Originally posted by arch iceman
AcuraFanatic, your car should be fine without a cap.
Fastball, not neccesarily true about caps being overrated and for show.
You do have a valid point that most vehicles can support all onboard components and that is how they are tested.
I can show you an amp rated at 25 watts x 2, 50 watts total. The current draw on this amp is a continuous 50 amps. We measure this ourselves on a test bench with Precision Power technicians, its not a fuse rating or manufacturer rating. That is over half of the typical 90 amper altenators on most new vehicles.
In the past I think I read the ratings to operate a vehicle it takes about 15 amps for the air conditioning, and another 15 for the automatic transmission, Im not sure what the distributor and motor required, but assume 15 as well. Thats 45 amps without headlights or radio.
Arch, I'm not doubting your expertise one bit, but I work on car amps every day (not install, repair) and I've NEVER seen one that can draw more than one or two amps at idle, and when injected with a 10khz sine wave, mabe 10 amps at 14.4vdc constant at just below clipping. We use 4 ohm dummy load resistors which emulate speakers perfectly without a voice coil. We have very accurate 12 volt power supplies that have precise meters for voltage and current. In 5 years, I have never seen a car amp pull 50 amps continuous. Mabe -- MABE -- 20. Heck, the 32 volt B+ regulators will short out way before 50 amps, I don't care whose name is on the heat sink! Not to mention open all the emitter resistors in the channel and blow the ground even before the fuse blows. What do you use as loads, coat hangers?