Hello! Hopefully someone with decent audio knowledge can help me out! Currently I have a JL audio 1000.1 Mono amp powering 2 x JL 10w6's. They are drawing straight from the battery at the moment, which is an optima yellowtop. When I turn up the volume at night, I can see my tail lights and interior lights pulsate when the subs hit... would a battery cap help me out? If so, any suggestions on a good one, and are they hard to install? If not, what should I do?

Thank you so much for any help.

 

anyone!?

 

do a "big 3" grounding upgrade first and see if that fixes your problem. Do a search for what the big 3 upgrades are

 

I have a cap and mine system blinks when I turn on my map light...I haven't done the 3 grounds yet but i think i'll do that next...If you search on the net about on the car stereo forums you will find out what we are talking about...You want to do those first before you go and pay for a cap...

 

i posted on a car audio forum... can you guys give me a brief explanation?

 

Basically it involves adding 3 8-0 guage ground wires to improve the grounding of the electrical system. One is battery negative to chassis. One is altenator positive to battery positive, and the last is engine ground to chassis. You want to use the largest shortest wire you can afford and make sure the crimps are very tight and against bare metal. http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/...TID=73496&PN=1

 

http://www.forum.realmofexcursion.co...ad.php?t=17970

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/search...6&pp=30&page=2

Search on that forum too...Good information...I'm at work so I didn't have time to search it...

 

That's a what I was looking for....The other stuff I posted is talking about the capacitors...

 

Not sure if the whole debate with using caps versus bigger alternators have changed, but I would like to see what people think about capacitors these days and wether it has any more viability now than before.

I was told that the real fix to the power issue is to install higher amp alternators or if you are going competition, run them directly from specialty batteries (Optima) thus eliminating the power leech issue.

I believe the issue with caps is the response time for the caps to charge and discharge power to the subs during high bpm tracks. Is this still the case with caps in general?

 

Its still in debate....But more and more people are saying you should do the big 3 upgrade first. The HO alternator is a big help with you get a system that requires a large draw...Just the myth that getting a cap is going to stop your lights for blinking is out...I have a cap and my lights sometimes blink when i juice it up...

 

If you had a cap on the lights instead of the amps I bet your dimming problem would go away.

 

I also have a 1000/1 and added a 15F cap which helped the light dimming issue quite a bit.

 

I called the local reputable stereo shop and I asked him about the big 3... but hes like oh yea people think that will fix the light dimming but it doesnt work. I think this guy may be just trying to sell me a 2nd battery tho. I asked if he can do the big 3 and he danced around the question lol...

 

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Also as far as the big 3 is concerned, yes do it. Your electrical system will only be as efficient as its least efficient part.

 

I can promise a cap will help but as said above the alternator will still be the weak link. The best way is to upgrade everything if you can.