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yes. Battery is used to start the car, the alternator is used to provide the rest of the electricity for everything else
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yes. Battery is used to start the car, the alternator is used to provide the rest of the electricity for everything else
What if the electricity the alternator generated is not enough to keep up with the car's equipment? Will the battery be used then? On my Camry, the engine raraly stay above 2000 rpm, I don't think it's enough to keep up.
What if the electricity the alternator generated is not enough to keep up with the car's equipment? Will the battery be used then? On my Camry, the engine raraly stay above 2000 rpm, I don't think it's enough to keep up.
If that were the case, your battery would constantly be dying.
Your battery is very rarely used when driving. If you're moving the car, you're cranking enough juice to not only run your devices (radio, headlights, etc) but also enough to recharge the battery from what was used to start the car.
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What if the electricity the alternator generated is not enough to keep up with the car's equipment? Will the battery be used then? On my Camry, the engine raraly stay above 2000 rpm, I don't think it's enough to keep up.
That should not happen as the alternator in your car is design to power everything if your car, including charging your battery. The only time your battery will start to drain is if there is something wrong with your alternator/voltage regulator OR if you added electrical accessories to your car and now it is demanding more current.
If there's excessive load and low idle, the battery will drain.
It isn't really a matter of alternator or battery switching jobs, the alternator is hooked up to everything along with the battery. If the alternator is running fast enough to overcome the load of the car at a given moment, it'll charge the battery. Otherwise the battery will drain to maintain the load.
An example of when the battery is propping up the system would be when the engine is idling, the headlights on, the brake lights on, the AC on full, and both engine fans going.
But, any sort of RPM over idle and the alternator will be able to cope and get the battery back to snuff. You can tell this is happening by either listening to the AC fan or watching the headlights. If the speed changes/lights brighten when you step on the gas, then the alternator wasn't holding up it's part of the load.
Normally, a car won't have too much trouble with any of this, there's so much reserve in the battery and the alternator can push so much current. I also ride motorcycles and the alternators in those are puny in comparison. (and the battery tiny as well)
The early model of my bike just had a 28 amp alternator and would need 2000RPM or greater just to charge ok. You'd have to watch how much hot rush hour traffic you were in or you'd be in danger of the battery going flat before you got home.
The upgrade on my bike is a 40 ampper, much nicer and anything over idle is good enough to charge.
So what if I fire the car up and remove the battery?
Some people have told me they have sometimes disconnected the battery with the engine running, in order to "Test the alternator". And i told them this is not a good thing to do, because if you try this you risk frying something in the electrical system. And my only question to these folks is, why??? A cheapo multimeter is $10 at Harbor freight or Walmart; and if you can count to 14, you can test your charging system without doing dumb things like removing the battery clamp from a running engine.
And most auto makers specifically advise against doing this especially as there is absolutely no reason to do it, except maybe in emergency.
When you ghetto your car with neons, big amps to power 10 subwoofers, 100 watt fog lamps, hydraulics and you plan to tow your jet skis, then you should worry about over working your alternator and killing your battery. First sign of you overworking your alternator, your headlights start dimming.
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When you ghetto your car with neons, big amps to power 10 subwoofers, 100 watt fog lamps, hydraulics and you plan to tow your jet skis, then you should worry about over working your alternator and killing your battery. First sign of you overworking your alternator, your headlights start dimming.
A little drastic, but the point is well served. I'll be installing two amps (~150 watts and ~800 watts) going to my speakers and subs, and that alone would be enough to suck up all of the alternator's power. Combine that with the starndard usage in the elec. syste (ac, lights, power windows, etc...) and I'm well over my alt's limit, so I need a bigger one (Cam, WTF is up with this HO thing?).
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Originally Posted by cam2Xrunner
With a bangin sound system, Carputer with online connection, 1+ lateral G's, and a Twizler Dispenser. That's pimp right there.
Just get some big capacitors for your set up. That would take some stress from your alternator.
No.
Don't do that. It's a band-aid for a weak elec. system. Until you have verified that the alt., batt., and everything else is working properly, don't waste your money on a cap. Even then, you can do the "Big 3" and upgrade your battery-to-ground, alt-to-ground and alt-to-battery connection wires, and will aid in voltage drops that might occur in your electrical system.
Do a search on www.elitecaraudio.com, www.sounddomain.com, our own A/V section forums and wherever else you can think of and you'll find an abundance of knowledge on cars' electrical systems, capacitors, alts., batts., the big three and everything else you can imagine.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cam2Xrunner
With a bangin sound system, Carputer with online connection, 1+ lateral G's, and a Twizler Dispenser. That's pimp right there.
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Is it true that when driving, the battery is not use, mainly alternator is used?
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