question concerning car audio capacitors...?

J

jcro8829

New member
I added a 20V capacitor (can't remember how many farad) to my 250 watt amplifier. I was getting a check engine light before I added the capacitor, so i went to the dealership to have it checked out. For some reason the amp was pulling to much power from the battery.

a few weeks after I hooked up the amp, I noticed some strange sounds coming from it. At one point it started make a loud clicking sound about ever second.
Once I pinpointed the problem I unhooked the amps power wire from the battery. I then let it sit for a while unhooked. I then reattached the wire to the battery. The clicking had stopped at this point.

the capacitor has an electronic cap. Once i unhooked the power wire and reattached it... It worked normally. the digital cap displayed a 12.1 which means about 12.1 volts.

The polarity is clearly marked. I have the correct wire attached to their correct location.

what exactly is causing this clicking sound. Is there something wrong with the capacitor? What should do if there is a problem?


I drive a 2008 Nissan frontier
the amp is a Sony Xplod 250 watt 2 channel

I have s sony xplod 800 watt 10" subwoofer attached ( the 250 watt amp surprisingly make this woofer sound really good)
 
remove the cap

If you send too much power to your sub, you risk damaging it. The cone of the speaker and the mechanical parts that make it move may break under the stress. Surprisingly, too little power can also damage your subwoofer — in fact, it's actually more common than damage caused by overpowering.
When the volume is turned up and the amp doesn't have enough power, the signal becomes distorted, or "clipped." This distorted signal can cause parts of the speaker to overheat, warp and melt. Not good!
You don't have to match speaker and amp wattages exactly. An amp with a higher output than the speaker's rating won't necessarily damage the speaker — just turn the amp down a bit if you hear distortion from the sub and don't run the speaker at extremely loud volumes for lengthy periods. Likewise, you'll be OK with a lower powered amp if you keep the volume down and don't feed a distorted signal to the sub
you will send the amp into clipping
Clipping
Clipping occurs when an amplifier is asked to deliver more current to a speaker than the amp is capable of doing. When an amplifier clips, it literally cuts off the tops and bottoms of the musical waveforms that it's trying to reproduce, thus the term. This introduces a huge amount of distortion into the output signal. Clipping can be heard as a crunching sound on musical peaks.
that causes distorted sound which will damage your subs over time

to maximize clean signal strength from your amp, you need to adjust the gain or input sensitivity settings. Here's how:
Set the input sensitivity controls of your amplifier to their minimum level (counter clockwise).
Put in a CD and turn the receiver's volume control up (you might have to raise the amp's gain just a bit to hear the music).
When you hear distortion, stop. Turn the volume down until it disappears. As much signal as possible is passing from the receiver to the amp. This maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio, and leaves your system less prone to engine noise problems. Keep the volume setting here.
Now turn the gain controls on the amplifier up until it's as loud as you'll play it. If you hear distortion, slightly decrease the gain settings.
Now you've optimized the amp's output with the receiver's volume set near maximum. You can turn the volume almost all the way up and not damage your speakers or amplify distortion. If you're hooking up a subwoofer, a test disc (or bass-heavy CD) is helpful for making final adjustments
 
Sounds like your amp settings are turned up too high, and are driving the subs into CLIPPING...Check the settings on the amp, and as far as the capacitor it's basically a waste of money...U really just needed a bigger battery , but that amp is not that big so ur battery is probably bad. Go to autozone and have it checked.....And turn down the settings on the amp especially the gain...the amp should never be turned up more than 3/4..

Also most amps only take about 2 volts, so if the gain is up too high and ur feeding it too many volts, then ur going to have problems with the amp....Check ur amp manual or online and find out how many volts it takes.....
 
Sounds like your amp settings are turned up too high, and are driving the subs into CLIPPING...Check the settings on the amp, and as far as the capacitor it's basically a waste of money...U really just needed a bigger battery , but that amp is not that big so ur battery is probably bad. Go to autozone and have it checked.....And turn down the settings on the amp especially the gain...the amp should never be turned up more than 3/4..

Also most amps only take about 2 volts, so if the gain is up too high and ur feeding it too many volts, then ur going to have problems with the amp....Check ur amp manual or online and find out how many volts it takes.....
 
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