Help! Lights Dimming! Help With Capacitor!

[aznxthuggie]

hey guys right now im using a kicker amp that puts out about 325 x 2 so in total like 750 watts rms, and when i turn up the volume my headlights start dimming, i know i need a capacitor but i know NOTHING of them, also i might be switching to a PPI amp with the same wattage but it will drain even more power because from what i know PPI has good power and quality, it'll be louder than you think.. so yea.. i heard something about 1 farad per 1000 watts rms right?

also whats the chance of my car battery being drained faster even with my car on? in total im using 750 + 240 (from 60x4 speaker amp) = 990 watts RMS @ 4 ohms in my car, i never really thought of this but i dont want my car bettery to die or anything, what do u guys suggest?

im using only 8 guage wiring right now, the next step im going to rewire with 4 guage for my sub amp, and either buy a yellow top optimal battery or get a capacitor, or both, or however they work best plz help

[sr20de4evr]

You're using a single 8ga for both of your amps???
Upgrade that first, even though that isn't causing your dimming problem, you still need to upgrade that.

Then do a search for the "magic 3" or "big 3". Upgrade those and then go from there. Chances are pretty high you won't need a cap at all, as long as your gain is set right.

[aznxthuggie]

actually im running 2 8 guages lol.. and i saw how to change the "big 3" but isn't that pretty hard, and i also heard of people changing their alternator to a "200 amp" or something, how does that help?

[sr20de4evr]

Upgrading the big 3 is quite possibly the cheapest, easiest, and most effective thing you can do to help out your electrical system.
And 2 8ga is definately better than 1, but really you should have atleast a single 4ga, if not 2 4ga or a 1/0ga.

With electricity you basically have 3 things you need to be concerned with, current, voltage, and resistance. Resistance is measured in ohms, and it really doesn't apply to the electrical system of the car, so I'll just skip it. Your alternator is the thing that powers every electrical component in your car. It turns the rotational motion of the engine into electrical energy and sends it to your battery and everywhere else. It will generally put out between 12.5-14.4V, and as much current as required up to a point. Most factory alternators put out a max of around 80 amps (atleast in sedans). This means when your alternator is working it's hardest it can only supply 80 amps to the electrical system, if whatever is sucking all this power (your amplifiers in this case) require more, then they start pulling the extra current they need out of the battery. If your amplifiers suck too much current for the alternator to handle then you could run your battery dead pretty easily if you aren't careful.

An 80 amp alternator, which is probably what you have, should be fine up to atleast 1000-1200 watts though, as long as you don't go blasting bass music at full volume everywhere you go. If you have dimming problems then upgrading the big 3 will most likely help a great deal, if not fix the problem entirely. If it doesn't fix it completely then your next step is normally to get a new battery (unless the one you have is new and in good working order). After that a new alternator (one that can supply the current your amplifiers need) or a cap (sort of effective for short bursts of power, basically like adding a quick discharge battery, pretty useless though if you have a tendency to run the battery dry) will come.

[aznxthuggie]

oo i c, i have found instructions on how to change the "big 3" but at the moment i have no time to read it, i jus want to ask is it "doable" like do u think i can do it myself or should i have a professional do it for me? the pictures i found look pretty complicated thx

[sr20de4evr]

If you possess the ability to cut a piece of wire and hammer a terminal onto each end, then you can upgrade the big 3 yourself.

Steps:
1 - remove negative battery terminal, just in case
2 - pick one of the 3 wires to start on
3 - lay out your new wire right next to the stock wire and mark the length
4 - cut the wire that long
5 - strip the ends
6 - hammer a ring terminal onto each end
7 - bolt the wire to the same places as the stock one, so they're running right next to each other
8 - go back to step 2

When you do the alt + to batt + just make sure you put an inline fuse holder in it, just like when you run the power cable for an amplifier.