power caps

[salsheikh]

guys, when turning up my stereo my music starts cutting out (got a vibe 12" sub in the boot), like the cd's scratched or something, will fitting a power cap help this at all?

or do i need to have better/more grounding points?

[troublestarter]

power  caps = waste of money
your money would be better spent on a decent battery if anything
what amperage is the fuse on your amp and what amperage is your alternator
where is your current earth located   

[asif]

So power caps aren't really good to have?

I bought one for my Mazda previous to my mk4 as when I used to turn up the sounds the lights used to dim with the bass and it used to do my nips in, it was the internal lights, the dash and even the headlights which was a right pain, so bought a power cap and it completly sorted this problem.
My revs used to also drop with the bass and the Pcap sorted that also, so for me it was a good cheap piece of kit that did the job for me

[tommk3cab]

So power caps aren't really good to have?

I bought one for my Mazda previous to my mk4 as when I used to turn up the sounds the lights used to dim with the bass and it used to do my nips in, it was the internal lights, the dash and even the headlights which was a right pain, so bought a power cap and it completly sorted this problem.
My revs used to also drop with the bass and the Pcap sorted that also, so for me it was a good cheap piece of kit that did the job for me

it may well mask the problem but it would not have sorted it.

[Snoopy]

power  caps = waste of money
your money would be better spent on a decent battery if anything
what amperage is the fuse on your amp and what amperage is your alternator
where is your current earth located   

Guys its best to listen to him as this is very true. The modern high Farad capacitors sold by mass market companies and marketing men as stiffling/power caps have too high an ESR to name one electrical property problem with them. Anyway if any of you have at least an hour spare and really want to know more, a freind of mine (clio paul) posted the maths i did to show what they really do on talkaudio quite a few years back now. Which also when you look at the figures also explains why people think they may cure a problem, were as infact they make it worse.

A good rule of thumb is if your battery is more than about 3 years old its probably past its best and worth replacing.

[Toby]

yellow top battery ftw... best £70 ever lol

[troublestarter]

even a yellow top is not that good as yellow tops are designed for sound systems as a 2nd battery
if you want an optima battery as a standard starting battery then you need an optima RED top as this is designed specifically to be a starter battery
the yellow top has a higher amp hour rating but lower cca
whereas a red top has a higher cca but lower amp hour rating

[Snoopy]

tobe1990: If by yellow top you meen optima i find them overrated and overhyped with not a very good life span, makes a damb good door stop though.

[Toby]

tobe1990: If by yellow top you meen optima i find them overrated and overhyped with not a very good life span, makes a damb good door stop though.

oooh my mate never had no probs with his... and hes runnning.. 0 gauge with 2 sets of type r comps with apline amp and same but bigger for two kicker comps lol


its henchhh

[Red_Tekk]

I'm having a similar problem at the moment, have a 1 year old battery in the car and the amp is still cutting in an out intermittently. Is it really not worth getting a power cap to supply the sub in times of need?!