cap problem

i just got a powerk acoustik 3 farad digi readout cap.i hooked it up it work fine for a min then it lost power and shut off my amps.i tryed to charge it again with and without the resistor and it will only go up to 8.3 volts which isnt enough for my amps any ideas whats wrong?

You battery is dead. Get it tested, then get a new one. Sell the caps and buy a High Output alternator instead. Paul

He didn't say anything is wrong with his car.. Maybe his cap is busted? Are you charging it with the little light bulb thing that comes with it? Does it just stay lit? Hold old is the cap? What kinda amp are you trying (or tried) to run off of it? Lots more info man lots more.

What are you two talking about? His post is "cap problem" not "my car won't start." He said "my cap won't charge" not "my entire electrical system is screwed" If his battery is dead and is only holding 8 volts or so then his car certainly won't start and he probably isn't ripping out his cap to recharge it with a dead battery.. I mean, usually there are more clues to a bad battery than a amp cutting out and we can assume ancona has an absolute minimum amount of intelligence, right? =) Instead he said "my cap won't charge." Its not your fault ancona, if you say "cap" on this board ppl don't bother reading your post and just hit reply with "You wasted ur money buy an HO alt" Its a automatic-response really.... akin to that reflex thing the doctor does with that little rubber mallet. ancona: You provided almost no useful information except that your cap isn't charging like it is supposed to after your amp shut down. Unlike these guys, I'll give you benefit of the doubt and assume your minimally competent and not trying to charge a cap off of a dead battery immediately after killing it with an amplifier. So: 1)What kind of amp are you trying to run? 2)When did it shut down? In the middle of a big bass drop? 3)Have you upgraded any other wiring in your electrical system like your battery-groud wire? 4)What happens when you just remove the cap, and hook the amp up to the car straight off the + of the battery? Lots more info man lots more.

There are two options here. The problem is either the cap or the battery. If the car won't start, its the battery. If the car does start, its the cap. If its the battery, go get you a new one. If it's the cap, throw it away. Nik

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Check it out.

Look, if the cap's will only charge to 8.3 volts, then the battery isn't sending it 12 volts, which means the battery is dead. I do believe we had this exact same question over in the General section a few days ago. Yep, here it is. https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=53758&PN=1 Paul

Absolutely and in that post "Coomer" actually provided enough information for a diagnosis. All this guy said was "my cap won't charge" which *might* be a crappy battery or a bad cap or a crappy ground or 100 other things."I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

/Agree w/ Sedate. In my experience voltage problems at the audio system are usually grounding issues rather than overall car electrical issues (especially if the rest of the car is behaving). That said, like Sedate already mentioned, it could be any number of issues. A more complete analysis and more information are probably needed to help this user. :-) Ooonik: how is the carpu... I mean Jeeputer coming along? New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

i figured it out the problem was not my battery my car is only 6 mos old..the problem was i did not know the second lug on the cap was a ground for the display i thought it wa s if u wanted to ground your amp to it which i did not the display was draining the cap while it was trying to charge thus y it only reached 8 volts as soon as i grounded from the 2nd lug it held its charge before someone gets smart the manual for the cap said nothing about hooking 2 grounds thanks anyway tho