How To Install a "Big 3" Car Audio Wire Upgrade!
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- Опубліковано 30 лис 2022
- Parts linked in the description below!
Watch a full tutorial as we show you how to install a "Big 3" wiring upgrade under the hood of this Honda Civic. This install technique applies to just about any year, make, and model vehicle on the market.
A "Big 3" upgrade includes:
1. An alternator to battery wire upgrade
2. Engine to chassis ground upgrade
3. Battery to chassis ground upgrade
If you have any questions, leave a comment below! Be sure to like and subscribe!
Parts and Tools Used (Amazon Associate / eBay Partner Paid Links):
*Skar Audio OFC 4 Gauge Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3Vw1eDo
*Crimper and Large Wire Stripper: amzn.to/3OMRu5y
*Heat Gun: amzn.to/3JjsXSa
*Wire Brush: amzn.to/3inRzQS
*Skar Bass package seen in the video: amzn.to/3G8MndC
Other recommended "Big 3" upgrades, both 4 gauge and 1/0 sizes:
*Sky High CCA 4 Gauge Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3OO97BO
*Sky High 4 Gauge OFC Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3VE5yAn
*GP Car Audio 4 Gauge OFC Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3FdpZ1I
*Skar Audio 1/0 OFC Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3H3eRG3
*Sky High 1/0 Gauge CCA Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3EQEszs
*Sky High 1/0 Gauge OFC Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3XMalS9
*GP Car Audio 1/0 Gauge OFC Big 3 Kit: amzn.to/3VIQbqi
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate / eBay Partner I earn from qualifying purchases - Авто та транспорт
Parts used and recommended are linked in the description of the video!
Did this fox the customers problem? I have the same exact system and problem 😂
Even if you're not doing an audio deployment, the _Big 3_ worth it, at least on the Civic. Honda, like other manufacturers, understand every that every ounce of metal costs money, so they make every wire as short and as thin as they can, and the terminations aren't very well insulated, so, they corrode over time. I did the Big 3 when my Civic was 10, and noticed a substantial difference in the smoothness when coming to idle, and at idle, e.g. coming to a stop. I guess it technically could equate to a restoration of power, for some older models. Thanks for the more detailed video than what was available back in 2018!
Thank you for this video. I finally saw how a profession attacked the connection to the alternator. That part has perplexed me because I did not want to compromise the factory connection.
Love this tutorial! Easy to follow and helped me upgrade my car audio system with high quality sound. Thanks for sharing!
thanks for the video. As really your alternator is the "power source" for your car, and keeping the battery charged (the battery helps work as a filter for the power) upgrading to a higher output alternator I think is the best way for supplying power to your car amplifiers. An electrolytic capacitor for you subwoofer amp (seperate amp class D) is also recommended because subs have crazy peak draws of energy, like 60 amps to 160 amps for 1/4 of a second then back to 60 amps. Capacitor helps keep a steady power supply to your sub amp, as well capacitors also work as a filter. Just make sure to not have anything between the capacitor and your amp for the power cable. If you need to run a fuse, do it before the capacitor. Remember, the battery/alternator does not send power to the amps, the amps draws power. That's why things can go bad if not wired right.
Thank you for the great explanation.
Great video 🤝🏾
good video, thanks.
This video was incredibly informative and helped me understand the process of installing a big three car audio wire upgrade. The steps were clearly explained and the demonstration was easy to follow. I appreciated the additional tips provided and will definitely use them in my next installation. Highly recommend! 👍🎶
Thenk you so much 💓 friends
My set up is 320 amp alternator, 2 gauge big 3 upgrade adding to existing oem wires, two 1/0 runs from front battery to rear battery, two xs power d3400 batteries, two skar audio skv2 3500.1, two massive audio hippo xl 122r. Probably going to get sundown zv6 or fi audio neo 4.7 subs next.
Always fi audio over sundown.
Nice bro... Do you have a fuse on the cable from your alternator to the battery!???
