Well my battery died today, I thought my alternator was going cause when I had the radio,wipers and a/c on all at the same time the radio would just cut out and my rpm's would drop lower than normal .Also I have a 1500w amp and 2 12 inch subs, I just figured I would need a higher rated alternator to handle the extra current. The car is a 98 gs 400, with no leaks what so ever, (even the p/s pump leaking on the alternator). The battery is only a year old (previous owner told me, but no receipt) and is lexus oem. When I took my car in for the timing belt about a month ago I told them to check the charging system and they said it was all "within specs". I told them If i have all my accesories on that the radio cuts out. Well, as u guy's know he blamed it on the system. Well here's my problem....Should I try a new oem alternator and charge the oem battery, buy bolth new oem parts and have the stealer put them in or just buy a new battery and see how long it lasts. Either way I gotta go to the dealer cause of the loaner issue I need to get to work somehow. You guy's with audio equipment what are your set-up's running any help would be .....well ...helpfull Should I just buy the yellow top optima?

 

Anyone??????

 

I can't really comment personally on this, seems that I always put money into power and speed equipment. If a CD player plays cleanly through 4 basic speakers, that's good enough for me. I do know that my fellow car guys/gals up here that have gone with ultra high end stereo equipment. One of the first changes they make is a high output alternator along with a deep cycle battery. Good Luck...,

 

if the batterie is going bad put optima batterie. $130 bucks

 

blaise,

I've got roughly the same wattage (1000/1, 450/4) setup and don't have that problem. I did have a high current alternator, but believe the voltage regulator was bad and it ended up frying a couple of batteries.

I run an Optima and have two capacitors (caps - one for each amp) in my setup. No issues with cutouts like you have.

Start with the optima, then try putting caps inline.

 

thanx all Dave which optima??? red, yellow?? and how many cca? thanx Also what voltage regulator? The one inside the alternator??

 

If you have a banging system you will want a yellow top deep cycle. Its designed to take a lot more abuse. It also costs about $30-50 more than the redtop.

Deep cycle = yellowtop = can be drained loaded and charged up no problem
Starter Batt= redtop = more juice and can take more of a beating than a standard "flat plate" batt but still doesn't compare to yellow.

At least this is how it was in my experience. Correct me if im wrong.

 

Jeffsai, you're totally correct however the red top comes with a longer warranty- i believe 3 year and the yellow top comes with only a one year. if you're taxing your batteries that hard - it might be smarter to get the red top just in case...

i suggest a check up on the cable going to the battery post. mine was exhibiting some odd electrical behavior too and it ended up being the cable not being tightly fitted to the battery post.

c.

 

Thanx peeps.

 

This is a bit of a stretch but I just took my IS300 in yesterday because the car wasn't firing very healthy, ie it would start but just wasn't turning over as it normally does.
I've got 54K on the original battery and indeed there was a low cell in the battery. New OEM battery ran $81 and with install cost $110...(through toyota dealer that is, not lexus dealer)
I've also got the GS400 with 44K miles on it, but as to date no issues with that battery yet.