I've seen very high capacitance readings on failing electrolytics, on
some cheap meters. About 20 years ago, I went through my inventory of
caps and chuck any electrolytics that read higher than specs. When I
got the ESR meter and built it, I tossed another 20%. Being in my 60s,
some parts were made in the '40s since I had bought out a number of old
shops in the '70s & '80s. ;-)


The cap you described was just starting to fail. First, the ESR
starts to rise, then the capacitance drops as it dries out, even more.
I used to do some failure analysis on components at one plant.

Yes, that was the post, and yes, I think you are right that the cap was in
early stage failure. For sure, it showed no external signs of stress

Arfa

Today's electrolytic failure ...

Teac table-top system - a bit Bose Wave Radio-ish. Nasty hum at power up.
4700 uF main filter cap located right next to the output chip heatsink. So
open that the Bob P meter couldn't read it at all. The little Chinese
component tester managed to identify it as a capacitor, at least. Value ?
44 pF ... :-)

Arfa