I recently purchased my first system off a friend who had to sell his car to pay for school.
It is 2 12"Clarion subwoofers in a bassworx sealed box, and a clarion APX 640.2 amplifier
My car is nothing special, infact it's quite the POS. It's a 97 Ford Contour. It came wired for subs, and i put in a cheap sony xpload, and was very unsatified, but what you get what you pay for. My friend said my power wires looked very thin. Thinner than your average straw, or close. I bought a 6 Gauge wiring kit and have no experience wiring cars but hope trying to follow the wires that are already in there will work as a plan.
Which brings me to my question. Do you think this set up will require me to use a Capacitor. Keep in mind that I do not have a special alternator or battery.
I live in WInnipeg and my car starts in minus forty , even when i forget to plug it in, so I'm thinking my battery can't be that bad.
Also: Does anyone know if the amp is 640 per channel? Or if the total wattage is higher than 640? My friend said the amp was over 1000 watts, but when i look it up it says it's 640@2 ohms. Would that be 1280 @ 1 ohm? Is that how people measure max wattage?

I'd also like to thank everyone hear , I've been reading quite a bit on this website since i got my car and find all over you banter very interesting.

 

You have a 2 channel amp that is rated at 160w rms x 2 into 4 ohms or to run a sub, it will bridge mono to somewhere around the 500w rms x 1 mark. IT will not do 1 ohm or 2 ohm mono. It will do 2 ohm stereo. It would be a ideal amp for a good set of front component speakers or a pair of basic subs.

I would be using as large a guage wire as you can afford, ideally a 4 gauge for the power and ground. You do not need a capacitor but you should look into doing the BIG 3 and ensure that you have a good ground.

 

I wired it, with 6 gauge wire. My friend used 8 gauge of the same wire for a 1500 watt system, and swears the by the brand, Scocshe [or something] and although it's cheap it worked for me. I'd NEVER wired a car before, and when i turned on my car after it had been sitting for 2 days the deck didn't even turn on, i drove down the street, and as i thought would happen, it turned on and the subs started to bump quite loud. I've always sorta had weird things going on with my car, which i'm told are my alternator. [Car starts slow, but is normal once it gets gas] Would a cap help take the load off my alternator?

 

No a cap will not help you. It will actually add another load to your alternator as it will need to be recharged everytime it gets used. For a 1500watt system most will recommend at least 4ga, if not 0/1ga. I have around 1500w in my car and would not use less than 0/1ga. I would seriously think about having your car checked before you do any damage to the system or your car itself. What area are you in? If you are close I can have a lot and see what I can find. A DMM will be your friend right now.
Nick

 

I'm in winnipeg

 

Go see Jeff at Velocity Motorsports in Morden if you want some great help. (and smack him for me).

 

Everything went perfectly yesterday, and the day before. I sat for almost 10 minutes with the subs bumping on near max watching, to make sure my headlights and internal lights didn't dim and had no problems with my subs.
However all day today my deck seems to reset when they get too loud. I can turn my subs off and crank my speakers, or just turn the subw level to 5/15, and am okay. However if i turn up the bass and sub level and sit for more than 5 or so seconds, my deck resets, and doesn't stop reseting until my car starts moving again.
Any ideas? I've changed nothing from last night ...