Bought a Batcap400, but still dimming!

[MisterT]

(hand) I just installed it yesterday. Does any one have one and can give me advice. They recommend running a ground to the battery, but said it would be okay to ground to the chassis. I am using 4 gauge power and grounds for the batcap and 8 gauge from the amps (less than 2 feet of power wire). I am running a JBL BP600.1 Class D amp and a SoundStream Class A6.0 (roughly 50 watts RMS per channel in to 12 volts and 150 in to 14.4 volts) for my mids and highs. Dimming is still the same with or without the batcap.

FYI, I installed it, ran the car for 20 minutes, drove with the radio off for about 30 minutes, and then turned the HU on, but had the volume at 0 in hopes of charging it properly. Then last night, I took it for a test run and dimming still persists. (poke) WTF? Any suggestions?(help)

I have never had so many problems as with my Pro than any other car.(blackpro) (uhm)

 

[servoeyes]

Sounds like you're in tha same boat as me. I checked all my wiring with a DMM. I switched my ground to one that was continuous (bare metal, right on the body). I played with my amp settings. I tested my red top with the car off (12.4V). I tested my battery with the car running (14.2-14.6 at idle). I tested my battery with the car on and radio up. At full volume my charge to the battery drops below 13V...but only on heavy bass hits. Even with proper grounds on the amps and only ~500W total (if that). The only idea I've got left is to upgrade the wire from the alt to the battery.

 

[viper624]

Did you upgrade the alt. and battery wires ("the big 3")? That plus a optima battery solved my problem. I heard caps were just something else the alt. had to charge. I was told not to use them for my dimming problem. Hope this helps

 

[MisterT]

I have a deep cell battery with a little over 1000 CCAs and a 4 gauge groundkit. I did upgrade the wires from the alt to the fuse box and from the fuse box to the battery in the past and nothing (after the 4 gauge groundkit). The batcap is supposed to be equivilant to 100 stiffening caps. I drove today for an hour to let it charge. The guy who sold it to me had it out of his car for a month and a half. It is about 9 months old. The life expectancy is 3-6 years. (notcool)(scratch)

(blackpro)(piss)

 

[MisterT]

GRR!!! I drove around for an hour today without music, unhooked one of my DVC ED subs so that the amp would be running at 2 ohms versus 1 ohm, and the s*** still ******* dims!!! I might as well have torched $130 I paid for the flippin' thing!!!(chair) (rant) (pissed)

 

[bonesmp5]

dimming of the lights and s*** seems to be a big problem with or cars -- i havent done anything about it yet cause i read post like this -- where peeps have tried this and tried that and still nothing -- i do have a 1 fared cap but you cant tell its there --

 

[MisterT]

yeah I have a 1.5 farad cap and thought perhaps it was no good. I put some needle nose pliers to it and POW sparks flew! It didn't make a difference in my Pro either. The 2001 has a meager 70 amp alternator. This is the only drawback I have about the Protege.

 

[bonesmp5]

would rebuilding the altenator help -- and how do you like your kick pods -- i didnt do pods cause i thought i would hit it when i shifted

 

[Bigg Tim]

With the Batcap, you NEED to have the ground run to the batcap!!!! It needs to have a complete current to and from the batcap. An alternate to doing this is to ground then engine bay like a "halo" system. This will make the entire car chasis a "real" ground and will let the batcap have it's ground that is needed. It will also give your car a little more power, but I don't think you can feal it. I installed mine and got the same thing as you guys. My stereo wasn't much louder either. Once I grounded the engine bay, MAN what a difference the bass was. So try this way or run the 4 gauge back to the batcap for the ground.

 

[MisterT]

I did a groundkit in the past and even ran 4 gauge to the alternator and no such luck. The only other alternative is to run a ground wire from the battery to the batcap. All the amps grounds are run to the negative terminal of the batcap and the batcap to the car chassis. It seems like I have spent more money trying to get rid of the dim versus on any thing else (when you include wires, ring terminals, accessories, battery, etc).

