so back in "the day" (about 8 years ago) i bought myself 2 10" Jl Audio w3 and a DEI amp i believe was 150x2 rms,....i had flickering headlights when the bass hit and about 2 months later my dash lights started flickering and the car didnt want to stay running,......i popped the hood and the alternator was smoking. Sold the system because i was a broke ass and didnt have money for a new alternator. Told myself I would never get another amp and that was not even a big amp for crying outloud and the car was relatively new so its not like it was old.,...but now i want some polk audio componenets and would need an amp. Am i asking for trouble again??? What the hell was the issue with that system i had?? I imagine i would need a 2 channel amp that is about 100 rms which is not much smaller than the one i had.

 

components dont put such a strain on the alternator as a sub would.
you should be fine

 

amps aren't bad, mmmkay?

 

they why was my alternator smoking?

 

alternator sucked on that car

 

or could've just been going bad, there could've other problem that exacerbated the situation, etc.

 

ive never heard of an amp destroying an alternator, sounds like your alternator was just going bad.

 

really??? then youve never ran a real powerful system.

The alternator only puts out so many amps. And when the car audio amp pulls so much juice that the alternator has to work hard and put extreme wear on it. Eventually it will cause the alternator to go out.
Thats why in bigger systems people are recommended to upgrade there alternator.
We just put a big system in a ford truck. 4 Subwoofers and 3 amplifiers. His alternator keeps dying every couple of months.
Of course we suggest a high amp alternator but the customer doesn't want to do that because he has a great warrenty on his alternator and he just takes it to get replaced for free every couple of months lol.

Most people will never get to this point even with 2 amps; most of the time you will be fine.

I agree with the other statements above, that there alternator was probully going bad already and you just happened to top it off by adding the amp.

 

I've owned more than 10 cars with systems ranging from 500watts to 3000watts of high end audio equipment. I have never burned up an alt before, dimming lights, yes but they make capacitors to help with that issue. The main thing I do that makes a quality setup is using the right power wire up to 500 Watts 4GA anything over that I run 1/0 this truely makes a difference for you system.

 

lol running thicker wire isn't gonna save an alternator, granted your right, you DO have to run the right power wire..
So to humor myself, if you dont need a new alternator why do they make a high power one..

And really did you just mentions caps lol enough said.
any person that says caps help lol hasn't done enough car audio in there lifetime (no disrespect intended)..
Caps dont do much... (maybe in low end systems to help but in any high end system you wont notice a difference with a cap) Caps are not batterys, they store energy and let it go all at once.. and then recharge, in a high end system your drawing so much power caps cant recharge........................

I have been doing this in a SHOP for years.. not your typical diy person...
Trust me you just havent ran a high end system.
Any person running over 2500 RMS for just subs will know what im talking about.
Let me give you an example say the alternator gives a max of 150amps out..
With a 2500 RMS amp you will be running more then 200amps to it, so just with that amp you are maxing out the alternator (dont forget it take more amps just to run the car)
NOW there are exceptions to this, it also depends on how loud and how much you play your system. IF you dont play it that loud or for that long then obviously your not going to pull that kind of power from the alternator....
SO that being said most people even the ones with high end car audio dont play it that loud.. (i dont know why lol)
Like I said in my posts above, 95% of car audio you will never see a blown alternator, its only in the high end systems...
Now some people cheat by running a second battery or just a bigger better one overall..

BUT were off topic, the the orignal poster..

YES you can run an amp you will be fine... lol