first thing install the damn HID's this will make a big difference and you have already spent the money to buy them . You will reduce your dimming, Next do the big three since it is cheap your cost is wires no more than $50 bucks and that is pushing it. Call optima and talk to them when i use to sell optima and what i was told use yellow top as a backup battery beside your system for reserves as it is meant to be drained all the way and then recharged. If i am not mistaked red top has higher CCA as you will be using it as a main battery to start your car. Cap is not neccessary right away since HID, Big three and a battery should make a significant change. Last add the cap to stiffen the sound system and your power issues. You should be running your system right off the battery direct to get the most amount of voltage and no regulation as your amp will regulate the power. So when you do the big three tap the amp off the battery. Buy some good battery terminals. I use monster terminals as the have some good posts and can easily wire in other aux output.

 

I just looked at the factory wiring closer. My amp is hooked up in series I guess off of that black box, where the stock positive wire goes. Should I upgrade the wire from battery to block, or just run the power wire off of the battery. I'm not sure if they left enough wire to reach. But my fuse is right there so it shouldn't be to hard to put in a new wire. I also noticed the ground comng off of the battery is larger in diameter than the positive???? Where is the engine ground wire attached? chris

 

Write down what you plan to do, and the order in which to do it.

faiz23 has the right idea, in terms of the order to do things, but his solution (which I would recommend) involves two batteries and therefore more complex wiring and a dual battery system solution. If just buying the Optima battery leaves you low on $$ then the dual-battery solution is way out of reach for now.

Make sure you put a right-sized circuit breaker between the battery and the lead going to your high-power components. An 8 gauge wire and 30-40 amp breaker should be a good starting point. Remember, even if the fuse in the amp blows, if the wire from the battery to the amp shorts on something, and you have no breaker between it and the battery, your car is going to burn to the ground.


If you have an HID system already paid for, do that and see what happens. Then do the "big three" next - it's cheap and if you take the time to look up the wiring in the factory manual and trace them down in the car, should be reasonably easy.

Then see where you stand. If that's still not enough, look at the Optima. Problem is, the terminals or poles might be wrong and you will have to deal with that. More $$.

Go see the Optima web site and call them.

Optima recommend a Yellow Top battery for the sound system side of a two battery solution and they're right. Just read the web site. And don't let anyone tell you it's marketing B.S.

If you're still having troubles trying to understand and figure out how to do this, you probably should let someone who does it for a living at least help you. There's a number of things that you can do that will not come out well if you make a mistake.

 

i think you might have misunderstood me I do not recommend a dual setup as it is totally unnecessary as he only has one amp and is not going to go to competition or run his system with the car off for long periods of time. I recommend the red top battery if he has to get a battery and being his stock one is old the red top would be a good upgrade. Dual is ofcourse better but more expensive and not needed for his type of usage.

I recommend a circuit breaker as i use one that is 80amp or 100amp i believe but see what the rating is on your amp is probably has 2 30 amp fuses so find out what your total amp is for your amp and maybe get one at that size or slightly larger. I got larger as i knew i was going to add a second amp to run my components in the door and wanted to make sure i get a circuit breaker large enough to handle both amps. also i recommend a 4 agu battery running to the back so you dont have to upgrade in the future or even 2 gauge if you can afford it but it might be an overkill.

 

Thanks for clarifying

 

Well I put in the hid's fogs, and low beams. Awesome lighting upgrade. Didn't help the dimming problem, now it is more of a strobe look. But it is out of the way. now I can't decide to do the big three, before or after I get the battery. So as a primary battery, get a red top? I really don't want to run two batteries. How they wired my power wire doesn't seem right, it is shared by whatever else comes out of that block, which is fed by a smaller wire than the ground wire. What do you guys mean by breakers? Well thanks for putting up with all of my confusion, and keeping me pointed in the right direction. Thanks again, chris
I'm sure this isn't over though

 

Did you post pictures of your wiring and install?

Here is the circuit breaker I am talking about:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- below


see first drawing on this page (click)

All my added electronics come directly from the battery to a fuse panel that I added just for the amp, GPS, and stereo components.

 

If you can get a Red Top Optima that fits, yes, as opposed to the Yellow Top. I want to put a Red Top in mine. When I do, I will be carefully comparing the battery case size and terminal sizes so that I can get one that still fits in the tray and clamps down tight, and the terminals fit properly (positive and negative on the proper sides, terminal post sizes fit terminals).

 

i am suprised you are still seeing a dimming with your hid, normally i reccomend a harness to tap directly of the battery for running HID so you have constant power versus using the stock wiring.

http://www.dxhid.com/purchasehidparts.htm

i purchased the one with the capacitor/resistor to take care of the light bulb warning along with flickering or strobing.

Try the big three upgrade and while you do that make sure you run your amp directly off the battery right now the issue you might be experiencing since it is not off the battery the fuse box might be regulating the amount of amperage going to the amplifiers and starving your system from extra power it can get running direct from the battery. When i use to install i would always tap of the battery direct and fuse it or use a circuit breaker.

http://www.darvex.net/Stinger-100-Am...source=froogle

i use a 100 amp circuit breaker a rockford fosgate but brand doesn't matter too much.

