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| Stinger Power Capactior |
A factory stock electrical system on a car is not really designed for anything extra to be added onto it. The type of car battery and the ampage from the factory alternator was really designed to run the engine and the stock electrics for the car itself. Things such as the heaters, windows and wipers. Plugging a mobile phone into the 12 cig socket lighter to charge it won't be an issue of course, but when you have a car amplifier of 1000 watts or more, it will pull more current than it should. Some cars are ok with this extra electrical demand on the stock system, some cars struggle with supplying power to a car amplifier altogether. If this is the case, you will notice the headlights dimming at night when the bass drops your car subwoofers. You will also notice the car amplifier will get less loud when you turn it up more and more distortion, so overall poor bass performance. If you continue to listen to your car amplifier loud and not do anything to make your factory cars electrical system stronger, you will eventually kill your stock battery. Audi VW Seat vag group cars can handle an aftermarket amplifier well of up to 500 watts rms on stock alternator and stock battery, diesel engines also have bigger batteries. Other cars such as Ford, Honda and Toyota have small batteries mostly German made cars have the most durable factory electrical systems.
The cheapest fix for preventing voltage drop and also fix car headunit dimming, is to get a power capacitor. This is a small device that looks like a bit like a battery that you connect in line with the car’s battery and car amplifier. This stores a small amount of charge for your car amplifier and provides it on demanding bass songs, reducing the amount of electrical strain on your car battery. Power bass caps are rated at 1 farad 3 farad or 5 farad. The higher the farad number, the better the power capacitor will perform based on if it’s from a reputable company. If it’s a fake unknown car audio brand they can just slap 10 farad sticker on it and sell it on ebay. Make sure you get either get a stinger power capacitor or rockford fosgate as they work well. People say power capacitors don't often buy cheap rubbish ones that are rated incorrectly from a shady car audio brand or they are not installed correctly. I can confirm that power capacitors for car audio are not a waste of money and they do help. Although not as much compared to adding a second deep cycle battery or an upgraded higher amp alternator, the results are still enough to make it worth considering.
Adding a power capacitor seems simple but it’s not. You will need to charge the power cap before installing it to the car amplifier, this is to learn it in with the car battery and also so you don’t spark your amp and blow a fuse. If you don’t charge the power cap before installing, it won't work correctly or you could cause a short circuit. Another thing to note about adding a power capacitor to your cars electrical system is, that it contains a handy LED volt meter. This indicates the voltage performance on your overall cars electrical system. Car amps ideally should be getting 13.7 volts to 14 to give their best rms. If your voltage is below 12 then you need to probably get an upgraded battery if the power cap doesn’t assist in much doing.
To install a power cap, you need to find a safe mounting location. My preferred setting is placing it on the back of the rear seat. Get a drill and mark up the mounting brackets, screw them in place then position your power cap into it. Next you need to do the wiring. The positive 12 volt wire from the car battery needs to connect to the 12 volt on the power cap, but before you do this you need to find an new grounding location and ground the power cap too. Find a grounding location, check behind the carpets, it can be a screw or bolt. Once you have found a suitable grounding location, scrape out the paint around the area to ensure good mental connection. Please note you have to create a separate ground to the one you have used on your car amplifier. Once you have found your ground connect it to the (-) terminal on the power cap. Before you connect the 12 volt red wire from the car battery, get an small bulb and attach two wires on it. Then connect the bulb, one wire to the (+) positive on the power cap a twist the other end of the wire temporarily onto the power wire from the car battery running down your car.
You are now charging the power capacitor up, it can take a minute or so. You will notice the bulb will be going less bright to a point when it hardly can be seen lighted up. This indicates that the car audio power capacitor has now been successfully charged. Quickly remove the bulb then connect positive 12 volt wire from the battery to the (+) on the power cap. That’s it your power capacitor is charged. Now all that is left is to add a positive red wire from the (+) terminal on the power cap to the (+) 12 volts terminal on the car amplifier. This is so the car amplifier can feed of the power cap. Try ensure the wire is as short as possible for the charge to be transferred quickly during the bursts of power needed. I say no more than 10cms.
Your stinger power capacitor for your car audio system is now installed. Now you will notice less headlight dimming and stronger bass performance. You also get bright looking cool LEDS at night making your car audio system look cool too. Overall, a win win situation, if you like this article. Please check out my other car audio articles out.
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