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i just noticed today that i get some pretty bad dimming if i crank the volume, but i normal, moderate listening levels i dont see any dimming at all. does that mean i need a cap, or am i still good?
i kinda blew my spending money on my system already, and it would be a while before i can afford a cap, but if i really needed the cap to keep the system running well, i will find a way to get asap.

 
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cant we do any searching?
but ok... you will never NEED a cap.... you may WANT one, but youll never NEED one

 
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does the cap have any use at all, if what is said about them true???, I have read that the Cap is supposedly suppose to take the load off the electrical system but it is a load in itself so it's pointless. Now my question is, is there any real reason to have one, I just bought the Monster Cable's 1.0 Intellicap with LCD voltage meter. I'm getting it for like less then $50.00, so no worries if I wasted my money, I am getting a whole bunch of stuff from Monster Cable for 10% over cost, that comes out to more then 70% off retail price.

 
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you can go all day long back and forth about whether its good or not... basically, what it comes down to is that its a solution for dimming... you want more info on it? go here: Basic Car Audio Electronics

 
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the heck with it, unless my battery dies soon, or i get serious dimming at moderate listening volumes, i guess i have no need for a cap.
thanks for the help.

 
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some say caps are useless and some say it helps, the peepz that say it useless say it wont help your lights from dimming, they said it going to more stress on your alternator, they recommmend getting a new alternator or getting ur alternotor rewoud, go to carudio.com and searched for cap there always a agrument about that, and some say it works. im running a lil more than 1000 watts on a stock alternator with a cap and my lights dont dim

 
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Well let me add my two cents (for what it's worth). I run about 1500W RMS and I use a lightning audio 1 farad cap (could probably use 2). My car is three months old so there is nothing wrong with the alternator. Guess what, my lights dim, it's not terribly bad but dimming none the less. So a cap wasn't a huge solution to the problem, the best upgrade for dimming is a higher output alternator IMO.

 
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Oh yeah a good ground system really helps, that's my next project

 
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if your light dims it doesnt mean that there something wrong with your alternator it means your puttting to much stress on the alternator, our stock alt is only 70 amps

 
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The only time I have ever noticed my lights dim is when I roll down the windows (regardless of the radio being high or low). Even if you don't have a system your lights will still dim if you are using everything at one time.

 
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Caps do work..but you'l never NEED one... They have 2 uses. 1 Keep voltage to your amplifiers more stable. Good for sound quality runs because you won't lose as much voltage with bigger bass hits and keeps the frequency response a tad more stable.

2, it does prevent minor dimming. It does not in any way decrease the load on your electrical system it actually adds about a 1amp drain overall. But It will stiffen/abosrb/soften electrical dips with big bass hits. For normal music this works great because there's gaps and lulls so the cap can recharge before the next bass hits. With Bass CD's, with almost constant bass it just acts as a small resistor because it never gets the chance to recharge.

Basically it levels off the drain the alternator sees. Insteads of spikes and valleys it smooths things out and can lessen bad dimming or prevent minor dimming all together. If you have a case of Bad dimming. Upgrading your wiring should be the first step. If the dimming doesn't improve, a High output alternator would be required to get rid of the dimming..

Caps are good for minor dimming and smoothing out voltage surges and dips. That is all...

 
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hey mohawkboom, what do you mean by upgrade my wiring? the power and ground gauge?

well, it seems like a cap isn't necessary, but i nice thing to have, so i will eventually get one, but not now.

i'm going to start saving up for a new alternator, i'll probably put off the cap and alt for a summer project, along with fatmat, and a new sub box and amp rack.

btw, if i get a new alternator, its not going to be covered by honda, and honda isn't gonna try and cheat me out of warranty right by saying something like "your new non-honda alternator voided the warranty on the engine", right?

 
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no aftermarket parts can void your engine warranty, unless it affects the ECU, or causs forced induction..

By upgrading the wiring I mean changing the cars factory alternator to battery wire and battery to chassis ground wire to 4 or even 2 guage.

You'll never need a high output alternator unless your running 1200+Wrms and love cranking at all the time, Mralternator.com has 130amp alternators for $245 for our cars!!!

 
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Hey Mohawk, I have been trying to figure out the whole Alternator to Battery Positive wire thing (so far I have done the engine and battery grounds)...it just confuses me because it splits up and it looks like it goes to a fuse box. Does anyone have a picture of where it goes, or where it should go? [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

 
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I ran an 8 guage into the fuse and a 1/0 Guage to the battery.. 2 wires...that's honestly boggled me too lol

 
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good to hear that I am not stoopid [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG] Anywayz, it came up actually earlier today because I had posted my updated ride in the Members Ride forum...Grey said that it look like I had upgraded some of my wiring (which I did do some) and he asked me how/if I did the Alternator to Positive Battery...I was like, Damn, i wish I new how to do that but it is confusing...basically I didn't want to jack up my car trying to fix something that could potentially happen in the future (better to let the car jack itself up on its own in time, then for me to do it in one steady blow!). Maybe one day i will get off of my lazy a$$ and figure out how to do it. Having the Yellow top has really steadied out the output though.

The Alternator from MR. Alternator is an amazing deal...I just hope if my Alt ever dies I can get one quick so that my mechanic can put it in [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]


Edit: where the hell is the alternator anywayz [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/IMG]

 
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hot damn, alternators aren't that cheap, with the cost of cap, fatmat, and the amp/sub custom enclosure, i'm going to be well above $500.

i guess i can try to upgrade the wiring, but i'm not that "technically gifted" like most of you are. anyone willing to do a DIY with pics for an alternator upgrade and wiring upgrade?

 
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There is a good few pages in the new Car Audio magazine, look in the tech section. He answers about 7-10 letter regarding this same issue.

 
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So what you are saying mohawk, is that changing the wires from the alternator to the battery to a larger size, and changing the wire from the alternator to the chasis ground to a larger size, will decrease the amount that the headlights dim when the bass hits? I never really have had a bad problem with the lights on my car dimming, i mean it dims slightly when the music is cranked and the lights are on, more noticeably when the inside dome light is on and the bass hits when playing loud, but changing those two wires to a alrger size would take some of that away?

Also, what's the best way to tell what my partucluliar amps are putting out in RMS wattage, the one amp is a kicker zr240 which is supposed to be 60X2 watts RMS, so basically i can get an amp that puts out 1080 watts RMS and not need to buy an alternator? It's soooo annoying that every amp company lists their amps with certain ratings, with some being "under" rated and others being "over" rated.

The kicker amp i have, in the manual, says to use a 60amp fuse near the battery, and the other amp i want to get soon reccommend a 100amp fuse, so basically i can be pulling 160 amps from my amplifiers, i doubt it would ever happen, but if it did wouldn't my alternator be having a hrd time?

sorry for the long post