GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Well, my system was not on the top of my priority list but I just kept adding and adding to it, couldn't resist. My friend got a shiny new red capacitator and I liked how it performed and looked a lot so I got one myself for $50 from a friend that hooks us up.Mine was actually brushed aluminum and orange/red/yellow flames but I traded my friend for his red one (only one day old) since it matches my red/black theme. It looks and works awsome. By the way it is a WölfenHagen...not sure if it's a goodbrand name but it works and I like it.I have it sitting on the floor for now but I am milling up some custom aluminum brackets for it in metal shop and I'm going to mount it on the passenger side in front on the side of the carpet under the glove box next to the shifter. I will put the brackets under the carpet and bolt the CAP to the bracket with the carpet in between becaause I don't wana drill into any metal. Also right now I'm using wire i got from the hardware store as temporary wire. Once I get some real 4 gauge power wire I will re-route it to my desired position. the wire on there now is soooo corse its like a 4 gauge copper rod lol...

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In the dark. Blue LED and red digital display.

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Looks good! Hope nobody has to sit back there!

lol, i make them sit on the left for now. That's why I'm moving it. It says to keep it as close to the amp as possible. The amps under my seat so the place I plan to permanentally mount it is a good spot to show it off and keep it out of the way.

Looks nice Merz, I just got a new CAP too should be here in a couple days I decided to go with a 2 FARAD Boss so it could handle the 1,800 drain from the ampi'll post pics when I get it

Nice install man. I'm not a big fan of that brand. But I haven't really heard much of them. I heard their subs they make once. They sounded alright.Inder

what exactly are the benefits of a cap? is there a way to tell if you need one?

a cap helps smooth out the power to the amp. if your lights dim when your sub hits you prolly need one.

Quote, originally posted by russ257 »a cap helps smooth out the power to the amp. if your lights dim when your sub hits you prolly need one. Stole the words right out of my mouth, but in the case of the Vibe, my lights still dim a little WITH a 1 Farad Boss cap!

Yeah it didn't help with the lights dimming. They don't dim when the subs hit but they dim when I roll down the windows. How can I tell how many Farads the cap is? I couldn't find the label.

See if it has a model number then just look it up online or something MerzAlso, it seems to me that when you have a capacitor installed the amp overheats less (or thats how it seemed whe my friend and i were messing with his system with and without the cap).

kind of looks like a bomb!

(removed), it kind of is one. If you touch both terminals it'll give oyu a heaart attack lol. Probably not that bad but I'm sure if I stabbed someone with it it would hurt.....like a tazer.

Ok so in the process of remounting my CAP, it blew somehow. I got a new one for free. This one is also red with a red LED instead of blue. This one's stronger as well. It's 1.5 Farens. I will take pics of it tomorow and also of my sweet mounting position.

the capacitor is only storing 12V DC right? so if you touched both terminals, your body resistance would be so high that there would not be enough current to do any damage. If you got a metal conductor across both terminals, you'd probaby see some serious sparks, but your body isn't a good enough conductor to have any trouble with 12V Just don't lick it or something stupid. You could probably invent some way to have it hurt, but just contacting 12V is not deadly.

You are charging the cap with some sort of resistor before connecting it to the battery, right? Caps like these need to be charged up, otherwise they'll get really unhappy and eventually fail.

Yeah I had it moved and it wasn't charging or discharging so when I had my friend look at it I think he touched the positive power cable to the negative because it sparked real bad and it blew my fuse in the amps power line. I couldn't see what he did cause his head was in the way. He took my cap and tested it on his system and it blew his fuse as well so he exchanged it for my new one and bought me a new fuse. This one is running at 13.8volts and the other one ran at 14.4.Here are the new pictures. I am going to turn the cap around and wire it up under the carpet once I get some real power wire because this sh*t I'm using now is waaay to strong to bend at the angles I would need.

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The mounting spot.

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Merz I like the cap however in my end of the woods that would be stolen in about 15 minutes. Is that the permanent spot?

