two caps?

[HeadOfMax]

so I put my system in the xd. the amp that I have is old but works. it should probably not be hooked up to three subs, but whatever. The wiring kit that I bought for the xd came with a half farad cap. I have that hooked up and am getting a dimming of my lights when the system is on. I know its only a half farad, but it has a nice digital display. My thought is to put that in series with me older one farad cap. Can anyone forsee any problems with this? I'm just hoping to be able to use what I have without the dimming of the lights untill I get my new amp....im looking at a memphis belle 1000 watt hehe.

Thanks,
Max

[Ugzz]

so I put my system in the xd. the amp that I have is old but works. it should probably not be hooked up to three subs, but whatever. The wiring kit that I bought for the xd came with a half farad cap. I have that hooked up and am getting a dimming of my lights when the system is on. I know its only a half farad, but it has a nice digital display. My thought is to put that in series with me older one farad cap. Can anyone forsee any problems with this? I'm just hoping to be able to use what I have without the dimming of the lights untill I get my new amp....im looking at a memphis belle 1000 watt hehe.

Thanks,
Max

some people will tell you caps are poop and just upgrade the batt/alt well hey, caps are poop.. just upgrade your batt! lol -nah jfwy. i had dimming and i added a 1f cap and i had a noticeable improvement, but i still had the issue. i installed a optima yellowtop and problem solved.. but a cap DID help.

as for installing them in series, yes, you can do that. ive seen it done time and time again, esp for looks. some people want 1 cap on either side of their setup for symmetry if you got the trunk all customed out.

ive never ran a memphis but hear good things about their amps. i would say go fot it

but on the other hand if you are dimming with just your old amp your old amp might be pushing some decent wattage. so you never know..

[HeadOfMax]

im leaning towards the amp pulling too much because it is old and I am running a setup that needs to be one ohm stable and this amp is not supposed to do that.

yellow top optima battery. damn good idea. im gonna get me one of those. battery at all I did not think of that. my battery is probably the original.

I have 4 guage wire running back im sure that is good enough.

[furcioelbravead]

i had exactly the same problem, but after installing a second battery (yellop optima) my dimming problems were completely solved, i will be posting pictures of the system soon. i wouldn't invest my money in a half farad capacitor. it is definitely a better idea to buy an optima. you will notice the difference.

[kizzo]

Older amps are usually less efficient (with some exceptions) meaning they suck more power to power subs at higher levels.

Let me just tell you this. I've seen amps that do 1500w that aren't even that efficient powering subs in older vehicles with small alt, older batteries, etc. The amp is not always the problem, the most likely problem is wiring.

What gauge wire did you use, how long is your ground, where is your ground, where is your amp, etc. Wiring is key. Chances are in the long run you're better off messing around with your wiring.

What kind of battery are you using up front?

I've never personally known of anyone who bought a cap and doesn't have it laying around their garage somewhere, that's usually where they will end up.

[HeadOfMax]

the half farad cap came with the wiring kit. I have the one farad from my old ride which should make the difference...

the wiring is 4 gauge scosche kit from walmart. the half farad cap came with it. the ground is to one of the rear seat bolts and it about 10 inches to the cap and then another twelve to the amp. I'm guessing the battery is the original one seeing as how I just got the car with 12k and it is an 04.

This same system minus the cap did not cause the lights to dim in my 94 LeSabre although that was a much bigger engine with probably a more powerful alternator, but the battery was much older.

Older amps are usually less efficient (with some exceptions) meaning they suck more power to power subs at higher levels.

Exactly what I was thinking. happy to see someone else thinks the same way. hopefully the two caps can hold me off untill I can afford the new amp...or the optima...

Does anybody think that my old amp will kill my new optima when I get one?

[KeWLKaT]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW there buddy.

DONT wire caps in SERIES.

CAPS have to be wired in PARALLEL.

Here's how it works, do the math...
Here C is the capacitance, measured in farads.

In parallel: (total C) = C1 + C2
In series: (total C) = 1/((1/C1)+(1/C2))

You can clearly see that it is WAYYYYY better to put them inparallel. In fact, in your case you will probably get even less capacitance by wiring them in series than if you had only used a single cap.

So, basically, it will look like this:

http://www.elantraxd.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6076&stc=1&d=1176188430

[SilverElantra]

kewlkat is 100% correct on this one do not wire it in series

[Ugzz]

Oh man am i farked up! (not getting around the filter, but ever since fark.com hehe).

i wasnt even visually picturing someone hooking it up in series properly. I guess when i think of speakers and when i think of power my mind just works differently. if you hooked up caps in series that would be bad indeed. never touch a live hot to a negative. even if its not grounded, theres really no reason to do that. parallel is the way to go. I guess even though i read series my brain picturered parallel because you would have to have a brain aneurysm to think that wiring caps in series would be a good idea.

good catch kewlkat.. :bowdown: good catch indeed. i wouldve felt mightly dumb had someone gone and done that and i said "oh yeah im sure thats fine" :P

[HeadOfMax]

yeah fer sure. I might have said something else, but that diagram is exactly what I meant.

[KeWLKaT]

Ok cool, just making sure :)

Not that it would've done anything dangerous, it's just a waste of money IMO