Big rewire job and capacitor question

[ladysmanfelpz 10+ year member]

K so I have a ghetto system so please don't tell me to go buy all this expensive equipment to have a top notch system. I'm trying to do the best, cleanest job I can with what I have. I have a 97 legacy gt with 5 channel mtx to my 4 door speakers and an alpine 450 for my 10" kicker cvx all powered by a 1 farad stinger cap on the sub box. So my amp has been causing a lot of problems so I just took it in to get worked on. When I get it back I'm rewiring everything and remounting. Right now they are free floating in the trunk lol. So I know people advise against it, but I'm going to mount everything to my sub box so my whole system will be on it.

What are some mounts I can put in between the box and amps to decrease vibration?

Since I'll have everything on the box, all my wires will run right to the cap. I want to keep it clean, with minimal wires running around and visible, so I thought if I have the short power wires running from the positive of the amps to the cap, can't I also run the amp grounds to the negative of the cap? I have a little 1/0 gauge ground wire left from doing my big 3. So instead of having 3 long ground wires all running along my trunk to my ground and stacked up, I'll have 2 short 4 ga ground wires from amps to the - on cap. Then I'll run a 0 gauge from there (so they are all touching) and ground that straight to my chassis.

Any problems with this? Will I blow anything up? Only way I see it could do damage is if I power on the system without the ground in place, but as long its all attached and circuit is complete, no problem right?

Thanks

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[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

dont really need the cap ,unless your using it as a distro block

 

[Jes 42 10+ year member]

lose the cap.things do no good...imo..gl

 

[av83 10+ year member]

From what I understood, they do more harm than good.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

So instead of having 3 long ground wires all running along my trunk to my ground and stacked up, I'll have 2 short 4 ga ground wires from amps to the - on cap. Then I'll run a 0 gauge from there (so they are all touching) and ground that straight to my chassis.

Your best bet if you are keeping the cap. If you ditch it, just get a cheap distro block and do the same thing.

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

Caps can help with dc ripple. Good for SQ.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

Caps can help with dc ripple. Good for SQ.

I've heard this. So basically, if your electrical is already stout, it can help... but if its being used as a band aid, it does more harm?

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

An entire electrical system can be made out of caps and an alt. Not necessarily any need for batts if you have enough caps.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

An entire electrical system can be made out of caps and an alt. Not necessarily any need for batts if you have enough caps.

I guess it makes sense. But wouldnt you need some really serious caps for that? I heard that it would take like 30 10 farad caps to make one 50ah battery.

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

Oh heck no...look up "supercaps". They are used to make some batteries.

 

[ladysmanfelpz 10+ year member]

Jesus!!! I said don't tell me to upgrade my stuff. Hasn't this been discussed enough already? Go talk about it in another thread. Obviously if it hasn't hurt my system over 2.5 years then its not going to do any more harm now. Also it will increase SQ and it provides more power to amps because I can run shorter wire so my 2 ft of 8 ga has more current capicity than 20 ft of 4 ga from battery. I think straining my amps by having 8 ga from battery strung all the way to amps was doing a lot more harm than any capacitor would.

Now back to my thread.

Will grounding it the way I discussed work?

 

[JoeK 10+ year member]

Jesus!!! I said don't tell me to upgrade my stuff. Hasn't this been discussed enough already? Go talk about it in another thread. Obviously if it hasn't hurt my system over 2.5 years then its not going to do any more harm now. Also it will increase SQ and it provides more power to amps because I can run shorter wire so my 2 ft of 8 ga has more current capicity than 20 ft of 4 ga from battery. I think straining my amps by having 8 ga from battery strung all the way to amps was doing a lot more harm than any capacitor would.
Now back to my thread.

Will grounding it the way I discussed work?

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Thank you sir fig newton for telling all of us how caps are better than wire

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

No need to et yer knickers in a knot....it is all very valuable information.

As to your problem, if you are so smart on electrical, why are you here asking for our help.

Yes you can do as you want, and it will work just fine. As far as mounting for vibration, try parts express and look for rubber isolation feet.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

Jesus!!! I said don't tell me to upgrade my stuff. Hasn't this been discussed enough already? Go talk about it in another thread. Obviously if it hasn't hurt my system over 2.5 years then its not going to do any more harm now. Also it will increase SQ and it provides more power to amps because I can run shorter wire so my 2 ft of 8 ga has more current capicity than 20 ft of 4 ga from battery. I think straining my amps by having 8 ga from battery strung all the way to amps was doing a lot more harm than any capacitor would.
Now back to my thread.

Will grounding it the way I discussed work?

please show us where we told you that you needed to upgrade anything.

don't worry. we will wait....

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Jesus!!! I said don't tell me to upgrade my stuff. Hasn't this been discussed enough already? Go talk about it in another thread. Obviously if it hasn't hurt my system over 2.5 years then its not going to do any more harm now. Also it will increase SQ and it provides more power to amps because I can run shorter wire so my 2 ft of 8 ga has more current capicity than 20 ft of 4 ga from battery. I think straining my amps by having 8 ga from battery strung all the way to amps was doing a lot more harm than any capacitor would.
Now back to my thread.

Will grounding it the way I discussed work?

Willing to bet the price of my car that you wouldn't notice a SQ difference between a system with a cap and a system without one. And you're telling me that you have the complete electrical knowledge about how capacitors work and they play a part in a car electrical system, but you don't know how grounds are tied into each other?

And no one has told you to upgrade your stuff.

Regardless, the way you described will work. You are just using the cap as a distro block.