How does a cap function?
 

I had the impression that my lights and everything won't dim after I bought a cap. Thats not the case.

at idle in my civ. i turn up the stereo and immediately i'm down to 12 something volts. AND my lights still dim. wtf is goin on? I just bought a digital 1 farad cap and it looks as if it works.

it has a automatic digital display that lights up when you turn on your car (or if you do anything power related).... and it constantly reads the voltage...

can someone explain this to me? is this NORMAL?

yea...some cases it just wont work.

it also depends on the condition of the alternator and battery. and in this case, it sounds like the alternator.

No, it's not normal. If your alternator is getting ready to go kapoot on you, which sounds like the case, the cap won't really be effective. In fact, it may add a little more stress to the electrical system at this point. The purpose of a cap is like a small secondary battery kind of...it provides a little extra juice to your amps when they need it for heavy bass notes, etc. By no means do they act as a fix all to an electrical system, unless your amp is needing a LITTLE more power than what the electrical system can dish out. Make sense?

well... i dunno, i think the cap still needed to break in? fully charge up? whatever. cuz it was dimming on one 10" compvr that couldn't even support the wattage i was pushing out. i got my new dx12 back and now its fine... no light dimming anymore. :confused: my car is weird