Great tutorial! I learned how to install a big three car audio wire upgrade easily and effectively. The instructions were clear and concise, and the visuals helped me understand each step better. Highly recommend this video for anyone looking to improve their car's audio system.
how do you get to the screw on the block behind the alternator? I cant get my socket in there, OR in the one from the block to the frame
Thank you for the video - I have a question - so you added a wire to the alternator to the battery , and you still have the factory wire to the alternator to the battery ????
Great video on upgrading your car audio wiring! I learned a lot about what to look out for when installing a new harness and how to properly connect everything. Thanks for sharing! #caraudio #wireupgrade #DIYproject
Have you done videos on a big 3 wire upgrade on a 2015 Volkswagen Passat.
Can i do this on my Mazda B3 hatchback 1.3
I have a 04 dodge stratus 2.4 my lights dim when the bass hits how to solve issue
Links in the descriptions are missing that circular wire brush used on the drill. I have been looking for one but don’t know what it is called.
amzn.to/3inRzQS
Hi I just watched your stereo installation video for a 99 dodge Dakota. I have the same brand stereo and same wiring harness but I’m not getting any sound for the any of the speakers
If it’s turning on and no sound? Was it getting sound before you switched it to the new radio? Maybe you wired the speakers wrong or maybe you have a shortage somewhere. Can be anything but check your wiring first. Especially if it was working before the radio switch.
Does this make your headlight’s brighter?
No fuse = fire 🔥
What’s the point of that ground cable? It’s not even connected to the alternator is it?
My only question is i bought new terminal connect and the battery current sensor on the ground is there a way to bypass that ? Or a way to attach it other than factory ?
I personally just unplugged it on my 2016 CR-V. You shouldn't get a check engine or battery light and your alternator should default to 100% output. Just verify with a multimeter
Do you have to do big 3 wiring upgrades all at once or can I upgrade the power wire from alternator to the battery and add the ground wires later?
You theoretically could, but it’s not a good idea to EVER have power and ground wire that can’t flow the same current
id upgrade the ground wires first, power wire last
Your Honda like mine has the current sensor on the negative terminal. I found that after adding the big 3 to mine the sensor was reading no current draw thus not commanding the alternator to charge fully. I had to disconnect the sensor to get the alternator to charge at full power.
That's exactly what I've been thinking because I did it on my car. I hooked up three grounds to my negative terminal and I was thinking that it's not going to read any current from that week ground going through the sensor. I don't know if this guy realizes that.
I have a question you know how to do a big 3 on bmw I’m still need in help cause my battery in the back and the alternator in the front not sure if I need a smaller wire to the alternator to the battery I just need help
Longer run generally would require a larger wire when calculating Joule's law. So your alternator to battery in rear, i recommend at least a 4 gauge OFC wire, fused at the battery end.
What determines what amperage fuse should be used for the run from battery positive to alternator positive? Is it just the output amperage of the alternator?
I would add 40-80 amps from your alternators max amperage. For a 320 I'd get a little under 400 amp fuze. For a 370 maybe a little over 400.
For a 240 I'd get a 300amp fuze, etc. You just wanna be sure you don't blow the fuze when your alternator hits it's max rating. And the _rated_ amperage isn't always going to be very precise. A 320amp alt might in reality be able to put out 330 or only 310
@@bailey2517 thanks! that's exactly what I ended up doing so I'm glad to hear it
@@bAc0nBoY755 glad to hear it! Out of curiosity, what's your system like?
@@bailey2517 budget build. 2x 12 audiopipe txx-bdc1's in a sealed box (like the sound better than ported) wired to 1 ohm powered by a skar rp.1200.1d. Very satisfied with it given my budget and therefore power restrictions.
@@bAc0nBoY755 nice!
I have a question.. Please guys.
I have a 2000 watt Amplifier, and a 12 inch base at 2100 watt And when certain songs come on with a nice big bass.. the bass will loose the bass kick. I have a yellow top battery, will this big 3 help me out?
Thanks Everyone
Two questions.
1) Apparently my V8 engine has a 150 amp alternator. Will I be needing a big 3 upgrade? I intend to do a 1000W sound system build.
