Is a cap right for me?

[Puppet Master 10+ year member]

My lights dim when the bass hits in my car. I don't know why, I am not experienced in car audio, or cars in general. I just got my first system, and the lights dim quite a bit. I am wondering if a capacitor will help with the lights dimming, what do they do?

-Don't even mention the Big 3, I know about it, it can be easily done, but I doubt I can do it!

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[B5inVA 10+ year member]

A cap and/or an Opt battery should take care of the dimming.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

If you can wire a cap, you can easily add wires to your stock electrical system...

 

[Loudrango112 10+ year member]

No. Get a new alt or look for another battery. Or even big 3

 

[Savstyle 10+ year member]

no cap is right, they wont help if there alot of dimmage try the big 3 if its not good enough look into a bigger battery and alt

you can do the big 3 man its alot easier than u think, jus find some car audio guy from a bourd thats near u and have him help u, i think alot of guys on this board are really helpful if u can find one near u

 

[Puppet Master 10+ year member]

Well, I am gonna have a professional get this done, as I am in high school, and I am car illiterate. Ecko, why exactly shouldn't I get one? Could I just get a cap put in and the Big 3? Would that solve my problem?

 

[Loudrango112 10+ year member]

DO not get a cap... CAPS are bandaids on a much bigger problem... and sometimes can cause more problems later on.

GET the big 3 down and a bigger battery to start off cheap..... then work on a alt.

CAPS are CRAP

 

[Puppet Master 10+ year member]

yeah, but WHY are they crap? Do they take more power? Do they just give me a skin deep satisfaction? WHAT?

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

A capacitor is NEVER right for ANYONE.

nG

 

[Puppet Master 10+ year member]

okay....................WHY?

 

[Blunt 10+ year member]

yes a cap will stablize the voltage but at a lower voltage then desired because they are not very effcient at all. caps **** do big 3 and get a bigger batt /thread

 

[Loudrango112 10+ year member]

Caps also put spikes in ur elctrical system... another big NO NO.

They level out ur volts but to lower voltage then they should.... and it just overal in the end could hurt your car.

 

[Puppet Master 10+ year member]

okay, that is all I needed to know. Thankx for all the help.

 

[Puppet Master 10+ year member]

But if I wanted to clean up the sound of my system a little(after I got the new battery and/or alternator with the big 3 of course), would an alternator help that?

 

[GO-N DEF 10+ year member]

I was having quite a bit of dimming and I would watch the needle of my volt-meter (on the dash) bounce and continue to drop as the music played. This happened even after I had done the Big 3 with 4 gauge, so I re-did it in 1/0 Gauge. That helped a little, but I was still having a little dimming.

I recently added in a new set of Stinger battery terminals (up-graded from the cheap gold plated ones from Advance) and now all I get is a twitch on the volt-meter.

My next upgrade will be a higher amperage alternator and that should solve the rest of the problem.

BTW, I've had a yellow top Optima battery and a 1 farad cap in the whole time. I'm in the middle of upgrading the power wire to my amps and the cap will be removed once complete. I bought/installed it before I knew anything about them and from the research done by this forum's members and others', I can't see a real advantage of having one.