# Big three upgrade = waste of time?



## dawgdan (Aug 10, 2006)

I might have some leftover 0/1 awg soon.

I've never done the Big 3 upgrade in any of my cars before, but thinking about it now. Is there any real noticeable and/or measurable difference, or is it all in people's heads (like placebo sugar pills)?

Thanks.


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## Diru (May 23, 2006)

On a system over 500 watts it is worth the time and effort


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## Abaddon (Aug 28, 2007)

The stock wiring system was designed for the stock electrical load.


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## Daishi (Apr 18, 2006)

On my car there are proven results showing the big 3 making an impact on the vehicle. A guy on another forum did a before/after measurement of overall system voltage and voltage drop using different types of music etc.


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## DonutHands (Jan 27, 2006)

ive got what looks like 4ga stock in my car. my voltage does not drop much when playing music and i am not at my systems limits for volume. so for me, it would be a waste of time.


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## minitruck_freq (Mar 27, 2005)

one of my old S10's had 10 and 8 gauge for altenator/battery wiring. i upgraded to 4 ga. and it made a hell of a difference. i gained a little over a volt. that might have just been the difference between ****ty wire and new wire too. in my current truck, i havent really noticed a difference. but the blue/silver wiring sure looks alot better than the ugly factory wiring.


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## CBRworm (Sep 1, 2006)

It definately depends on what your car comes with. My last truck came from the factory with a 140 amp alternator. The wires that ran from the battery to the frame, alternator and fuse box were larger than the 4 gauge wires I ran to my amps. The wires that ran from the engine to the frame were multiple large braided wires (I never understood why there were more than 1).

I know people have gotten gains doing the big 3. My personal take is that the biggest advantage should be gotten by making the battery ground wire larger, but in reality as short as they are it shouldn't need to be huge. If you have a 70 amp alternator, no matter how big it's wiring is (unless it is truly undersized), your not going to get any more out of it. If you upgrade your alternator, by all means - you need larger wires to carry that extra capacity.


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## Doodaddy (Oct 5, 2007)

minitruck_freq said:


> one of my old S10's had 10 and 8 gauge for altenator/battery wiring. i upgraded to 4 ga. and it made a hell of a difference. i gained a little over a volt. that might have just been the difference between ****ty wire and new wire too. in my current truck, i havent really noticed a difference. but the blue/silver wiring sure looks alot better than the ugly factory wiring.


I was in the same situation. It made a very noticeable difference.


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## bigabe (May 1, 2007)

If you have a newer BMW, it's a waste. I have 0 gauge running everywhere in my car from the factory. It's insane...


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## dawgdan (Aug 10, 2006)

From what I can tell in my Tacoma, there's 4 gauge running from alternator to battery and from battery to engine block. There's 8 gauge running from engine block to chassis, but it's literally 4 inches long.

I suppose it's worth a shot. It looks like a ***** to get to, but probably only 4 total feet of wiring, if that.


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## cody6766 (Jul 24, 2007)

it was worth it in my Grand Prix with 1100w


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

I like it because my car cranks less before turning over. If it did NOTHING for the stereo, that alone made it worth it.


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## DonovanM (Nov 1, 2006)

Whiterabbit said:


> I like it because my car cranks less before turning over. If it did NOTHING for the stereo, that alone made it worth it.


I noticed the same thing. It only takes like a single second for my engine to kick on even when it's 7am... much quicker than when I got it.

I didn't upgrade my starter power cable either... the two grounds must have done it. My stock wiring was beefy before too, it looked like 6-8ga.

Next up is upgrading the wiring to my headlights... stock brightness SUCKS because of the voltage drop.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

i've noticed a difference in my truck. i have a 160amp alty stock and pretty much everything is 8awg except the starter cables. yeah gm went minimalist on my electrical. i just did alty to batt and batt to engine block. need to do the third part and go to a location close to the frame but havn't yet.


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## bobditts (Jul 19, 2006)

I noticed better system charging, less healight dimming (when I had 1500RMS to my subs), faster engine cranking, and I am getting zapped less while getting in/out of the car from static shock. Well worth the time and effort


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

bobditts said:


> and I am getting zapped less while getting in/out of the car from static shock. Well worth the time and effort


now that you mention that, i can't remember the last time i got zapped by my truck. i get zapped all the time getting out of a friends silverado with all stock electrical though.


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## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

minitruck_freq said:


> one of my old S10's had 10 and 8 gauge for altenator/battery wiring. i upgraded to 4 ga. and it made a hell of a difference. i gained a little over a volt. that might have just been the difference between ****ty wire and new wire too. in my current truck, i havent really noticed a difference. but the blue/silver wiring sure looks alot better than the ugly factory wiring.


Are you sure it wasn't the gauge but maybe you just had ****ty or corroded wires from stock? 8gauge is pretty decent.


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

HAven't done mine yet but there 4 gauge everywhere from Audi. So unless I go with 1/0 gauge everywhere I doubt it'll make much difference.

My car already starts practically instantaneously as I turn the key. My voltage meter doesn't budge with the car running unless I lower a window or turn on the rear defroster.


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## rekd0514 (Sep 24, 2006)

It will definitely help you. I noticed a good difference over the small AWG wire that was stock on the car. Sanding the grounds down probably helped a lot too.


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## Pseudonym (Apr 17, 2006)

im curious what npdang has to say about this.


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## darkfrog (Jul 22, 2007)

minitruck_freq said:


> one of my old S10's had 10 and 8 gauge for altenator/battery wiring. i upgraded to 4 ga. and it made a hell of a difference.


Is it appropriate to just add the bigger gauge wire and leave the stock in place since the electricity will take the path of least resistance and it will save you time from uninstalling the old wire?


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## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

darkfrog said:


> Is it appropriate to just add the bigger gauge wire and leave the stock in place since the electricity will take the path of least resistance and it will save you time from uninstalling the old wire?


that's more than fine. the original Big 3 tutorial i read said do that. When I did it on my Civic, i used the original bolt hole from the factory ground, so i just replaced the wire since it was right there.

Either way, it made a difference in my Civic, and I only upgraded the ground wires.


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## zeuolaxxx (Oct 11, 2007)

Big 3 = Big Solution. I have done the Big3 and my voltage is very stable!


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