Voltage Stabilizer?

[Stoney89]

I just Bought a voltage stabilizer off of E-Bay for my mx-3, does anyone else have one on there car because im usually really worried about ebay parts.

[bawolvesfan]

to my knowledge all they really do is act like another battery i cant imagine it really doing anything. if u do have problems that u think you need this your better off with a good battery and a grounding kit...but since u bought it i dont think it can harm anything

[Limegreen mx-3]

to be truthfull u just wasted ur money. but hey to each his own.

[Yoda]

All many of these voltage stabilizers are is just a few cheap capasitor in a box. I've been installing a at least a 470000 mF cap in my cars for the last 20 some odd years even before people started to use them for their car audio system. In the old days it just helped to keep a constant voltage to the ignition coil so that maximum amount of juice was available to the plugs. These days the caps not only stablize voltage to the ignition but the injectors, fuel pump and ECU as well. It is not unusual to see the voltage drop from 13.8-14.0V down to 11.2V to the fuel pump and injectors on a modern EFI car after a second or two at WOT or when an electrical assessory kick in like a cooling fan. These days you can often pick up 1/2 and 1 farad car audio caps in the surplus section of Princess Auto store or industrial electronic surplus stores for CN$20-30 each. The other good thing about using a cap is that it filters some the of the line noise from the Alternator to the ECU making the car run smoother as well. Keep in mind the this modification is only as good as the componants used so make your interconnetions with good quality solid copper terminal lugs and wire with the highest number of strands for a given gauge such as welding cable

[Mooneggs]

so in your opinion then a cap is a good investment? but the "voltage stablizer" is overrated and overpriced for what it is?

we could be saving money by just using a cap?

[fowljesse]

Yeah. Is this worthwhile?

[SuperK]

where in the wiring system would it be wisest to install the caps?

I'm seeing a lot of potential advantages running with a cap, especially with all the electrical issues I'm having with BOTH cars at the moment

[hotsiit]

I have the same questions as mooneggs and superK. This sounds interesting to me, and could possibly end up on me to-do list.

[Nd4SpdSe]

This could be moved to the electronics section

The voltage stablizer would be handy to level out slight variations in varying voltage, nothing major in terms of power it carries or the draw on the car's system.

Caps have their use, but they *don't fix* electrical problems, only hiding it as well as could be making it worse. Caps store power. They are really handy in places where you get a fast high-draw load on the car's system, like a base hit for a subwoofer. The thing with a cap is that once it's power was used, it needs to recharge itself, becoming a load, a burden on the system rather than relief. It's handy cause the sudden surge from a base hit is hard on an alternator, so that relieves that, but like i said, I needs to recharged afterwards.

If your trying to fix electrical problems with a car, a cap just hides it, which would actually make things worse, or just delay the inevitable. The cause is usually either the battery or the alternator. It would be wise to replace the defective/worn components that are causing the problems before trying to hide the problem with other parts.

BTW, caps are installed in parallel to the equipment that causes the draw on the system

[projectmx]

i'm curious about this also cause i'll be running a standalone ecu and i'd like to make sure stuff like that are protected and always recieve what they need, i'm sure my plugs and CAS would enjoy some help also

[Custommx3]

Moved to Electrical and Lighting.