Not enough battery power?

[FEINT]

I have a 2009 Yaris 1.5 Manual (I live in Japan, so they are called Vitz RS here) and I am looking at running 2 amplifiers. I have been advised that the Vitz battery might not be able to take the load and I will lose power to head lights etc???

I am planning on running a 2 channel for the fronts and a monoblock for the sub. If that is too much for the little Yaris, then I will revert to a large 4 channel and bridge 2 of the channels.

On a side note: any body know the mounting depth for 6.5" components? WIll it hit the glass of the window when window is down?

Thanks guys.

[Spades]

ok, on the amps...it depends on how many watts they are. for almost 3 years i have been running about 1600 watts worth of amplifiers as well as the stereo deck itself.

i am running a 2 farad cap and the factory charging system and battery. no dimming headlights or anything. make sure you get a cap if you are planning on more than a few hundred watts of stereo goodies.

as far as the speakers, you will probably have to buy or make a spacer plate for even a slim mount component speaker. my infinity component 6.5's needed a .5 inch spacer to fit in my sedan.

the main thing is, buy a 2 farad cap...and dont plan on getting HID headlights or a deep cycle battery if you want your car to start every time. underdrive pullys are also not a good idea.

i blare my system even right before i shut the car off with headlights on, and the battery has taken the abuse for almost 3 years and going strong.

[FEINT]

Thanks for the detailed response.

My car has HID's. So looks like I need that 2 farad capacitor. Thanks for the advice!

I read that the maximum depth for mounting the front speakers are 58mm, would you say that is about right? I haven't bought my components yet, so I would like to buy something that will FIT! Or require a small spacer. I wouldn't want them protruding out too much that the door skin doesn't fit.

Instead of starting a new thread, where / how did you get the power cable through the firewall?

Did you re-wire the door speakers to the headunit or did you just use the factory wiring?

Sorry for the heap of questions. I am still waiting to take delivery on the car, so I am just preparing all the goodies that are going to go in! :) So excited!

[wsladaritz]

I'm running two amps also. A 4 channel for my speakers and a mono for my sub. Adds u to about 1200 or 1300 watts I believe. Got a yellow top battery and a 2 farad cap on my mono amp. My lights still dim just a little bit sometimes... The water line is on the right side of the fire wall... I think that is where I pushed my power wire through. I used the stock speaker wires. Cut them behind the radio, added speaker wire to and from the amp and back to that same spot. I think it would be an unnecessary pain to try to run new wires through the doors. Go check crutchfield for fitting on the speakers. Good luck with your install man! And welcome to YARISWORLD!

[fuji]

One thing that may help is "the big 3". This is a mod which is very popular on other car audio forums. If you google it there are several tutorials. The bottom line is it greatly improves your grounding system. If your gounding system is a bottleneck, your system does not sound its best. Some also claim it takes away some of the stress on the overall electrical system.

If you look at the wire that connects the chassis to the negative terminal of the battery it is very small. I only upgraded the ground wire from the negative terminal to the chassis and the throttle response improved.

If you just want to do the "Big 1", get approx a 6-8" run of flexible 4 gauge or 0 gauge power cable(get it from www.knukonceptz.com). Make sure it is nice and flexible. Get two ring terminals(Again from Knu) that use little allen screws to tighten them down. This way you can adjust if it is too short or long. Do not remove the stock wire, just add the additional grounding wire to the stock location. Another thing you may want to consider is some light sanding of the chassis where the ground wire connects. There is paint and you should be in contact with the metal itself.

[The Architect]

hey spades, i havent been to oregon and dont really know the weather there but I imagine it gets pretty cold, has your battery seen 0-20 degree or so weather for extended periods of time?

If so what are your car audio listening habits...always listening when in car and fairly loud..or quiet or not that often.

I only ask because i only first saw any negative effects from my yellow top when it was put in cold weather and your setup seems to be pretty similar to mine with the exception of the battery.

[Spades]

it does get below 20 degrees where i live in the winter. we see alot of 30ish temps during the winter overnight, and i leave for work early in the morning. i start my car, and i listen to most of my music at 3/4 volume. i dont not let the car recharge the battery before shutting the car off, and i am VERY abusive to it. i listen to rap,rock,techno, and oldies. my system info is in my garage. but yeah, the cap and grounding system and a full ground wire to the back of the car are the only helpfull mods done to the car.

deep cycle batteries are no good in the cold, also, you have HID's and a under drive pully, i dont have those...