 

[MisterT]

I posted this at clubprotege, but Richard Clark on carsound.com mentioned that running a ground wire to the battery (suggested by Xstatic) versus chassis is no different. So my question is this:

Are Batcaps useless as stiffening caps are? (uhm)

I would also like to find someone with a batcap who had dimming before hand and then after the install, the dimming stopped.

 

[servoeyes]

make sure to check the continuity of your current ground...get a DMM, set it to resistance. If you don't get a reading from your negative on the batcap to the ground point (meaning if you don't even get a number...) then you need to clean up your ground. You should get 0.00 ideally.

 

[MisterT]

The ground is located under behind the rear seat just under the carpet in the middle (if that helps). Also, there is nothing that the bolt was originally holding down, maybe it is there because the P5 uses the location for something else. I was at my parents yesterday and should have taken a pic from my dad's digital camera. I am going to play with the ground and see about finding another one. My car is a 2001 too, BTW. Maybe I can find a better location for a ground. I don't have any volt meters. I had a digital one and gave it away to my ex's father (browny points at the time ). Now I am meterless.

 

[servoeyes]

damn...see...I test my original ground and the bolt was resitive, the surface was resistive...the only thing that wasn't was the nut. So I relocated a few inches to one of the bolts that holds the tail lights in...it's right against the body frame...I tehn sanded the area immediately surrounding the bolt (that grey paint/primer over the frame is non-conductive) and made sure I had a continuity from the amps to that point...the bear metal. Worked...but I still get dimming...I think I just need to let the battery recharge...so I've been keeping the system down a bit.

 

[MisterT]

I'll give it a try and see what happens. I'll let you know. I am going to tinker with it after work today. I should have enough daylight to get it done since it is not that big of project and then the test drive tonight. I have yet to hear back from Xstatic. Surprisingly because they usually respond fast. Thanks for the input.

 

[MisterT]

I just tried that Servo and am waiting for it to get dark so I can test it out. I also put the other sub back in to the equation. God I hope it works. One thing though, when discharging the stiffening cap I had previously, I would disconnect the inline fuse for no power to the amps, run the radio which played maybe a second before the juice in the cap was gone, then could disconnect every thing. With the batcap, I did the same, but the amps didn't even power up for a second once the inline fuse was removed. I would have thought it would play a little bit before it ran out of juice (the batcap with all of it's storage). Is this a wrong assumption? Thanks!

 

[servoeyes]

I just tried that Servo and am waiting for it to get dark so I can test it out. I also put the other sub back in to the equation. God I hope it works. One thing though, when discharging the stiffening cap I had previously, I would disconnect the inline fuse for no power to the amps, run the radio which played maybe a second before the juice in the cap was gone, then could disconnect every thing. With the batcap, I did the same, but the amps didn't even power up for a second once the inline fuse was removed. I would have thought it would play a little bit before it ran out of juice (the batcap with all of it's storage). Is this a wrong assumption? Thanks!

Dunno...batcaps are a weird thing...they're like a quick discharge battery more than a normal cap. I'm not sure exactly how they work...but a ton of people swear by them.

 

[MisterT]

I just took a test drive and still get dimming like before after moving the ground. Is there a way to test it via volt meter to see if the thing is defective or not. I don't know if I bought a lemon or what. The guy who sold it to me has been really helpful with suggestions. It was in his Honda Accord, but his set up was more SQ versus SQ/SPL like mine. I am not using HUGE amps. I am using a JBL BP600.1 Class D on the bass and an inefficient Class A amp (SoundStream) on the highs, but since on the highs, it shouldn't draw THAT much current. I still have yet to hear from Xstatic (the makers of the batcap).

 

[MisterT]

I noticed dimming, but not as bad as before, but enough to definitely notice. This a.m. on the way to work I drove with no radio on in hopes for a good charging of the batcap. Hopefully, it will work properly if I leave the car running for a while. Still no word from XStatic. Funny thing is that the 1st time I emailed them, they responded quickly, but since the problems, nothing!

 

[sam1]

my lights hardly dim at all and ive got 1000w. also, i dont think caps are used to fix dimming problems. they are only there to give the amp a constant voltage like 14.4 or whatever. so youll probably dim worse with a cap because the battery and alt have that much more to charge. to fix dimming, youll need a good battery and a better alternator.