In a way to conclude if a capacitor is useful or not... i have a final question...
If my alternator cannot provide enough power, and I use a capacitor, you guys mention it will short its life..., but doing that will be as the equivalent as overclocking a processor???
if the answer is YES, then i must say I could take the risk. :D
Think of it as a camel with 1000lbs of straw on it's back. Now you add 30lbs of more straw. What do you think will happen? You may say 30lbs is nothing, but depending on when it's added, it can break/kill.
At low volume, a capacitor won't do much, but at high volume it will add more strain on the stock alternator. It may not be much, but it could just be enough that broke the camel's back.
no it's not like overclocking, it's more like cranking up the voltage to the CPU, which shortens the CPU's life due to increased heat the CPU isn't designed to handle, which causes problems like plasticity in the copper traces of the processor and you get internal shorts in the trace paths that kill the processor internally. In the case of an alternator, overdrawing it will burn out the bushings and diode arrays. you fry it's internals.