Thread: Capacitor voltage readout

I don't need to know how I need/ don't need a cap in my system, I have one so I may as well use it.

My cap has a volt readout on the top and when my car is on it's lately been reading about 12.6-13.6v, could that indicate a problem with my alternator, etc? It used to read right around 14v unless I turned my subs up. The reason I ask is when I turn up my system, my lights dim, and I'm afraid I may be slowly burning out my alternator.

I'm upgrading my Big 3 shortly to see if maybe that will help...

13.6 from a heat soaked alt is good.

below 13 is bad...

Try better sub/cap ground.

I'll check the ground I'm using for the cap because it's in an... interesting spot (behind the bolts that hold the rear seat "locks" in place).

As soon as I get some new battery terminals I'mm do my Big 3 and post an update in this thread (:

ditch the cap and ger a second battery , there are a high discharge and recharge device , they will actually put the alternator under a bad strain , battery on the other hand has alot left in reserve . and have you done 4ga from the back of the alternator straight to the battery ? that helps alot too . just make sure you use good wire and ring terminals . these are some of the tips from jl audio tech dept from back in the day

They dont put out any amperage till the system is already dangerously low in voltage.

I still don't understand why people say caps are worthless. It's a capacitor, it charges and discharges when needed, that's all, why aren't all other capacitors worthless?

After putting my cap on my headlights didn't dim as much and my bass sounded cleaner...

Caps are only useful if you add them to the power rails inside the amp.

You can boost the burst power rating of an amp that way.

But only if the design can take advantage of it.

Note thats the BURST rating which is commonly spec'd at 30 ms.

I got the cap for free (5 farad), after reading that thread, thank god...

Well, hopefully my Big 3 helps the dimming issue I'm having, if not then I'll have to ask where I should get a HO alternator from, because I looked several times, and I can never find any good sites...

And here's my amp if anyone's curious: Kenwood KAC-9104D Mono subwoofer amplifier 900 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms at Crutchfield.com

Powering two Kicker L7's (the original L7's, not the loud, boomy **** ones they offer nowadays) in a ported enclosure tuned to 33Hz (if you think it's probably big... it's HUGE).

Not sure what the difference is between 9104 and 9105, but I've got the discontinued one...

yea im with keith, i've been looking for one too, and i have the dimming problem and when my cars idleing and i turn the bass up it drops the idle rpm, from like 7 or 8000 to 4 to 5000, and i was told this was very bad