Originally Posted by
sk8erjosh09
The only time I have ever needed a capacitor was in my old car running 4 10's via 1600 watt's RMS. I bought a 1 farad. Yes that would probably help in my new situation but I am only running 2 10's now at 400 watt's RMS. If I threw the 1 farad cap in, it would eventually reach a limit when I upgrade. So instead of spending alot of money for a good cap, I could just buy a bigger alternator to do the same thing, correct? If the alternator is the power supply for the car once running, wouldnt a bigger alternator supply enough power evenly to the battery (which is where my power wire is connected) to avoid spikes/flickering?
Capacitors, lets say a 5 farad, which would be more than enough for your current system or anything you want to upgrade to that would fit in a XF are like $100 on fleabay and will greatly reduce the strain on your OEM alternater. Lets consider the alternate, a new, larger alternater or getting yours double spun, either option is minimum 5x the cost of the capacitor. Get the cheap insurance because if you continue to drive it the way it is, you are going to lose an alternater and that will be a lot more than the capacitor.
Just my $0.02