Hey, I have a '97 4Runner, and I want to upgrade my sound system. I need to know the output of my stock alternator so I will know if the amp I am looking at will draw too much power. Thanks!

 

if I am correct it should be 60 amp
David

 

Wow, that is a lot lower than i thought! A 2000 4Runner owner over at caraudioforum.com was claiming to have an output of 90 amps, and another guy 80! I guess either they are wrong or Toyota put higher output alternators in 4Runners sometime after the '97 model year.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the alternator could be a few different variations based on the options available with the truck. A 60 amp would be just fine if say you had a 4 cyl 5spd with no a/c, however I can easily see them being a 80 amp'er if its a 3.4L a/c and all power opts.. I can tell you that I am running about 1000 watts right now with no additions to the factory charging system, and only plan to add a Optima battery when the stocker finally lets go. If you plan on a basic stereo, or even a dual amp system, you factory alternator will probably do just fine as long as you use the correct power wire and if you go somewhat big a capacitor or two wouldn't hurt.

 

I had previously believed all 3rd gens have a 75 amp unit.

But now that we have about 10 different figures here, I have no idea now! :confused:

 

In my 92, I am running a 2 amps- 1 four channel (40x4) and a mono (200x1) with absolutely no dimming at stop lights. I believe that my alternator is smaller than the 3rd gens., so you should be fine unless you go farther above wattage wise than I have.

 

Thanks for that advice, that was what i needed to know! I have the 3.4L V6 also with most of the power options, and I was planning on running a JBL 1200 watt monoblock amp to a pair of 12" Alpine Type-Rs, but I will probably only use 600 of the available watts (subs wired to put a 4 ohm load on the amp) because that is all i really need, so the amp should be putting a much lighter load on the alternator compared to if I had the subs using all of the 1200 watts. But it is nice to know that I have an extra 600 watts available if i ever decide to upgrade to better subs (Its only like $80 more to get a 1200 watt amp instead of a 600 watt amp).