Hey everyone long time no post. I recently started losing power in my car and come to figure out it was the alternator. After ordering a new one from LKQ and taking out the old one when doing so i noticed the connection from the battery to the alternator was completely corroded. Pretty much it turned to dust after black dust after I removed it. Took my old alternator to parts store and It's actually still working so I am sitting on two alternators most likely will return the other one. I stripped off the bad connection from the wire going to the alternator and I am thinking of crimping the wires together or using a butt connector to reconnect it to the alternator but my question is should I replace the hole wire going back to the battery or is it ok to just use the wire that's already in place?

Oh yea and also took off my entire belt from the pulleys so putting it back is going to be another fun mission another things I have never done so wish me luck.

 

Soldering would be better but if you use butt connectors I would be sure to cut back the wire a bit to have nice clean wire before using them. And some silicone to water proof them.

Here is a fantastic DIY on removing and replacing the alternator. It tells you all about replacing the belt.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...lternator.html

 

They make some butt connectors that have a covering of shrink tubing on them. I've see them at Home Depot. Use this type of connector and then seal the connection by heating the shrink tubing. I would also pack the connecting wires or the inside of the connector with silicon BEFORE putting it together. Then when you heat he shrink tubing the inside will also be sealed and packed in silicone. You obviously had either a bad connection or corrosion there before and I'm trying to prevent this from happening again.

 

Totally awesome DIY!

 

I would replace the wire with a heavier gauge and with the good heat shrink connectors .

 

The main voltage wire from alternator to battery is simple. Go to an audio shop and grab a length of 4, 2, or 0 gauge wire and connectors

I had to cut/narrow my 0 guage connecter on the alternator side to fit it inside the "cup" of the alternator terminal

When I had all 3 subs in my car, it let the bass keep up much better. before doing 0 gauge I had blown my 80amp fuse. Afterwards, I never did, and I even replaced one of the amps with a larger one.

Voltage makes a huge difference in how your car runs and reacts

 

Voltage never changes with wire size. And any attempt to raise your voltage will instantly be negated by the internal voltage regulator and the ELD working in concert. Amperes are a different story.

 

For a given current, a smaller wire will have a greater voltage drop. Ohm's law and all that. The voltage regulation circuitry may compensate, at least to some degree, but there is a voltage difference between the alternator and the battery that is affected by (and caused by) the wire size.

 

And how much is this increase? Plug it in yourself to the formula if the normal wire had 6 ohms resistance and your new wire has 5 the result will be not noticeable at all and not even going to be able to measure the difference in voltage with a normal multimeter it is so small a difference.

No doubt about it the voltage regulator WILL negate anything higher than it's stock normal setting this time and every time that is what it's there for to regulate the voltage.

 

Found one of many sites for calculating and for ONE THOUSAND FEET of 16 gauge wire the voltage drop is a MINISCULE 0.3675 volts. If you increase the wire size to 10 gauge the drop is 0.09150 over one thousand feet.

Do the math for maybe 3 feet of wire the difference is 0.276 at 1000 feet or a whopping difference of 0.000828 volts in 3 feet.

Note the three zeros after the decimal point still think changing it makes a determinable difference?

And the resistance change is even more laughable for 1000 feet and 16 gauge copper wire it is a HUGE 0.01225 ohms or for three feet 0.00003675 (note the FOUR zeros)

And for 10 gauge 0.00305 at 1000ft. For 3 feet is is 0.00000915

For a reduction of 0.0000276 ohms going from 3 feet of 16 gauge wire to 3 feet of 10 gauge wire.

Still thinking it will make a bit of difference??? Note the 4 zeros after the decimal point.

Do it yourself here Wire Resistance and Voltage Drop Calculator

 

Regardless of what you post or find online, I have hard evidence of benefits NOTICABLE to everybody.

When I still had my 3 subs, I had a bassline track I could play that slowly moved through the bass frequencies, starting at 250 and moving down.

Various other tracks were specific frequencies so you could accuratley measure power drain, verify if the subs were stressed, etc..

Great tool in itself.


I did my amperage and voltage testing, and I found that when I added a zero gauge wire to the alternator>battery connection, I GAINED 1.2 volts AT the amp WHEN it was DRAWING POWER

I found that when I used my 80amp fuse, I would rev the car to around 1000 rpm. Whenever I let it down to idle, it would blow the 80 amp fuse

With the zero gauge it NEVER blew that fuse.




Did that online calculator tell you HEAT increases RESISTANCE? that the tiny OEM wire was getting COOKED.

 

You fail to note what voltage and amperage you were using during this calculator

Makes a huge difference. The more stress on a connection, the more difference you will find regardless of the size or quality of the connection

 

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...piaa-horn.html

On the link above, you will find my DIY on how I replace the wiring and especially the WIRE TERMINAL with aftermarket Monster Cable Terminal that can fit to the tight terminal on your battery alternator yet had the capacity to accept very large wire.

This modification is cheap and for sure will upgrade your factory main charging system plus it is also safe since I add fuse block.

Good Luck

 

What current are you assuming?

Ohm's law is usually expressed as E=IR, or voltage (in Volts) = current (in Amps) times resistance (in Ohms). Power (in Watts) is obtained by multiplying the voltage (in Volts) times the current (in Amps); for the power dissipated by a wire, the voltage in question would be the voltage drop across the wire. Combining the two formulae, you can also compute the power as the current squared times the resistance.

