About battery cables and more.

[FastAndFurious]

My battery is leaking, and all the parts around the battery are basically corroded really bad. I will be replacing the battery pretty soon, and I have few questions to ask

Here is all the questions I wanna ask

1. What battery terminals should I use for both of pos and neg cables? If I get an clamping type of autozone terminals, do you guys think I could just cut the wire I have right now and slap it on the terminals(In another words, are cables long enough to reuse?)?

2. I have a 900 rms amp hooked up for my subs, and I was going to do big three upgrade while I'm at it, but someone told me I shouldn't use amp cables(power cables) for big three upgrade, is it true? I understand that there is a lot of heat going on under the hood, but I was thinking of looming the cables.

3. What gauge cables should I get? I talked to this guy at sound place, and he said 4 gauge would be alright with my setup (one 900rms amp pushing two 12's. Each sub is 400rms rated so total 800rms for subs). I thought about going with 0 gauge cable but it is a lot expensive than 4 gauge cable, and I'm not planning on upgrading subs or adding another amp or anything.

Oh btw, my lights dim when I turn up the volume a little high. That's why I wanna do big three upgrade because stock cables are just so tiny, and I believe three big upgrade would help out a little bit.

 

[Ian Macoomb]

If you've got enough slack in the existing cables just cut off the old terminals and put on the new ones. I would get some nice gold plated fancy car audio type terminals.

Use welding cable. It's cheap and works every bit as good as fancy car audio wire. 4 gauge will do but you could go to 2 gauge if you can afford and if you can fit it through a firewall grommet. If you need to solder on ring terminals don't both with a soldering iron or gun. It won't get hot enough. I've used a propane torch before with success. I even use a coil-type element on a stove too.

It's not a bad time to upgrade the so-called big three although it isn't going to stop the headlight dimming problem.

 

[FastAndFurious]

Use welding cable. It's cheap and works every bit as good as fancy car audio wire. 4 gauge will do but you could go to 2 gauge if you can afford and if you can fit it through a firewall grommet.

I was talking about big three upgrade cables. The amp is already installed with 4 gauge cables.

Thank you the reply btw!

 

[Ian Macoomb]

If that's the case, then go nuts. Find some big-ass 3/0 welding cable since you won't need much.

 

[FastAndFurious]

If that's the case, then go nuts. Find some big-ass 3/0 welding cable since you won't need much.

Yeah It looks like I will be getting welding cable for big three upgrade. My only concern is that it doesn't seem like welding cable would bend easily, so hopefully the cable is flexible enough for the upgrade. Maybe I should go with a little bit smaller cable. Haha Thank you anyways!

 

[firebat45]

I got 2/0 for my trunk relocation, it's plenty flexible. Probably weighs close to 30 pounds though for both cables. I wanted 0 but they were out of stock...