2) You mention the Civic's alternator is 120 amp and do the big 3 upgrade but why wasn't the alternator upgraded to a high output alternator?
you dont need a high output alternator unless your trying to push more than 1500watts RMS , or trying to run an extra battery/multiple amps , 150 amp alternator is good enough for a little 1000 watts
@@JooAyee Thank you for this. The local shop isn't recommending I do an alternator, battery OR cap. I'm very happy to hear this.
No fuse on the alternator to battery wire?
Most big 3 kits omit the fuse. When i doubt, always fuse!
So essentially, say I have an extra 20ft 4 gauge power wire that is not use. Can I just use only that power wire for all 3? Power wire, and 2 grounds? (I think that is what you were talking about when you said that the color doesn’t matter) but just wanted to clarify. Thank you!!
Yea it’s just wire
So I was moving my big 3 power wire was hooked up to the alt but I was connecting to the battery and the battery was hooked up and it sparked I had dropped it do you think my alt is fryed
@@jonathanmartinez1865 nah bro it should be fine put it one there if it don’t work well there’s ur Answear but it should
why not remove and replace? Why most installers just add new wires to existing, does it have any pros and cons? I mean for clean look and get rid of that those tiny cable ?
Sometimes there are OEM sensors, or factory circuits that pass through the OEM wiring. All depends on your specific vehicle whether you can do that or not. It doesn't hurt anything to add to it, but you could cause issues if you remove the OEM wiring.
I have Hyundai KONA 2.0 - 2019 model, if i upgrade to BIG 3 and add one AGM battery its okay?
the kind of battery doesnt matter as long as it can handle your set up
batteries matter, in case its over 1500rms would recommend replacing the factory one with AGM. if you can afford it, go for Lithium ones they're the best
SO MANY people getting this wrong but I’m not commenting on them all 😂
This is not the “Big 3”. The big 3 is:
1) Wiring.
2) Battery.
3) Alternator.
So you jus add that new big 3 power wire with your existing alt power wire? Didn't know if you upgrade the alt power wire or jus added it along with your existing alt power wire.
You leave your original wire and add the "big 3" over them. do not remove any wires.
Will you need to upgrade your alternator for this. Will it mess up the alternator?
This has nothing to do with the "size" of the alternator; this strictly is upgrading the wiring between the alternator and the battery as most bottlenecks in audio charging systems is the undersized wiring from the alternator to the battery causing dimming of lights.
wouldn't harm anything. youre decreasing the resistance and increasing the ability of wires drawing current. so basically making things smooth
I tried this on my 2002 f150 4.2 and when I connected everything back together my fusible link next to the battery started smoking and it blew out, but my vehicle has a solenoid with positives going to + side of battery and + to back of alt and I'm not sure if I was suppose to connect the big 3 positive to there I just went + battery to + alt but I did fuse it which blew that fuse also. Plz anyone's help would be appreciated I don't know what I did wrong.
Yeah, that was your issue. You put a positive to the back of the alternator which the back of the alternator is a ground. There’s only one spot on the alternator that is a positive and that’s the bolt on the top feeding the battery.
Is there such thing as too big a wire? Ie. Running 0 gauge from the alt to the battery.
I know your ground should be at least the size of your live but just wondering.
No, the bigger the wire the less resistance, there's no down side
4 gauge is more than enough for 2000rms, for more go for 2 or 0 gauge wires
@@xXHellFighter13Xxdistance is also short hence requires lesser area no need for 00 or 0 gauge wires.
Mine has ground sensor. Adding 2nd battery or ground wouldn't that bypass that?
Not necessarily, if you run that ground through the censor loop, it will provide better accurate info to the ECM for charging.
@@ProvoBeastAudio so I should be an additional 0 Guage negative and tie it before the sensor as that goes then to the frame
@@ProvoBeastAudioit looks like you ran the ground to the post and bypassed the sensor. I did big grounds to my car and I think that that third ground with the sensor is not going to read any amperage draw. Do you know anything about that? That would make the alternator not work most of the time.
Always removed old thanks for that tip as well
Unnecessary, as some vehicles today have more integrated into the OEM wiring than a simple run from the alt to the battery. You can do more damage than you know - just add to it for aid, then remove. Great rule of thumb.
