capacitor, led on all the time? Options

[96stcoupe]

I just installed my capacitor and I have never had one before. My buddy says his has a remote wire. Mine doesn't and the display is on all the time. Is it supposed to be and does that drain down the battery? I am such a moron when it comes to stereos.

[celimanST]

[subsolo_21]

If it doesnt have a remote wire then, yes it is designed to stay on all of the time. It isnt drawing any power from your battery if the system isnt playing, or at least isnt supposed to. If you do have any probs w/ your battery being drained, then id say get a different cap, but u shouldnt have any.

[Digndoug]

ok, iv never worked with a cap with a built on led, i think there just stupid. first off if it does stay on it wont drain yuor battery, its a battery itself, therefor it will drain it self, and then just quick recharge itself when you start you car, depending on how its wiered, .... it all really depends on that,

[96stcoupe]

[Jaws4God]

Yeah I just got mine installed and wondered that myself.. I think it has an autoshut off but not sure what triggers it or the time delay before it does.. we'll see tomorrow if its dead...

[tim86]

mine is the same way... when it detects a change in the voltage or power being drawn then it comes on, and shuts off when its inactive for a minute or so... mine even stays on for a min when i lock the doors and walk away from the car... when i had a ****ty battery, for some reason the cap drained it a few times always drawing power, but havnt had problems since i got my optima

[6gsillyca]

mine stays on for 2 minutes after I turn my system off, then the display shuts off. havent had any problems with draining batt since i got another cap. my first one, the terminals under the plastic came loose (were stripped) so it kept connecting and disconnecting, and every time it did it would turn on again for another 2 minutes. doing this all night killed my battery.

[Niskyspy]

Ok, eh I didnt read through the whole post so if I am just repeating what people said before then sorry:
1) There is no turn on wire
2) It shouldn't stay on.

Ok I'll do a lil explanation for ya'll here .
Cap stop's charging, discharging after a couple of minutes. It charges up and turns off. To test this you will have to turn off your car close all the doors turn off all the lights and sit there starting at your capacitor. The reason it seems like the cap doesnt turn off is becaues when lets say you open your trunk to look at it, your roof light turns on, or if you have an alarm the alarm uses electircity to flash the car's lights, open the doors or beep. In all of these cases power from battery is being taken, the cap see's it and because discharge time on capacitor is way faster then battery it uses the charge of capacitor. And since there is a change in voltage at the capacitor it thinks that you are playing you system and that is the reason why its led, volt gauge turns on. If I confused anyone sorry!!!

This post has been edited by Niskyspy: Oct 23, 2006 - 4:58 PM

[Jaws4God]

Ok, eh I didnt read through the whole post so if I am just repeating what people said before then sorry:
1) There is no turn on wire
2) It shouldn't stay on.

Ok I'll do a lil explanation for ya'll here .
Cap stop's charging, discharging after a couple of minutes. It charges up and turns off. To test this you will have to turn off your car close all the doors turn off all the lights and sit there starting at your capacitor. The reason it seems like the cap doesnt turn off is becaues when lets say you open your trunk to look at it, your roof light turns on, or if you have an alarm the alarm uses electircity to flash the car's lights, open the doors or beep. In all of these cases power from battery is being taken, the cap see's it and because discharge time on capacitor is way faster then battery it uses the charge of capacitor. And since there is a change in voltage at the capacitor it thinks that you are playing you system and that is the reason why its led, volt gauge turns on. If I confused anyone sorry!!!

yeah i noticed that too, when I turn my alarm on the cap flashes telling me it had a change in the system..

but i did take out the back tray cover so I could see the cap without opening the trunk, and it stayed on all night.. it read 13.7 volts at 11pm then in the morning was reading 13.6 before I even touched anything on the car...

but it does start up so..

[Niskyspy]

Weird, its either a ****ty cap, or ur something is discharging your battery and your cap see's the voltge drop.

[Jaws4God]

mine is the same way... when it detects a change in the voltage or power being drawn then it comes on, and shuts off when its inactive for a minute or so... mine even stays on for a min when i lock the doors and walk away from the car... when i had a ****ty battery, for some reason the cap drained it a few times always drawing power, but havnt had problems since i got my optima

well I had a problem with my battery going dead.. I thought it was just the crappy battery I had before, so now I have an Optima.. but after leaving the car sit for 4 days.. the Optima was dead..

anyone think it was the cap that caused it?

[tim86]

mine is the same way... when it detects a change in the voltage or power being drawn then it comes on, and shuts off when its inactive for a minute or so... mine even stays on for a min when i lock the doors and walk away from the car... when i had a ****ty battery, for some reason the cap drained it a few times always drawing power, but havnt had problems since i got my optima

well I had a problem with my battery going dead.. I thought it was just the crappy battery I had before, so now I have an Optima.. but after leaving the car sit for 4 days.. the Optima was dead..

anyone think it was the cap that caused it?

hmm if an optima is dead after sitting a few days, I'd like to say that the cap isnt doing its job and some source is draining power from it...

[Jaws4God]

does anyone know how many amps a 4 Farad cap would pull?

[vsideboy]

Try writing to Rockford Fosgate, see if they can tell you the best way to wire it up for your car?

I've found companies to be quite helpful when asked.