Just noticed this today.... Why does it say "H"

 

It's saying "fix your link".

 

Why do your wires look like they are not properly affixed to the cap or is it just me

 

did it feel warm? the H might mean its hot or overheating

 

It isn't hot, and when I noticed it I was getting ready to leave for work so it hadn't been used that day.

 

All connections are good and clean. The positive looks close to the negative in this pic only because of the angle.

 

It's a generic China made capacitor using a china made voltmeter. If it's not a malfunction, it's possibly indicating a high voltage situation. Check the running voltage with a multimeter.

 

Looks pretty close from where I'm sitting! I think I'd spin the red wire going to the dist block 180 degrees and rotate the other one 45 degrees.

 

Just remove it, then you don't have to worry about it ..

 

Beat me to it.

But yeah, take it out.

 

Just ordered a new cap today. If I did remove it it would wreak havoc on my alternator and battery even though I have a yellow top.

 

No, no really it wouldn't. Pull it out and leave the money in your pocket.

 

Large caps are beneficial if you have power hungry equipment wired to the same source as the amplifier(s), in close proximity to each other, and far away from the battery. Helps to stabilize the voltage provided to the alternate equipment when the amplifiers hit.

Other than that they are mainly for show. A load is a load, and a charging capacitor will dim your lights virtually the same as an amplifier. And if that's the problem, it's time for a new battery and/or alternator.

But, to say they serve absolutely no purpose is wrong. They just don't serve much purpose for most systems, and people use them for the wrong reason.

 

Where did I say "serves absolutely no purpose" ? I said to take it out, yes, but nothing beyond that. This was a fairly accurate assessment based just on his wiring alone. If he has something in there that would require such a thing, then he has bigger problems based on just the wiring seen.

If someone has dimming lights, then they should use a cap .. on the headlight output and not nearly that big. People Really need to learn to solve the problem and not just what some shop or the interwebz say to do ..

 

So your thought on this.

I have a 400 watt amp wired up and running my door subs, and a cheaper Nitro 2200 watt amp running my 15" Cerwin Vega.

With the gain up more than 3/4 I notice the dash lights slightly dimming to the beat. So that calls for a capacitor correct.

The alternator charges fine at 14.2 all the time and I have a yellow top battery that's less than a year old.

 

True, you never said that.

A cap is just going to act as a middle man, I'm sure those caps have a relatively high impedance to lessen the drop when charging up, so it may help. But the problem is that your battery and/or alternator isn't keeping up with the draw from the amplifiers. Since you have a relatively new yellow top, I'm guessing most of the blame is on the alternator. Check the voltage at the battery while your system is pounding, I guarantee it's not sitting at 14.2v.

I've never had a large audio cap, though I have kind of wanted to get one for the reason I stated earlier. I'm not a fan of my sub amp robbing power from my precious equipment that is connected to the same dist. block. Anyway, I've had dimming issues before, which were completely eliminated with a new alternator. A 2nd gen alternator no less, with a lower output rating. Virtually brand new reman, found it at the junkyard, so I figured it was worth a shot. It's worked very well for a few years now. Of course my entire system only draws 350w maxed out so there's not a ton of stress on it. There is a constant 10a load though, so I don't want an overly power hungry system on top of that.