Car Audio Capacitor:: Does Size Matter?
 

Been having power problems with my Car Audio install, while the car is driving.

Currently Running

1X Punch 4412 Rockford Fosgate 12"
1X PIONEER max 800 Watt Amp, Running at mono bridged 400

Stock Deck
Stock Battery (tested and kicking)

The power drain and audio degrades after a few minutes... also there is a felt hesitation in the engine with acceleration and braking (engine braking hesistation felt)

So now I am exploring all my options. I have talked around and ask on the forum before, With various answers...

does anyone know the actually math of what will be needed to sufficently power the system. Not driving it hard hard, but respectible without cutting out or degrading sound. and most importantly, affecting car engine performance...

Anyways, 2 options I am exploring is the picking up of a Capcitor and a deep cycle batter.

Does anyone know if this is going to be really enough to at least put a good well placed bandaid on the problem.

and also, my main question is... will a .50 FARAD Capacitor due? or should I go for a 1.0 FARAD. will there be a difference, even though I am only running a system below 500 watts..

will the extra FARAD rating help?

I got a good deal on a RAPTOR .50 FARAD Capacitor for 65$ canadian

and a RAPTOR 1 Farad capacitor for 95$.

Cause i wanted to focus my money on spending more on a Top of the line Deep cycle Battery. but someone correct me if I am wrong about the thinkin...

thanks guys.

What guage power and ground wires are you using. If you are not using 4 guage ,that could be some of your problems . ,General rule of thumb for caps is 1 farad per 1000 watts .

I was told the brand of wiring kit i picked up was good, Scooch or something like that ,, and the size gauge cabling was good, had it installed at future shop... with the battery running and the car off the system rocks hard and nice.. runningis a different story

In regards to the rule of thumb, that i Know, but if my system is only 400 watts, would there be any benefit to a higher FARAD?

instead of .50

You must have a problem somewhere.... I ran an 840W amp for over a year with no problems. This was using strictly 4 gauge power cable for the amp, I hadn't upgraded my alternator and ground wires at the time. Have you had the alternator checked yet? Are you running any other accessories (extra lights, etc)? How long have you played it with the engine off?

Played it for a while with the car off, and the dimming of the lights while the car is running is very faint, which I have been told is normal.. its not even noticible, so I know there is nothing really wrong with the raw power output from the Alternator...

I am utiilizing the right cabling...

I am going to install the the capcitor and then move on to the deep cycle battery
just need to know if the .50FARAD will be enough

hey omron whats up!!

i dunt knwo much about audio at all, so i'm sorry i couldn't contribute to ure problem

but i noticed u are from brampton....where i'm from...i live up by Chris Gibson recreational centre
just thought that was cool :D
maybe u've seen me zipping aorund here n there,
i got a 99 protege touring edition, with an exhaust leak.... which makes the car sound like i got a turbo spooling up (sounds exactly like a truck turbo spooling) comes on at 3500RPM all the way to redline.... just thought maybe we can meet up soon or something
i do have an older non running celica with a system in it, it has 2, 12s, cant remember which (bought the car with the system) and i cant remember what amp, but i knwo one 12 is blown, so i was gonna move it over into the protege....

now back on topic... sorry for the off topic stuff right there.... but yeah, i knwo some people have redone their grounds with kinda similiar problems and it helped.... so maybe that might be an issue....

and if ure running below 500watts, then i think a .50 FARAD would be enough, considering the previous suggestion of 1 FARAD per 1000watts


sorry for the little hijacking of the thread there

IF you do it, you're throwing money away. THe best thing is to get or make an engine grounding kit. seems silly but it's the only thing to have consistently helped Pro's with this similar problem.

I'm running 1.6KW myself, and you better believe that I get some serious dimming, but from everything I've readup on and learned, caps only add to the problem. They're an extra component that cannot be 100% efficient, and therefore end up sucking more juice.

I know that everyone who wants to sell you things will swear up and down that they are the cure for you, and it might happen to work for what you're hping, but chances are that it won't, and it's only adding bulk and stuff to your car, plus I for one am paranoid of the things... haveing thatmuch juice that can just unload at any given time scares me.

The Cap is the bandaid, I am adding a Deep cycle Battery as well. Not just the Cap.

So I am just askin if (scientifically and mathimatically) this is a good option.

Other then spending 350 or more on rebuilding the Alertnator.

Because right now my battery is on its 3 year life cycle, it still passed tests, but I am not expecting it to last much longer and at this rate of depletion..

So anyone say yes or no...

compared to,,

REbuilding the alternator, and buying a new battery, and possibly having to still install a CAP...
would a good deep cycle and Cap work?

Dude, start listening! Caps are not the way to go, YOU NEED TO UPGRADE YOUR GROUND WIRES AND HAVE YOUR ALTERNATOR TESTED!

Depends on the year of the Pro too.. some Pro's have a lower amperage alternator for the older cars. Plain and simple, if the alternator cannot handle the amps you are trying to pull.. other things will lose power, including your ecu and your ignition. I think somebody hooked up something wrong myself. I have a 5 channel, which is very very power hungry, and have no run issues at all on a 2.0. I have 4 guage for power and a one ought for the ground from the battery to the frame.

Well, thanks for your ideas guys but i figured out the problem... today. after trying to figure out everything myself, plain and simple, its the simple math of (alternator output AMPs power) the because the amplifier I have is suckin 60 amps.

which bleeds thru everything in the alternators reserve power. once the power is not enough it begins to attack the battery...

plain and simple a deep cycle and/or a CAP will not help, nore is there a problem with the wiring, or grounding.

My AMP is to hungry...

800 Watt AMP for SALE guys, any takers

why dont you just get a better altenator

1. Quoted price of a high end alternator was high..
2. The amp I have isn't exactly the highest quality. there are respectible amps out there that offer great performance better then my current amplifier and with have the amout of amps required 20 or 30 amps.

Once again., I'm pushing 1.6kw DAILY... there are others (though not really in here anymore I don't think) Who are pushing over 2kw.

I've said it before, mathematically my car shouldn't function, but it does. What is your big concern? are you having actual issues with driving or is it just your headlights dimming??? I can assure you, I would LOVE to be only pulling 60a. Make or buy a daislychained ground wire kit. It's the easiest, and best thing you could do. and hey, if it doesn't end up giving you what you wanted on the audio front, there's enough testing, etc elsewise to make it a worthwhile upgrade for the sake of performance or even economy. not to mention it looks cool.

Also just because an amp is power hungry does NOT make it poor quality. Alot of times it's preferable as a or a/b class amps are ultimately cleaner and more accurate, just not generally necc for sub duty. a simple Dclass will indeed draw less power per output watt, but you're then sacrificing SQ. thusly power hungry amps are generally better quality...

Yeah I think I had mentioned that briefly, that the alternator didn't have the pull, and that it affects other systems. :)