amp shutting off.

I have two power capasitors connected to two rockford fosgate amps. When I turn up to 3/4 volumn, my capasitor voltage is dropping below 9 volts and the amp shuts down. After about 3 seconds, it comes back on. 

I am currently running 2 1 farrad capasitors for two rockford fosgate 501s amps in the bridged mode.  Do I need to upgrade to a larger capasitor or is there something I'm missing? Thanks.

A simple solution.

Take a dmm and measure the voltage AT the battery terminals while the system is operating . Increase the volume level as you watch the voltage. It will drop some but if it's going any below 12v  while the car is running, your charging system is either not up to task, or has an issue. (defective alternator/regulator, too small a ga, or poor connection from alt. to batt......batt to ground)

If the voltage drops a little, but fairly stable as volume increases, the problem is with the power wire (too small a ga. or poor connection along the line, fuse perhaps, gotta check it tip to stern) could be the ground(s) as well (mentioned ealier), Use you meter and check the resistance from the - terminal of the amp to the grounding point for excessive resistance.

If you have any suspect readings, redo the ground (corrosion, poor connection, poor conductor or poor grounding point.

Once the voltage drop issue is corrected we can worry about ohms..this system has a votlage drop problem.

Keep us posted.

Hey nouse..I needed you today on tips. someone tried to hammerbag me but he was "served" and served HARD. Check it when you get a chance, topic was remote start related.

But to the problem at hand...

Are you sure another cap won't help this problem????

Don't they fix everything???  lol

The "magic" box?

I actually removed the cap from my system because I wanted the headlights to dim with the music but it didn't help..darn. I guess i'll just have to rewire my car with thinner wires.

Thanks for the responce. Here are some of the information I left out.

The vehicle is a 98 Toyota Tacoma. I are running 3 Infinity Subs on the 2 Forgate amps. One 501 is on a 4 ohm Infinity Sub and the other 2 Infinity Subs are dual voice coils wired in series-parallel so the other 501 is seeing a 4 0hm load in bridged mode. 

I did notice a corrosion issue with my factory battery terminals but I replaced them with gold connections. My alternator is stock.  I was thinking about an upgrade but am not sure if I should look for a new alternator or have my original upgraded to larger amp output.  What do you think?

I was not having any issues with voltage drop until I adjusted the gain on my amps higher. I do not hear any distortion at 3/4's volumn and would really  hate to turn them down because they are hitting really hard.  If upgradeing the alternator would not fix this issue, I may have to turn the amps down a little.

Thanks, Twistedtuk.

Let me know the total RMS power of all your amplifiers @ 2ohms.  In addition, let me know the output rating (in amps) of your stock alternator.

I believe from what you stated you have one bridged @4ohm to 2 subs. The other is a single 4 ohm load bridged to an identical amp. So both amps are operating at 2ohms.

Regardless, this does not seem to me to be enough power to be dropping the voltage at the cap/amp to 9v due to the stock alternators rating, unless of course there is a problem with the alternator.

Do the tests I reccomended with the DMM. This is not to say you shouldn't upgrade your alternator anyhow. In reality the problem you are having will not go away by upgrading the alternator if the votlage drop issue is elsewhere in the system.

One more thing.

Are these "501's" mono amplifiers? If so, they are only seeing the 4 ohm load.  If this is the case those amps are using only half of thier RMS rated output.

Keep that in mind before spending money you don't need too ---