I'm pretty sure I need a 1farad cap as my interior lights dim when my subs hit... so my stupid question is this: where inline do I wire it? I imagine I wire it between my amp and the subs... is this right? Also, are any 1farad caps better than any other? Any specs or anything I should pay attention to when buying?

 

you wire the cap as close to the amp as possible. You intercept the power lead from the battery onto positive post of cap, then attach another lead from the cap to the amp. use the same gauge of wire when you do this. Most new caps are like 199 because they have digital read outs which is nice to see to compliment the install but you already got a read on your battery meter gauge. so your preference.

 

I once heard someone say 'there are no stupid questions, just stupid people....' hehe j/k

A 1f cap will help with your dimming lights, but its really a band-aid. You need to upgrade your electrical system(alternaotr, battery, or both to handle the higher load). A cap HAS to be wired on the power side of the amp, not the speaker side (you are thinking cap as in low pass passive crossover I think).

Terminal of the cap needs to be as close to the 12vdc wire on the amp. Just take the power wire going to the amp now and cut it, crimp a ring terminal on each end of the freshly cut cable and put them on the cap. Keep the ground wire of the cap as short as possible and try to ground it to the same place the amps are grounded, but on necesarrily inline with the ground wire.

Last time I checked there were only like three places in the world that actually manufactured capacitors. I wouldn't be surprised if every 1F cap was manufactured by the same company and the resold to everyone else. A cap is NOT something a car audio company is going to have the time and technology to actually build themselves.

Kevin Pierson
www.KPtechnologies.net