Yeah, I'm going to turn it around when I get real stereo wire so the terminals arn't jabbing into people's legs and giving them heart attacks. I park in the garage and if I'm not home I keep a close watch on her. Also no one around here knows what a CAP is. They all think it's some kind of bomb or tazer when I show them. AND as an extra precaution I put my cd books in front of it when I leave so you can't see it from outside My amps unde rhte seat out of sight and subs are under the cargo cover in the back.

Now..wait a minute...how do you have that cap hooked up? There should be at least three hookups. - Ground to chassis- +12v from battery- Output to amp The last two should both be going to the positive terminal..I only see two wires on yours?

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »Now..wait a minute...how do you have that cap hooked up? There should be at least three hookups. - Ground to chassis- +12v from battery- Output to amp The last two should both be going to the positive terminal..I only see two wires on yours?Hmm, I didn't even notice that! Hope he doesn't just have it run from the +/- of the amp instead of off of the power wire before the amp!

You can easily daisy chain the cap to the amp's (+ BATT) terminal. It looks a lot cleaner IMO when you have only 1 wire per terminal on the cap. All splices should be made with a junction block. Caps don't normally provide enough amperage to need a dedicated wire to the battery and another to the amp.

Quote, originally posted by Celtic_Curse »Merz I like the cap however in my end of the woods that would be stolen in about 15 minutes. Is that the permanent spot? Yeah bro, might want to move it again. Here's where I mounted mine:Quote »My amps unde rhte seat out of sight and subs are under the cargo cover in the back.Ahh, I see why it'd be hard to mount them in the back. You should mount the cap as close to the amp as possible with as little wire as possible, so unless you move the amp, it'd be pretty far from it.

I wired it into the positive cable before the amp. and the neg is going to ground undercarpet Yeah I put it there because the amps under the seat and because I think it looks neat.

Quote, originally posted by Merzbow » because I think it looks neat.you know what Merz? That's really all that matters

(removed)! Is that a nice way of saying "You're such a stupid @$$ installing it wrong that I'm just going to pretend I didn't see it" I know that's what you're thinking lol.Just wait til I get my 56" spinnaz and my 54inch flip down plasma and then we'll see who's dumb (removed)!

Quote, originally posted by Merzbow »(removed)! Is that a nice way of saying "You're such a stupid @$$ installing it wrong that I'm just going to pretend I didn't see it" I know that's what you're thinking lol.Just wait til I get my 56" spinnaz and my 54inch flip down plasma and then we'll see who's dumb (removed)!hahaha ROFLMAO

Yeah dawg, my dad gave me $18000 to buy something so Ima buy sum phat azz dub duces and paint hte spinna to match the Escalade I found under a rock in Detroit.Sigh...if I had 18grand I'd buy myself an S14 Silvia and a '68 Baracuda to modify the hell out of.

Sweet I just got my new cap today! gonna install it this weekend

lemme see pics! I was lookin in a magizine and it was selling the digital counters for the CAPS for $130!!!!!!!!!!!! Just for the counter! Mine was $50 including the LED and digital counter. I got mine for factory price though

I paid about 50 bones for my cap too....$130 for the counter?!?! What's it do, watch your weight as well?!

and the purpose for this is?!?!

Mine was 62 shipped, but it is 2 FARADS

Yeah see it seems that everyone got a good deal I don't see how they get off selling a digital volt counter for $130!?!?!?rcasciola I think we mentioned the function of the cap somewhere back a few posts, if not I can explain it again I like that it looks like a little bomb. When my friends get in the car they are afraid of it which is a good way to stop them from touching it and screwing with the sires because I told them they would probably have a heart attack if they touched it.

haha good way to keep friends away..dnt touch it or youll DIE!!!

(removed)! They allways get greasy fingerprints on it because they don't know how to close a door wiith the handles! I have little scratches on my door from my ex and her bracelets as well. So yeah the best way to get them to stop is to tell them it will hurt them (removed).

i totally kno what u mean about those finger prints...but are u getting ang sound difference? better or worse?

Personally it sounds a little cleaner. I can tell its working because whne i have it real loud the colts fluctuate when it hits. I'm not sure if it really did make it sound better or it's just my mind wanting it to sound better but it sure seems like it lol.