attn: car audio people, voltage related question

RobFRC

C5, GTO, LSE.
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May 29, 2013
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Basically all i need to know is, do capacitors go bad?

I thought my batteries were dying or my alternator was going bad because my cap was reading 11.4v and dropping and not going back up til eventually the amp goes into protect mode due to low voltage. Used a volt meter and the alternator and batteries are fine at almost 15v while the engine is running.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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May 24, 2007
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I had to put a cap on my setup. The jl 1000/1 amp and jl 13.5 w6's drew to much power than the car could keep up with. It helped quite a bit for me. All depends on how big your setup is if its needed or not.

The money can be better spent other places.

I had 3 amps in my lumina back in the day... a viper 1200.1, a jl 4 channel and another one to power I don't even remember what, then later I went to a viper 5 channel (this amp was physically huge... like 3 feet in length because it was two amps basically under one cover) ... My car had 2 alpine type r 12s at one point, and 1 alpine type r 15 (my favorite sub setup ever) with fancy shmancy mbquart components up front

I got a decent battery and my lights never dimmed. My car could play the radio for 2 hours, with the tv playing and watching a dvd in it 8 years ago and fire right back up. people hate on optimas but the yellowtop I had then was flawless and my lights never dimmed. Never did I consider getting a cap.
 

cacicgtp7

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Nov 9, 2008
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Capacitors are a money grab for the most part unless you're running some insane compeition system with like 5000 watts RMS or something ridiculous (HUGE subs), or if you have a car from 1985 with a terrible electrical system.

For the average guy with a Class D sub amp, and then another 4-6 channel amp for speakers you don't need one and concur on just a good battery. I tore out the stock system on 5 of my past 7 cars... never had one once. Granted most times my systems were only 2 amps hovering around 1200 watts or so, and I never ran giant dual sub systems. Just usually a single 12.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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I'd rather put the money into a good alternator or good battery long before I thought about 1 farad cap that is just for looks and for $$$$$ to the seller...

and then as I said earlier. If i were to get a cap, after I exhausted the other options, I would get one from alumapro that was at least 5 farads because it actually does something .
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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what exactly did the big 3 wire upgrade entail?

The Big Three wiring upgrade
A good, cost-effective improvement is to perform the "Big Three" electrical upgrade. This will vastly improve your vehicle's electrical system, allowing more current to flow easier to all components. This upgrade replaces or augments three key cables in the electrical system with 1/0 or 4 gauge wires: the battery ground to chassis wire, the chassis to engine block wire, and the alternator plus to battery plus wire. This increases your electrical system's current flow capability, ensuring a more consistent voltage under varying demand conditions.

An unfortunate possible side effect of doing the Big Three is that occasionally it only makes your lights dim even worse. This happens because the amplifier is now able to suck juice better from the system through the bigger straw (the new cables).
 
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