I have a 2002 mitsubishi lancer with a stock 85 amp alternator, big battery, and a 1 farad cap. I have a max draw of about 50 amps right now from the car. Most of the time the lights dim just a TINY bit. Today the lights started MAJORLY dimming all of a sudden and continued on my way home from work. I looked back at my cap which is mounted on the back of the rear seats which were folded down and the voltage was bouncing between 14.4 volts when the bass didn't hit, and ~13.3 volts with the loudest bass my subs/amp can take. I will be adding a small 2 channel soon to power some speakers and I am hoping my car will support it. Lights shouldn't dim like that at 13.3 volts. That means the alt can supply more than is needed and should be charging the battery. Any ideas why? My lights dim occasionally even at 13.9-14 volts.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean it as a why isn't my cap giving me ungodly powers. I realize a cap fixes very little. I like the fact it cleans up the signal. I actually notice a difference. My big concern though is why with good voltage, do my lights dim so much?
no idea, but with the engine at idle my battery marks 13.7 (everything off) , with 1500 or more RPM i guess it should be at about 14.0 or 14.5 (i guess).
My lights dimm enough to be noticed, but my stock alt is 70amp
450 but it is a class A/B. Also, I think I found a problem that might have caused it. Could a poor ground do something like that? My ground was good but the screw came loose and all of the stuff is kinda loosely held together and not touching how I want them to.
nto saying that this is yuor problem but (not sure about te grounding thing) but it might slowly be hurting your alternator slowly with the cap on it because your alt has to work harder to charge the cap so it can discharge and it is adding strain onto your alt which could be slowly breaking it down so you might want to look into that and if that happens it will get a lot worse
yea like charlie said I'd checkt that because if your only running 50amps and you have a spare 35amps , your car should not be using 35amps amps at idle, you should be fine , that cap juss puts a strain on your systems alt most likely. Could try yellow top battery but , try takin the cap off and see if it keeps happening.