Busted Capacitor
 

So I recently put a wooden board in my trunk underneath my sub with velcro so my sub wouldn't slide around. Everything goes well until I turn my car on and there's no sound. I look in my trunk and neither of my amps have their power lights on. My guess is that it's my capacitor as the sub has both amps attached to the box as well as the capacitor. When it slid around a few months back it actually cracked the capacitor and while the wiring is still attached and it worked fine, I fear that at some point of sliding the board underneath the sub I may have caused the capacitor to hit the top of the trunk and that it finally gave in. I noticed no wires loose or no longer attached.

I have two amps and 2 subs. One amp for my 2 front speakers and one for my 2 subs. Can I just take the wires and hook it up directly, bypassing the capacitor all together? Is the cross over integral to a car audio system? I'll post the specs later as I'm at work right now but any suggestions are appreciated.

Check your main fuse to the amps. You may have had a dead short with everything flying around....

The fuse connected to the battery under the hood still looks normal to me. I'm guessing it's either the capacitor or some wire being pulled loose but everything looks good in the trunk and the power line is still connected to the battery. Both amps refuse to turn on. Is there an easy way to just hook the lines up directly to the amp to see if its the capacitor or not?

jump a wire from Remote to 12v+ and see if the amp turns on... if not check the grounds and in place of your now defunct capacitor, instead use a distroblock to split your main power to both amps

i dont know why no one has said it yet, but if the cap is cracked it needs to be removed from the vehicle as it can cause a fire if still connected.
the fact that its cracked and you think it will still work is mind boggling

Dan

It likely won't cause a fire but I doubt you want electrolyte spilled all over so take it out

My wording is there but I should have elaborated... in place of the cap - use a distro is a little vague I admit

It's mind boggling that the plastic casing on my capacitor is busted and I don't assume that the entire thing is broken and I need to buy a new one? I don't really have a whole lot of cash at the moment and my first assumption in situations like this isn't to run out and buy a replacement.

you don't *need* a capacitor. If it's suspect, take it out.

That was my other question. Is it really integral to my car stereo? Regardless I have to either get a new one or get distroblock. Is a distroblock expensive? Do I have other options still?