Bad Capacitor?

bboy_RES · Mar 31, 2008, 02:54 AM

i have a Rockford Fosgate 1 Farad Digital Capacitor and it's worked great for the past few months. recently i noticed that my subs would stop working at random times. i noticed that my capacitor would read low at times and sometimes even shut off, even when my voltage meter would read at 14v. after that it would read at 14v again. i'm pretty sure the ground is fine because i used the same grounding point for my amp and the amp stays on even when the capacitor is off. is my capacitor bad?

OmegaBlack · Mar 31, 2008, 05:43 AM

Try removing the cap from the system and leave it off for a couple of days to see if you notice the same problem. That will tell you if it's the amp or something else.

kidneythief13 · Mar 31, 2008, 09:42 AM

maybe you need a better alternator or stronger battery. if you battery doesn't pump out enough juice in the first place, the cap won't be able to retain much juice, or at least fluctuate. how many watts are being pumped out be the amp/sub set up?

bboy_RES · Mar 31, 2008, 12:47 PM

1800 watt amp and 1200 watt 12" subs.

kidneythief13 · Mar 31, 2008, 01:06 PM

I will soon be running something similar & have been told by some to get a cap, but by more to just upgrade the battery. So, maybe you should think about doing that, possibly also the alternator (which would be expensive). But, a new battery, like an Optima Yellow Top would only cost $175, probably not too much more than what you paid for your cap.

Have you tried calling customer support for your cap's company?

buddha1320 · Mar 31, 2008, 01:46 PM

check you battery and your alternator they do it at place like autozone and such for free,, we had the same problem with a customers car once and it trun out that the cap was not bad it just wan't holding enough you might need a larger cap

bboy_RES · Mar 31, 2008, 02:54 PM

thanks i'll look into that.

biggie5252 · Mar 31, 2008, 07:24 PM

Is it a truly 1800 watt amp? What brand if you don't mind. It sounds kinda like maybe you're pulling too much current and the voltage is dropping out. If your voltmeter (I'm assuming the stock one in the dash) says 14 while your cap says something significantly lower, then it sounds like you possibly have a bad connection (ie a resistance) either at the battery, any fuse in between, or at the capacitor itself so when the current goes up the voltage dropped across this "resistance" is dropping the voltage back at the amp possibly causing it and th capacitor electronics to cut out. That's my drinking at the bar in the airport on layover guess.

bboy_RES · Apr 1, 2008, 02:00 AM

its the Kenwood 9103D. the voltmeter i was using was the one in my HKS Type 1 turbo timer.

biggie5252 · Apr 1, 2008, 04:44 PM

What size of power/ground wire are you using? Did you scrape the paint off of where ever you grounded your amp/cap? Did you install the amp and cap at the same time or the cap later? If you installed the cap later did everything work fine before?