Crazy_Horse

I managed to quiet almost all of my trunk rattles. The foam stuff and dynamat works great. Now I'm noticing that my trunk light and console lights dim to the beat of the music. I think a capacitor would help with this. Are they easy to install? When I finally upgrade my door speakers and add another amp will the cap be enough?

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5% tint, factory spoiler, Infinity Perfect 12.1(2), RF Power500a2. Ungo MS8300 alarm.
2000 Black TL

bahreeTL

a cap should help your situation. to my understanding, a cap stores energy for anytime your amps draw a lot of juice. so instead of drawing everything from your battery, it draws it from the cap.
it's very easy to install. first you need to charge it up.
then hook it up between your distributor block and and battery (in the trunk).
there should be directions from the cap with diagrams to lead you through.

StreetEffectz

You might not even need a cap. What you may need is a relay on the remote turn on lead to the amp. The relay will latch and not cause a power loss over the line to the amp.

haha98

StreetEffectz is right you may not need an amp. I don't have my caps hooked up my stuff doesn't dim with the beat. I went over all of my grounds and that was it.

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1996 2.5 TL Dark Green
HKS Powerflow, HKS Fuel Pressure Regulator, Sebring Exhaust, Jacobs Pro Street, Apex-i AFC, Jet ECU, PIAA 1100x, Clarion 9255, Tube Driver Amps, Boston Pro 10's (2) , CD Technologies 6-4-2, Clarion 6.4 TV's (3), Cliford Avant Guard 4, Trunk, Underdash and Underbody Neons
No nav yet but soon!!!

Nate

My dash lights dim very slightly at idle with long bass hits in rap music... I'm a little confused as to the fix without using a cap?

Any word on those wires Street?

My amp remote wire is hooked into my accessories... is there a better place to use?

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10" Alumapro sub, ZX400 Phoenix Gold amp, Python 1500 ESP alarm (remote start, all windows up & down, sunroof closes, prox, etc), burlwood dash kit and shift knob, factory spoiler.
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Guest

UPGRADE GROUNDS with PROPER termination!!!
An amplifier will only draw a small percentage of its fuse rating even in heavy bass lines (averaged over a few seconds with minor peaks). Everybody's first reaction is to get defensive and say that their install is flawless. This is NEVER true. ANY poor conection, loose ground, not scraping paint at grounding spot, too long of a ground wire, smaller guage wire used for ground, not upgrading the ground from the battery to the chasis, and everything similiar will cause lights to dim. My last system had a combined fuse rating of 290 AMPS. Factory alternator and a 150Amp blade fuse with no dimming at all. Proper sized wire, good connections, no problems. A cap will certainly help with heavy bass lines as far as sound goes; but not much for dimming. If a sub must hit multiple times in a brief period or it must sustain a long bass note you will notice that the last couple of beats or seconds are not as loud as the first. A cap will HELP (not solely solve) this problem. Alumapro's 15 farad cap and their soon to be released 5 farad cap provide the most bang for the buck. But even these impressive pieces are useless if everything else isn't right. Some shops will actually leave questionable connections in an install only to correct them when they sell and install a cap. I love the industry, but don't think those shops don't exist.

Nate

I was thinking about this so I turned on my parking lights while parked in front of a glass building. I watched the parking lights with the music turned up hella loud while playing some pac... the song is filled with bass. It was fine except for one part of the beat where there are 3-4 bass hits then one long deeper hit. For the deep hit the lights dim. =S

I think I'm good at everything you mentioned... though I haven't upgraded the battery's ground. I scraped paint but I'll go back and do it a little better. How long is too long of a ground wire? I needed mine to be about a foot long because of how I have my amp mounted. Is that bad?

What else is there? I'd like to fix this.

Crazy_Horse

Thanks for the advice. I'll try and check the ground connections first. If everything looks fine, then I'll probably just go ahead and add a cap. What size cap do I need?
I do play a lot of rap music, but the dimming seemed to accompany every bass note like some damn EQ readout. I'll also put in some different music and see if it still happens.

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5% tint, factory spoiler, Infinity Perfect 12.1(2), RF Power500a2. Ungo MS8300 alarm.
2000 Black TL

valuetl

Also get a multi meter and check your battery voltage back at your amps during long low bass. If is dropping too low try using a cap. Depends on how big and how many amps you have and their current draw.