So to recap do the big three upgrade buy some screw on terminals as they are easy to work with,

http://cgi.ebay.com/PAIR-0-GAUGE-HEA...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/PAIR-4-GAUGE-NEW...713.m153.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.com/PREMIUM-4-GAUGE-...713.m153.l1262
http://cgi.ebay.com/2000-WATT-AMP-KI...713.m153.l1262

you can just get a amp kit that is 4 agu or 2 agu and it has plenty of wire to do the big three upgrade and use that with the terminals so you have a secure connection. just hit up the guy on ebay and tell him what you want and he can quote you a better deal and maybe you can pay direct through paypal and save on fees.

after you do the upgrade, the look into getting the battery as you already said you need a replacement and try to buy the battery from a dealer on ebay who will cut you a deal and pickup a cap together so they give you a package price. also look at stinger batteries, or kinetik as they all make batteries and are about the same thing find a dealer that carries both so they give you a discount on the cap and battery.

 

the optima batteries that I am looking at dimensionally, are a little shorter in length, same width, and 1/4" taller at the top of the posts. Looking at the bracket that holds down the stock group48 battery, there are enough threads left to reuse it. I would imagine the battery terminals, would have to be changed, to a larger size, especially to run a 4 gauge wire off of it, but I could be wrong. chris

 

this is pretty much what you want since you can use 2 or 4 agu for your main one for the car, and then you have 2 additional outputs

http://cgi.ebay.com/BATTERY-TERMINAL...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Stinger-4-8-Gaug...QQcmdZViewItem

i like the one with ring terminals so you have additional output if you want to run a wire direct to your HID. either one is good make sure you have enough output to work in the future.

I think the battery should work but make sure you have clearance to close your hood once you use the replacement terminals.

 

I sent an email to optima to see what they recommend. Should I ask the shop that installed my system why they didn't run the power wire directly off of the battery. I don't know what all gets power from that bank where they tied into. But I know it isn't 4 gauge directly from the battery. If I had to guess maybe 8 gauge to the block. Well see what optima has to say. thanks, chris

 

It's a lot easier and cheaper to tap power from existing sources on cars that to establish a fused (or circuit-breaker-managed) power source directly off the battery. That would be my guess though it is strange that they'd know how much power your amp needs and not make sure the supply was up to the task.

As for the battery, I would be surprised if Optima recommended a battery for the Crossfire. They don't list one on their site and recommending one would create a liability situation and potential guarantee fulfillment exposure. Sadly most companies today just won't take that risk, even if they have a good answer for you.

Heck, the GPS that came with my Jeep Commander won't provide door-to-door navigation on roads the manufacturer has not "verified" (liability). My Garmin handheld on the other hand will auto-route me off the edge of a cliff if there's supposed to be a road there (and this is not an exaggeration). Via the responsibility that comes with freedom....

Good luck getting your power problems sorted.

 

I guess it would be an optima34 R, so the posts are in same location on the battery

 

i personally would have them relocate the power cable direct to the battery. the power wire is like a water hose, you are running a 4 agu wire to the back and expect 4 agu of power flow, you are currently tapped of a 8agu wire so the amount of power that is gonna flow is going to be equivalent to a 8agu wire. That is your bottle neck and you should go direct to the battery to ensure there is nothing along the way that is affecting how many amps you are getting to the back. It might not have any effect but i prefer to have a power direct from the battery to ensure no inteference from the fusebox or bottlenecks.

 

have any of you guys heard of SVR yellow top batteries? I talked to the place that installed my system, and they said that if the run of 8 guage wire is less that 24 inches it shouldn't affect power loss. I asked them if they could run the 4 gauge directly to the battery, and it didn't sound like it would be a problem, I'm sure the length needed was just cut off, so in reality I all ready payed for the wire. I just don't know if the svr battery is comparable to an optima. The shop that did my work, switched from optima's to svr's, saying that they are a much better battery?????? The are a fiberglass mat battery from what I have read, and specs are pretty close to the optima's. I'll do some more researching on the svr's, but thought I would see if you guys have heard anything about them. Thanks, chris

 

you got me all thinking about buying a replacement battery for my car lol. so i hopped up on ebay and found a killer deal on the optima. not sure if it will fit but i will make that SOB fit lol. you should pick it up $99 shipped to my house that is dirt cheap. I purchased it even though i have a brand new battery in my car. now i need to find a way to sell mine to break even. How much is a battery worth in these cars.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...TQ:MOTORS:1123

 

will the power acoustic 5 farad cap fit behind the passenger seat? Since my amp is behind the drivers seat, that seems the only logical spot. I hate to spend the extra money, but I think I'm going to try the svr battery. If nothing else I can share my experience with them. And that battery should fit the only difference that will matter is it is a little bit taller, but not much. Optima's site can give you the specs, but I think I posted them somewhere on this thread. Are the post's in the same locations? looking at the picture, they seem to be reversed.

 

what i am going to try is to see if i can make the battery fit reverse so the post line up, if not i think the cables are long enough to work in that position. Worst thing that can happen is i will change the wires to like a 2agu and do the big three while i am at it. what price are you getting the svr battery at

 

They are asking