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by The Architect

hey spades, i havent been to oregon and dont really know the weather there but I imagine it gets pretty cold, has your battery seen 0-20 degree or so weather for extended periods of time?

If so what are your car audio listening habits...always listening when in car and fairly loud..or quiet or not that often.

I only ask because i only first saw any negative effects from my yellow top when it was put in cold weather and your setup seems to be pretty similar to mine with the exception of the battery.

Spades is just outside of the portland area... The area generally doesn't get "cold" (tho back in december it did get really icy for awhile)... there's a mountain range (the cascades)... once you get to/and past them it gets cold... basically you have a rainy side, and a dry side of the state. Washington is the same.



I drove a mazda 626 with a optima blue top for at least 4 winters. Temps as low as -20F, never had a problem starting the car. I also had a VERY NICE car stereo. At times I ran as much as 400watts rms to my speakers, and 1600rms to my sub. Deep cycles are fine as long as you keep them charged.

[Spades]

the last few winters have been colder than normal. its not as cold as the midwest or eastern oregon, but we still see alot of below 30 degree weather when i am trying to start my car in the morning for work. might not be sub 20 degree weather all winter, but, i dont live in florida either.

my statement, is that if you run a cap and no underdrive pully, no HID's or other taxing things like power inverters ect, and you are running the factory battery and around 1000watts of audio gear, it will last a few years in moderate climates.

P.S. I have no problem with deep cycles for the type of people that turn their stereo off 5 minutes before they shut off the engine and toss a charger on the battery at least once a week...but for someone like me that flogs his system with the lights on and doesnt turn the stereo down before you kill the car, and also never has hooked up a battery charger to the car in 3 years...deep cycles are no good.

[FEINT]

Ok, i am back. I have been busy and haven't logged in.

anybody know the maximum mounting depth in the door panesl? WOuld lets say 71mm be too deep??

Originally Posted by fuji

One thing that may help is "the big 3". This is a mod which is very popular on other car audio forums. If you google it there are several tutorials. The bottom line is it greatly improves your grounding system. If your gounding system is a bottleneck, your system does not sound its best. Some also claim it takes away some of the stress on the overall electrical system.

If you look at the wire that connects the chassis to the negative terminal of the battery it is very small. I only upgraded the ground wire from the negative terminal to the chassis and the throttle response improved.

If you just want to do the "Big 1", get approx a 6-8" run of flexible 4 gauge or 0 gauge power cable(get it from www.knukonceptz.com). Make sure it is nice and flexible. Get two ring terminals(Again from Knu) that use little allen screws to tighten them down. This way you can adjust if it is too short or long. Do not remove the stock wire, just add the additional grounding wire to the stock location. Another thing you may want to consider is some light sanding of the chassis where the ground wire connects. There is paint and you should be in contact with the metal itself.

Fantastic idea, thank you. I will do that. Just add a few more 4 or 2 gauge cables to the grounding system. Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by wsladaritz

I'm running two amps also. A 4 channel for my speakers and a mono for my sub. Adds u to about 1200 or 1300 watts I believe. Got a yellow top battery and a 2 farad cap on my mono amp. My lights still dim just a little bit sometimes... The water line is on the right side of the fire wall... I think that is where I pushed my power wire through. I used the stock speaker wires. Cut them behind the radio, added speaker wire to and from the amp and back to that same spot. I think it would be an unnecessary pain to try to run new wires through the doors. Go check crutchfield for fitting on the speakers. Good luck with your install man! And welcome to YARISWORLD!

Thanks for that. I realised that there is a space under teh rear seat, is that where you have your amp placed?

Thanks for the warm welcome. I will post up photos of the install once i take delivery of the car. I am just acquiring my audio gear now.

I got a

-alpine CDA-9886 head unit
-eaudio 480ab 4 channel amp (no rear speaker, but 200+ RMS / channel bridged)
-Sub still looking. Looking for a SQ sub.
-Components still looking.. any suggestions? I heard the focal 165 krx2's and they sound very nice.

I live in Japan, and I usually buy off Ebay or Amazon as its cheaper, than locally. Anybody here know where else I can buy speakers? There isn't much Rainbow, Focal stuff on Ebay that will ship to Japan for a reasonable amount.