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00 non navi TL Firepepper red/ebony, Value Sports Kit, Saber Foglamps, Factory rear spoiler, Gold and wood kits, 18" Alstadt's + Dunlop SP9000's, Apexi exhaust, A'pexi coilovers. Next up who knows?

Crazy_Horse

What's too low? I only have one amp and it's rated at 734 watts RMS.

Ron, how can I test too see if a relay will do the job?

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5% tint, factory spoiler, Infinity Perfect 12.1(2), RF Power500a2. Ungo MS8300 alarm.
2000 Black TL

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by Crazy_Horse on 10-25-2000 @ ]</font>

StreetEffectz

Best thing to do is like Value said. Take a meter and check battery when bass hits hard, han play that same bass and check the voltage at the amp. Also check voltage drop on the remote line. When car is running and bass is hitting, I have found that in most cars, if the voltage drops below 12.2 - 12.8 volts, you will get a dimming effect. You may very well need a cap. The relay does work in a lot of cases for single amp installs and most always works when you just have a high power headunit installed and have the same problem. If you do need a cap, a 1 farad should be fine for your needs. At the same time, that 500a2 is a Rockford after all, and they do pack a punch, so check the ground to the amp, check the ring on the end of the ground wire, make sure it's spliced correctly and on tightly, the screw it is attached too, the post it is attached to...the whole nine.

Guest

If the amplifier sees below 11.5Volts (most amps) on the remote lead, then the amplifier turns off. Most high power headunits draw considerably more power than do the factory units. This coupled with an additional connection through a wiring harness creates an insufficient ground. By adding a relay to the remote lead, you lessen the current draw of the deck, perhaps seemingly solving the problem. But I would be willing to bet that after extended periods of heavy listening, the CD's become hot and there is a noticable difference in the tempature of the face plate. Relays on remote leads are Always a good idea in multiple amplifier/processor installations; but in single amp installs they usually mask a more serious problem. The defining evidence: If voltage loss to 12V on the turn on lead caused lights dimming, then caps (at least a half farad) would be routinely added to the remote lead to stablize the voltage. I actually know a manufacturer's rep who did this once, it isn't by accident that he now sells TV's at a chain store. The reason that relays are added to remote wires in multi amp installs is because most head units only supply up to a half amp output on the remote lead (Rockford being the notable exception). When each amp/processor requires up to 700 milliamps to turn them on, no more than two amps can be turned on without burn the output of the remote lead. Pioneer's remote output is so low that they actually fuse it to decrease the number of 'burned up' radios. Most backyard installers will attempt to apply +12V into the remote turn on lead, as this is a common problem is radios with burnt traces (I certainly don't recommend this as it does even more damage to the circuit board). Sorry for the long response but I will always try to explain the science behind an answer so that you take away the information that will help and leave the rest. Take your time, go through the entire install, and I will bet you that you can find the problem. By the way, tonight I had to replace a customer's amplifier because one of my installers left the factory battery ground with an amp fused at 75Amps. The customer complained of lights dimming and the amp overheating. By the time we got his car into the garage, the ground traces of the amp were already burnt. New amp, upgrade ground, and no lights dimming and a very cool amp. Bottom line, installs cause more problems than any amount of equipment can solve. P.S. The installer will hear my termination and ground lecture AGAIN in the morning. Have patience and good luck.

StreetEffectz

Audio....you want a job? Nice to hear people who know what they are talking about!

Guest

Unfortunately, I have an extreme adversion to work as anything more than a concept. Just kidding, sort of. Great job in this forum. Good luck and peace.

Crazy_Horse

Thanks for the info. I'll go over the install this weekend and see what I can do. Although it may take a while to completly digest all the info Audio gave. I feel like I'm back in school Hey audio, where is your shop located. I'm just a couple hours from Indianpolis. I plan on getting a new headunit and some speakers from street in a few months, maybe I can drop the install business your way. Choices in Champaign are slim. Do you have any pictures of installs on your TL or other cars you could send me?

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5% tint, factory spoiler, Infinity Perfect 12.1(2), RF Power500a2. Ungo MS8300 alarm.
2000 Black TL

Guest

Here are a few installs that we've done. No pictures of my tl until the deck gets installed in January (waiting for 2001 models). I am located in Evansville, IN (southwest corner of the state). About 3 hours from Indy and 2 hours from Terre Haute, meaning that I am around 5 and a half hours from you. We do a lot of work for people in Indy and Cincy. Send me your e mail and I will send pictures (since I can't figure out how to post them on this site.

Nate

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