cap or no cap

[swimfreak26 10+ year member]

I have a 1995 toyota camry with stock everything and am installing a 1600W amp (800 watts RMS @ 4 ohms)...I have a 1 farad cap, but will it do more harm than good or is it worth installing? also...if I don't crank my system too much (it will be for everyday driving and really don't need it TOO loud) should it run fine with stock alternator?

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[Sspider 5,000+ posts]

if ya dont need it that loud, then why use so much power?

why not consider a lower powered amp? or do u want to be loud undercover?

sspider

 

[swimfreak26 10+ year member]

I want it to be loud when I need/want it to be, but for the most part I'll just have it loud enough for me shake, will I be alright though?

 

[MikeofTulsa Moderator]

as long as your alternator can handle the extra load that the cap will be adding to it....

 

[swimfreak26 10+ year member]

well my question is...should it be able to handle the load, or should I just not use the cap

 

[MikeofTulsa Moderator]

first we would need to know how many amps your car draws...how many amps your amp, and cap draw, and how many amps your alt provides....if the amount your car draws plus your amp and cap exceed the amount your alt provides your lights are going to start to dimm and other things like that....and your batt. will eventually go dead....

 

[nismo 10+ year member]

biggest thing you need to worry about.

A: is your battery negative-to-chassis wire 1 size larger than your amps power wire?

B: is your battery positive-to-alternator wire 1 size larger than your amps power wire?

C: is you engine-to-chassis wire upgraded to 1 size larger than your amps power wire?

D: is your amp ground-to-chassis wire the SAME size as your power wire? this one is important, because the power flows from negative to positive...not p-n like most people think.

if you dont have those things taken care of (and arguably even if you do) the cap wont do anything for you, as it discharges, and just becomes a load on the alternator. a cap AT THE VERY LEAST is a bandaid to the problem of not enough power, and thats all. you really need to fix the problem rather than covering it up.

eric