seanjuan]

i was reading up on stereo installation and felt stupid that i didn't realize on my own that i should be running a new ground from the battery to the cars fram the same gauge as the power wire i'm running off of it
so i was looking at battery terminals to make a clean install for all of this and got to wondering what gauge wire is currently going to my battery from the alternator
i checked and it's 3awg
i was wondering if it would be a good or a bad idea to run either 2 or 1/0 gauge between the alternator and the battery and the same to ground the battery?
if i did do this i was just planning on using stereo power wire, would that be acceptable as well?


thanks
Sean

[Accord Man]

how many amps does your system use at peak power?

[seanjuan]

i know my sub amp draws about 15amps
the other two are are a little smaller

i would say that my amps draw about 35 to 45 amps when i'm listening to music

Sean

[Accord Man]

thats it??

in that case you dont need to touch your electrical system at all.. even with tiny alternator you have, you'll be fine..


ps, when you said 15a, are you giving me a fuse rating or actual amperage that the amp could use?

[seanjuan]

you are right, it's not a huge system
but i'm anal about it, not so anal that i had to buy all brand name top of the line components... but anal enough

my sub amp is a Kenwood kac-718 and at 4ohm has an RMS rating of 120watts
the manual says that it draws 15amps, i don't remember what size fuse it has

my other amps are Rockford Fosgate punch 100z2's
each of them are 25watts X 2 channel RMS
i'm not sure how much current they draw but i would guess it's less than the kenwood

i have a 4awg cable running to my trunk that goes into a distrubution block and 8awg running to each amp
each amp is grounded with 8awg
the stock wiring off the battery is 3awg coming from the alternator and 6awg going to the underhood fusebox
i'm not sure of the size of the battery's ground wire, but i know it is no bigger than 3awg

i just thought that for the sake of keeping things equal that you should have the same gauge wire grounding your battery as the gauge you are running off of it

i agree that it is probably a little unecessary but would it hurt anything to replace the stock wire that goes from the alternator to the battery? or the stock battery ground?

thanks
Sean

[Accord Man]

it wouldnt hurt anything, but it wouldnt do you any good..


so if you wanna do it, go ahead, but washing your car, would be time better spent.

[seanjuan]

you are probably right
but since i only wash my car when i want it to rain the next day.... (because it always happens that way, DAMNIT!!!)
maybe i'll do this when i want a couple of sunny days to come along

thanks for the input though

Sean

[Accord Man]

no prob..

I know your car like the back of my hand, so if you got any tuff ones, ask away!

[seanjuan]

since you offered i'll shoot another ? at you

i'm pretty sure that once i get the screws out of the door panel all i have to do is pull and it will pop off because there are just a few tension clips holding it on then... but i hate when i'm wrong about stuff like that and don't want my door panel half falling off once i get my new speakers in

also i'm running new speaker wire into each door and wires to control my power locks from my car alarm... would you recoment taking the door off of the hinges to do this?
that is my current plan because i think i'll have to drill a whole for the speaker wire to go through (i'll use a rubber gromet and some silicon or hotglue or something to seal it once i'm done of course)

thanks again
Sean

[Accord Man]

for installing the speakers in the doors, you dont need to remove the entire panel.. you could just take of the speaker grill.


try to avoid taking off the door, if you must, then do it, but often when reinstalling doors, unpleasant surprises appear.

[seanjuan]

the reason that i need to take the door panel off is because i'm installing components and plan on flush mounting the tweeters
and i want to run new speaker wire all the way into the door because the stock wiring is crap

anyway, i'll try to figure a way to do it without taking off the door
because again you are right, and i know that things like that never go quite as you would hope

later
Sean