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I drive an 03 civic si and i have a sony xplod 1100 watt amp with one 12 and one 10 inch mtx thunder subs. When im driving around at night and i have my bass up my head lights dim a lot and when i play it too loud my radio shuts off. Could i solve this problem by getting a cap? I read that its 500 watts per farad is that right?

 
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cap will "fix" the dimming, and by that i mean you wont notice it as much. but doesnt really do anything to address the real problem which is not enough power coming from the small alternator. and the cap has to constantly charge itself as well, so thats yet another drain on the charging system.

 
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yea from what iv read that was my understanding. Im putting in H.I.Ds too if i got a cap and put in the headlights would i still have the same amount of dimming as i do now since they take more power? and i read something about "the big three" changing my cables would that be more affective than a cap?

 
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if you have hids (no cap), then the lights should not dim at all. hid uses a regulated output ballast to power the bulb, so between 9-16v input they will not flicker at all. thats one nice feature about hid is the electronics output a constant and stable voltage. and they only use 35w when running instead of 55w.

 
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If the lights dimming really bother you that much get a capacitor for the amp and a voltage stabilizer and you shouldn't be able to notice any dimming of your headlights. On another note that amp should not run that much power to kill your radio seems like you have a different problem???

 
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if you are keeping halogen headlights, search ebay for "catz zeta" they are ballasts that supply the headlight bulb with a constant voltage so no dimming. they also put out more voltage than the alternator so the lights will be brighter than before.

 
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i put in the hids yesterday and theres no dimming at all thanks for the help and i need to change out the power cable and fuse for the amp. Its cheap stuff