Do i need to get a high power alternator put into my 97 pontiac sunfire?

Chad Clemons

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well I have 2 12 inch l7 kickers (750 rms each) and a kicker 1500 watt class d amp. My lights flicker pretty bad and my pioneer cd player resets when i turn it up to loud. Do i need to upgrade my alternator?
 
you might, but you could probably get away with replacing the fuse thats in the back of youre head unit(cd player) with one that is 5 to 10 amps bigger (the one thats in it now is probably a 10-15, try going to a 20 or even a 25 amp fuse)
you may also need to replace the actual fuse that is in the fuse panel. just try the same thing, go up 5-10 amps..

on a side note: you should also have a capacitor if you do not. it will help your electrical system in general..
 
Do not increase the sizes of fuses. They are those values for a reason - safety. The reason your deck resets is that during loud kicks and heavy low frequency sounds, the amp draws huge amount of current from the electrical system, ultimately dropping your car system's voltage, to a level low enough that the deck shuts off, and when the voltage returns to normal, the deck turns back on. If you do not have a capacitor (typically, 1 Farad in size) I'd recommend getting one installed. The capacitor helps by providing the additional current to supplement the current drawn by the amp during those hard loud kicks. I am not sure if a higher capacity alternator is available for the sunfire (but checking with auto parts stores should yield some findings)
 
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