cap question, please help

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

is it possible to fry my cap? i just bought a cap today and was going to charge it, instructions said to hook up the positive first, so i did, then it said to hook up the negative to some kind of resistor or a bulb, then to the ground.... well, since it didnt come with the resistor or the bulb, i just hooked it straight up to the ground, then it started sparking... now when i touch the negative to the ground terminal on my battery, it wont spark no more... ok, with that said, how the hell do i kno if my cap is even working or not? theres no light on it, or at least i dont see one, and its not digital, so how do i even kno its going?

thanks

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[Heresy 10+ year member]

I have personally seen caps make very violent reactions when shorted out. My electronics teacher actually fused a screwdrive to a fully charged cap the size of a 44oz cup at 7-11. This was all in the name of safety of course. He didn't want us to kill ourselves. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif Anyway, I know the resistor is used so that the cap doesn't **** all the juice from your battery. The only way I can think of testing it would be to use a DMM.

 

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

thanks for the info, anyways, im still doing the install and i accidently touched the pos and neg wire of the cap right now and it sparked like hell (duhh!!!)... anyways, i guess theres still some kind of resistance, current, or power in the thing, any other way to test if its working besides taht?

 

[Heresy 10+ year member]

A DMM will work for measuring the current, voltage, and resistance. DMMs cost anywhere from 10 bucks to 4-figure numbers, and I wouldn't buy anything less than $50. It's a good investment if you ever plan to do anything with electronics in the future.

The only thing I would be concerned with is you might have shortened the cap's life by shorting it and it may not have the same storage capacity was it once did.

 

[Fuel37 10+ year member]

it shouldn't have hurt it too much it would have just charged it very fast. the reason it wouldn't spark the second time is probably cause it was fully charged not cause it was ruined. you should be able to tell it's working when it's hooked up if your sub gives longer stronger low notes. you could always throw another $20-$50 and buy the digital monitor for the top of your cap.

 

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

well, everything is running right now, but i havent had time to test the cap with a test light, is there any other approach i can take to assure that my cap is working properly?

my bass notes seem to be hitting at the same level as before, and my lights are still dimming, im just hoping that my alternator is too weak and that my cap is fine... any thoughts?

thanks

 

[Fuel37 10+ year member]

well for the time it will take you to write another reply on here why don't ya run down to a local service station and ask a mechanic to use his multimeter for a second. set the multimeter to 20v or whatever and see what the cap is holding

 

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

cuz they wont do it, they just insist that its charged.. lol

 

[Fuel37 10+ year member]

what do you mean???? they insist that's its charged???

 

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

they insist that the cap is charged and functioning properly, so they wont test it, i think they're just lazy asses...

 

[rco8786 10+ year member]

go to another mechanic

 

[BurntRoach]

wasup yo?

 

[BurntRoach]

ey ? any1, does a cap really make a difference in a system or is it not required?

 

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

mines isnt making a difference, but if u read the above posts, u might see why.

 

[Fuel37 10+ year member]

i think caps make a difference. they allow your amp to give longer fuller low's..... in my friends car when he first hooked his system up his lights would dim with the music like right down to nothing and he added a 2 farad cap and it fixed everything..... they do put more strain on your alternator though. don't use them for a backup if your alternator or rest of the charging system is lazy. i think they probably give you more output from your amps if the rest of the charging system is healthy. instead of your amp getting like 13v spike from the battery it can get (depends on the cap) like a 20 volt spike or more. ( more voltage going in = more wattage coming out i'm assuming)