@@ProvoBeastAudio yes on those with negative sense module does a negative need to be ran for 2nd battery or will vehicle ground to frame for 2nd batt be ok? 2018 ecosport
Should've just put the new power wire under the OEM one. Then you would've still been able to put the boot over 😊
The boot cover fit on just fine.
@Provo Beast Audio Installation yeah it looks like it is, but I have a 2014 accord and the right terminal fits snug right under the OEM wire so its not all stretched out. But still very neat the way you did it. Helped me with mine since I have a Honda as well
I have a 06 Chevy Malibu 2.2l and will do the Big3 soon as my parts come in anything you recommend. Stock batt all. I'm running Rockville 16Db with two 3k massive audio 10s summo Xl. Light dim sound stops a few seconds. Sick of it lol and with no real video or info it's hard shop's want to much for little work.
Anyway update, I added the Big3 no big discount so up is next a battery upgrade
What did you end up doing mine is doing the same thing It will sound good for awhile then it will just cut off won't restart until I shut off the entire vehicle and sometimes unplug the sub and re plug
Where are you located? Anywhere in Philadelphia? I rather pay to get this done.
Utah!
@@ProvoBeastAudio dam
Can i use welding wire?
I mean yeah alot of people use 0/1 gauge welding wire for their amps
Hey I have done the big 3 upgrade on my Camaro. I had to run my alternator wiring from the front to the back since my battery is in the trunk. I have a fusible link in the wire as well. I ran the alternator wire into a distribution block. Should I just run it straight to the battery instead? I’m running a 3000 planet Audio amp.
Before you worry about any of that, you need an amp that actually warrants doing any of it. That amp is fine on factory wiring. It's not actually pulling any real juice.
@@BLITZSPEIGS so are you saying I need a better amplifier?
@@justinthornton6735 I would say that if you need an excuse to upgrade 😂😂
What happens if you only do a big 2 upgrade? 2/0 from battery to alt and 2/0 from battery to chassis?
You mean power and ground from alt to battery? That okay, but if you use the vehicle to ground your amplifiers, then you are missing the body ground to the battery which can be an issue (if your engine grounds are small or poor).
@@ProvoBeastAudio Thank you for replying! That last Paul supposed to be from the negative battery post to the chassis. I don't have a as of yet.
what does the engine ground do?? i have just 0ga running from my alt to my battery and a 0ga ground from the battery to frame
I did the same as you did... I didnt do the engine ground but wonder if that would really help
An alternator is case grounded so it is grounded to the engine and then the engine is grounded to the frame.
I would add the engine ground because you want your alt to produce the most amount of power possible and a better ground would really help.
@@h-townstros9018 it completely fixed my issue it kept overcharging every so often and it hasn’t done it at all since i’ve done it
No ground to alternator ???
Alternator grounds through the engine block. You can run a ground directly to the alternator case or bracket, but the engine block showed no resistance, hence why we used the factory grounding locations.
@@ProvoBeastAudio Thank you.
I hate how he didn't remove all the stuff pack player in placing the small 8 gauge with the 4 gauge and plus it's ofc so it would be able to stare against sweater idahot climax of the engine there's no reason to keep the stock grounds on or the one what goes to your alternator just saying
Why doesn't anyone ground the alternator
Some do. I was wondering why he didnt.
The alternator is grounded through the engine.
@@RJtheREBEL21 If the engine has a good ground to the battery.
You would still need the engine grounded as the alt will still ground through it, at least partially. If you have any flow of voltage through the block it'll go in path of least resistance, usually through the coolant causing electrolysis between various metals and the radiator.
@@chriscoralAloha True. Wouldnt hurt to give it its own ground anyway.
That’s where a capacitor comes in to prevent dimming lights.
Most capacitors are filled with sand to make them feel "quality". You will actually do your amplifier good by fixing the actual issue where it starts - at the battery and alternator. I've ripped out more capacitors and completed a wiring upgrade than i can count to truly fix the issue.
Any way to talk through email? Or text
You can send us a message on facebook!
@@ProvoBeastAudiohow come you add and not replace?