alternator/power output boost?

Okay I have a 2.4l spyder gs. It's alternator and batter were perfectly okay. I installed el glow guages and they worked just took a second to turn on at first. They have a circuit in them that unless the voltage is 12v or above they don't come on even dimly..

So I installed an amp and a sub. At first guages were fine. Now they rarely turn on. The other night I was driving for about 3 hours and they came on about 2.5 hours into it. I assume this is due to a lower then 12v voltage condition.

When the sub hits my headlights dim and so do interior lights if they are on. Same thing if I use my turn signals.

I want to fix this power problem.

1) do all el guages work like this or is it just the model that I bought? I'm tapped off the lighting wire in the guage cluster. It is then still connected to the guage cluster so it's lights are drawing power also.

2) do they sell bigger alternators for the car? If so where? the only alternator I can find is from autozone and it's essentially a replacement of the stock

3) Would cleaning up my grounds fix this? I havn't touched them and I'm not even quite sure where they are. The amp is grounded to the chasis in the area under the convertible top. The guages are grounded to a bolt that holds the guage clusters in (works well, good ground), and the undercar lights are grounded to a bolt down by the shifter that is also a ground.

I plan to remove the box for the elguages this weekend and test it's outputs again on a 12v power supply I have. I really like the looks of the guages as they match the theme I have going with the interior and exterior so i'd like to keep them.

Ditching the sub is not a question. it's now built into the space in under my convertible top. That sucker is not coming out.


Only other wiring mods I have are there is a radar detector built in coming off the battery that was dealer installed, It's never turned on.

I have factory fog lamps.

I have a 12v lead going from my cigarette lighter to the amp for remote power on lead, I still run the stock infinity stereo / cd changer. the amp is a 550watt amp.

I have undercar lights also coming off the cigarette lighter. I'm under the fuse's rating though still with both items coming off it, I believe. The lights are led lights and don't draw that much.


Any suggestions?

I did some research into high output alternators. While it's not listed as spyder specific. They do have one for the Eclipse GST (4g63).. If you look at the stock mitsu and replacement part numbers for the normal alternator they are the same model. So Am I right in assuming a hi output alternator designed for a gst would also work in a spyder gs?

The stock alternator is only 75amp. The high output is 90 (not really that high in my thoughts because I thought most high outputs were around 150amp.

I'm running:
fog lamps, el guages, soon to be nice stero deck, 550watt jlaudio amp, 10"jl sub off the amp, and some low current draw undercar led lights.


I checked into capacitors and they really wont fix the low voltage condition just keep my lights from dimming a little. But I mean they are diming when my turn signal kicks on now. The battery appears to be charging as I havn't been having any problems with starting the car yet...

Suggestions or comments welcome!

So I've touched up some of the gorunds. Cleaned up the battery terminals. Lights got a bit brighter. Still no dash lights. I've rechecked the connections on it and the module looks okay. I've since ordered a new module however so I can try that and if it's not that it's a backup.

After that I'm not sure what to do short of replacing the alternator. Anyone run into the same type of problems. I know several people here have larger subs/amps in the car.