hey guys

after having a drive tonight and being stuck in traffic i noticed my lights began to dim heavily because of the drain on the battery. :(

it happened a while back and what options i was given was to install a capacitor, larger cell battery or higher performance alternator.

i put a larger celled battery into the car and upgraded to 4 gauge wiring from the battery to the amp.

is there any other options i have to correct this? and also is a capacitor a cost effective way of addressing this?

using a 400.1zx kicker amp and dual 300rms Kicker Comps. (if this is of any help)

There's something wrong if you get dimming with a 400wrms amp. What sort of battery are you running?

capacitor only really works when you get a really high quality upgrade on a battery, which is what you said, and it helps the voltage from going up and down so much to just little as it helps with the charge and that, capacitors have no effect on a normal or so battery.

WTF? A cap would have show greater results on a small battery than a large powerful one dude, a big powerful batt would have more draw than a little cheapy thus not requiring the reserve supply from the cap.

Either way, caps are aidsishly crap, 400w at full wack shouldn't show any stress on your electrical system, my bet goes to the simple old battery grounding not being sufficient. Get a 4ga cable or 2 and find a nice bolt on your chassis and engine block and beef that grounding up!

Caps crap
Wiring and battery needs upgrade
Nuff said

Your headlights are dimming with around 400wrms?

Better wiring all round. Google the 'Big 3' and do that.
I'd also be checking the alt to make sure it's doing its job correctly. Is the battery getting charged properly?

What battery?

I also must ask what sort of battery are your running? Also what sort of wiring are you using through out your system? and Where are your grounding your amps?

Forget the cap, a decent battery paired with upgraded and properly terminated wires will out perform running a cap, then your system has freedom to move freely anyway.

I agree with Matt, Upgrading the big three should help.

But,
Which Battery did you get?

How big is the amp earth?

Is there another amp?

Are you terminals in good Condition? i.e. Alternator to Battery Link

For interests sake, How have you wired the Dual subs?

I was running a 720 RMS amp, and using all of it, but was only dimming my lights when my battery was in the way out.

I'm using about 1500RMS ATM and the stock Alt is fine and No Caps.