Thanks guys!

[wsladaritz]

I've heard great things about focal. Haven't actually gotten to use any yet. I haven't built very many systems yet, so I don't know the best for SQ but i've got 3 JL 10's in a sealed box. I've gotten tons of compliments on them and I think they sound amazing! So I would say go with JL. But I know there are other opinions out there. Heard alot of good things about Alpine type R also, might look into that.

My sub amp is mounted on top of the sub box. My 4 channel speaker amp is mounted under passenger seat. I can get some pics if your interested in seeing the placement.

I have a 3dr so not sure about space under the back seat.

[FEINT]

I just realised that space under the rear seat will disappear once I fold the seats down. Won't fit an amp under that. So looks like passenger + drivers seats.

:)

[Spades]

there will be a jack under one of the seats (in japan, its the passenger seat, right?) so you will have to relocate that if you want to put a amp under there. i am running one of my amps under my passenger seat at the moment, the other is set up on my sub box in the trunk.

[FEINT]

I have one last question. How many watts RMS can the stock electrical system produce?

To put it in another way, I have a 1500w RMS amp and I listen to SQ not SPL. The amp was cheap second hand, so I bought it. I don't intend on using it at that level, but its hard to find 1 ohm stable amps here. IF I use it at lets say 50%, will it draw 750w from the car or the complete 1500w?

[FEINT]

Originally Posted by camelll

I have had a yellow top for a few years now and I live in the mid west and we see below zero temps with and without the windchill but generally we see single digits without the windchill constantly throughout the winter and I have never had a problem with my car starting up. I don't constantly beat my system, when I do it is usually only while driving on the interstate or on highways and rarely while in town driving.

I am running 1 jl audio 500/1 v2 and 1 jl audio 300/4 v2 and a pioneer avic d3 and a 15 stinger farad cap. I had dimming issues before I installed the cap but not after. Then a few months later I bought a yellow top and don't have any problems with the electrical. I also have a ebay grounding kit.

HOLY **** is that a BLitz Super charger? Very nice by the way.

I will be running a mono-block at 1ohm 1500w RMS + 4 channel amp bridged at 2 x 240w RMS. So that is a good 2000wRMS there. I am just worried that it exceeds the cars standard electrical capacity and further upgrades are required. however, if the amps only draw what they need then I could be ok as might only require half of what is on tap.

I guess I will also need a cap and eventually a yellow top. I will be getting one of those ebay grounding kits.

[The Architect]

All ive heard from HO alt makers is that currently a HO alt simply cannot be made for a 2007 yaris (and later id imagine) due to its square pin wiring inside. Id like to believe that the guys are wrong but....thats what they do for a living and the yaris isnt the only car with this sort of HO alternator issue.

Ive been thinking about grabbing one of those nifty ebay grounding kits but idk lol...is it worth it?

[FEINT]

I think the below might be better than an ebay grounding kit. I will probably due this instead.

I am trying to stay away from installing a new amp. I was really hoping to run what I have off the stock electrical system. I will give it a go, if I can't, will need to get a Yellow top.

Originally Posted by fuji

One thing that may help is "the big 3". This is a mod which is very popular on other car audio forums. If you google it there are several tutorials. The bottom line is it greatly improves your grounding system. If your gounding system is a bottleneck, your system does not sound its best. Some also claim it takes away some of the stress on the overall electrical system.

If you look at the wire that connects the chassis to the negative terminal of the battery it is very small. I only upgraded the ground wire from the negative terminal to the chassis and the throttle response improved.

If you just want to do the "Big 1", get approx a 6-8" run of flexible 4 gauge or 0 gauge power cable(get it from www.knukonceptz.com). Make sure it is nice and flexible. Get two ring terminals(Again from Knu) that use little allen screws to tighten them down. This way you can adjust if it is too short or long. Do not remove the stock wire, just add the additional grounding wire to the stock location. Another thing you may want to consider is some light sanding of the chassis where the ground wire connects. There is paint and you should be in contact with the metal itself.

[sqcomp]

Here are pics of a big 3 install on a 2007 Yaris S Sedan:

Frame ground point from alternator:



Frame ground termination from alternator:



Alternator ground source ground:



Transmission to frame 1/0 gauge ground cable with compression fittings:



Transmission to frame ground (this is shot looking up from under the car):



Battery negative to frame ground:



I hope these pics help.