16 AWG wire, according to my chart, has a resistance of about 4 ohms per 1000 feet, or 0.012 ohms for a three-foot section. Assuming a charging current of 100A (which is probably a bit more than the stock Fit alternator ever produces), this is a voltage drop of 1.2 V—hardly negligible. The wire is dissipating 120 watts of power, and so getting very toasty. Put in other units, one-sixth of a horsepower is being used up by the wire alone in this scenario.

0 AWG wire has 0.1 ohms per 1000 feet, or 0.0003 ohms for a three-foot section, and a voltage drop of 0.3 volts at 100A. This is much more reasonable, and the wire is only dissipating 30 watts.

In general, of course, the alternator will be producing a fair bit less current, and the voltage drop and power wastage will be correspondingly lower in both cases. Nevertheless, the wire size still does have a measurable impact. If the voltage control circuitry is measuring the output voltage at the battery, rather than at the alternator terminal, then the voltage drop in the wire will be compensated for in the alternator output, causing the alternator to work harder. I don't know exactly how the Fit's electrical system is wired up in this regard.

This is also why it's vitally important to have a solid connection between the wire and the terminals for high-current applications. Even a relatively minuscule resistance can cause a fair bit of power to be dissipated in a physically small area, leading to high localized heating and all sorts of problems.

 

Thanks for the ideas I actually watcged that video before attempting it didn't run into any problems while removing just a tight squeeze. So by the looks of it it seems safe to use the butt connector then I will seal it wrap it up in black tape and should be good from there. I just wonder why the wire was so corroded as it was and if anything other wires are like that now. Never seen a wire turn to dust just caught me by surprise.

 

My local autoshop butts are to small so I will have to check the home depot or Lowes will get back to everyone when I finish up hopefully tommorow. Too hot in Florida to be riding on my shadow everyday.

 

Maybe because of the material of the wire cable and the material of the connector had incompatibility,
you know when some metal attached to another different metal,
one of them will tend to corrode faster...

 

Hmm will keep that in mind I think the car sitting for a long time and riding around without a under carriage cover might have something to do with it as well forgot I had sold my beatrush underpanel and put the stock back on for a while.

 

Disclaimer: I have no connection what so ever with that conversion site. There are a multitude of them if you search wire voltage drop charts. Pick one and plug in any numbers you are curious about.


Both the internal regulator and ELD regulate how much output the alternator is producing any time and all the time and ANY amount over stock specs will be negated by the alternator producing LESS so the MINISCULE amounts we are talking about are compensated for by them both and the resultant gain is a net ZERO.

If you guys looked at the chart all the questions about how it was calculated were right there for you viewing pleasure it lists 13.8 I think volts and 60 amps (stock Fit Specs) among others to do the calculations.

If you want to believe fairy tales and anecdotal "stories" about claimed results be my guest. I have presented you with evidence and you just want to ignore it because it doesn't confirm your SWAGS.

If you go back and look I did say HEAT REDUCTION was the only benefit.

Believe what you want I tried to educate you people but you are so stuck on this you wouldn't believe it if moses came down from the mount and presented you evidence on stone tablets.

But all of you are missing the major boat as it goes along with your "need" to add/change grounds for no particular result.

The problem is the battery and it's attendant circuits and grounds are for two conditions ONLY..........

condition one: to supply the power to turn the starter motor.

condition two: to power the vehicle's accessories when THE ENGINE ISN'T RUNNING.

That is it period full stop.

Any time the engine is running (fast enough for the alternator to be producing 13.2 overcome voltage) the battery circuit is redundant and the only use is recharging the battery.

I will say it again for the non-believers when the engine is running the ALTERNATOR AND ONLY THE ALTERNATOR is supplying electrical current to the vehicle's systems. The battery is just a lump sitting there going along for the ride.

So all the "O so special" grounding kits that attatch to the battery are effectively doing nothing.

Al power and groundings go back to the alternator no matter where they originate.

Now I'm sure I can see smoke coming from the ears of the less familiar with this subject members but once again I will provide all you doubters with a simple two minute method of proving it to yourselves as that would be the only way you MIGHT believe it.

Now I said the battery is redundant when the alternator is turning and producing power so we need a visual simple method of proving that for the doubters right.

It couldn't be easier. One 10 mm nut sized wrench is all it will take and you can do it by yourself in the privacy of your own garage.

All one must do is start your car equipped with an alternator then simply remove one OR BOTH battery cables at the battery.

Nice and easy and guess what the engine will continue to run just fine with no battery connection WHAT SO EVER.

I can see the steam from here so give it a try and get back to me.

I have no need to do it again as I have done this many many times as it is a normal procedure for checking the diodes in altenator charging system vehicles.

 

So what you are saying is my MEASURED improvements are nothing more then my imagination?

With better grounding I got improved subwoofer performance on the music side, and I got a significant reduction in headlight flicker whenever the AC was turned on or the cooling fan kicked on.

and of course what I described with the subwoofer power draw at specific frequency and the 1.2 volt difference.....




I think you are being stubborn. I sincerely dont care what you post, I believe the results I dealt with and the improvements outway anything ANYONE could ever post saying otherwise.


Physical proof is always better then online information