Car audio problem...

[HungarianHunter]

Hey guys, wanted to see if I could get some help on this one.

Here is how I have my sound system hooked up:

Power cable from battery to amp, with an inline fuse.
Amp grounded on metal in the trunk.
Remote and RCA cables running from head unit to amp.
Amp positive/negative into sub box.
All smaller speakers wired properly to harness on the head unit.
Head unit is grounded.
RCA to head unit out, then to AMP in to run the subs.

This all sounds fine right?

Well it WAS, until a few days ago. My amp just started going to emergency mode (or whatever the proper term is) for no apparent reason, where it turns on (green) then the subs make a "buboom" (for the lack of a better way to put it...) like a double tap of the subs, and goes to red. Then repeats, until I cut the power to it.

All fuses under the hood and in the dash are good, in-line fuse to the amp is good, both fuses in the amp are good.

Any ideas?

[mko]

First check the amp ground wire-could be rusted. Make sure the chassis is grounded to the - battery. How thick is your + cable to the amp?
Second, thats the protection mode - it protects the amp from short connections in the sub.If it turns red then it got a shortcut. See if the subs still have the 4ohm resistance and redo all wiring from amp to subs. Check all screws on the amp and the socket on the box, the wire from the socket to the sub terminals

Do you get sound on the front and rear speakers?

You can troubleshoot it by removing 1 of the sub wires. lets say to remove the +wire on the L sub, if it turns green then you know to look for shortcut in this circuit. Do the same with the + wire on R sub.

[glantnation]

I would check the ground...Or even move the ground to a different location...That be the first thing i do....

[HungarianHunter]

First check the amp ground wire-could be rusted. Make sure the chassis is grounded to the - battery. How thick is your + cable to the amp?
Second, thats the protection mode - it protects the amp from shortcuts in the sub.If it turns red then it got a shortcut. See if the subs still have the 4ohm resistance and redo all wiring from amp to subs. Check all screws on the amp and the socket on the box, the wire from the socket to the sub terminals

Do you get sound on the front and rear speakers?

You can troubleshoot it by removing 1 of the sub wires. lets say to remove the +wire on the L sub, if it turns green then you know to look for shortcut in this circuit. Do the same with the + wire on R sub.

The cable to the amp is fairly thick, I don't know the guage, but it's about the width of a pen, one with the rubber grips. The sub box has one + and one -, should I unplug one and see if it turns green? I do get sound from all of the other speakers. The ground of the head unit and the ground of the amp are both solid. The wiring from the amp to subs is just a + wire and a - wire, those are fine. Just took out all the wiring from the amp, cut and re-stripped all the ends, and put it all back together, doing the same thing.

[mko]

yes, pull the + wire off the box and see it still does it. if it does then youll have to open the amp and see if it makes the short inside. look at the circuit side and inspect the component side

[littlerick]

it could be a 4 ohm amp and you are running 2 ohms to it or 2 ohm amp and your pushing 1 ohm. what kind of subs and amp do you have hooked up? and are they single or dual voice coil? first thing i would do is unhook the speaker wire completely from the sub box (make sure they dont touch) and see if it goes to green

[HungarianHunter]

So I unplugged the - wire from the sub box, and everything worked fine, I plugged it back in, and the problem I explained started again. so I'm not sure what's up.

[HungarianHunter]

Took the subs out and re-did all the wiring. Amp doens't turn on...

[mko]

you missed something, and when it worked when you unplugged the sub, that means you got short in the sub or the wiring. Get a voltmeter and make sure you get all the voltages.

[HungarianHunter]

you missed something, and when it worked when you unplugged the sub, that means you got short in the sub or the wiring. Get a voltmeter and make sure you get all the voltages.

I looked inside the sub box, everything is fine. Redid all the wiring to make sure there were no shorts. I have absolutely no idea, everything behind the deck is good too. Best buy charges 20$/15 mins though :S

[mko]

measure the subs resistance it should be 4ohms, if you were closer id troubleshoot it for you in minutes

[HungarianHunter]

measure the subs resistance it should be 4ohms, if you were closer id troubleshoot it for you in minutes

:( I'm not though.

[therev]

Bring it to Best Buy or somewhere they will charge like 50bucks to hook it up. With your lingo im sure you may know what your doing, but of course we arnt all geniuses. This problem could be as simple as your amp over heating and going into safe mode. My amp did the same, i purchased a power cap and bridged the subs. everything works fine now.

~Gabe

[djakay]

initially everything was wired correct, but it seems like you didnt match impedance on your speakers/sub and amp. check the specs of your sub, and the specs of your amp, both should be matching whether it's 4 Ohm or 2 Ohm. Sound is a tricky thing you can have incompatible setup working fine at first but then you scratch your head like what happened. Are you using just 1 amp and 1 sub and speakers direct from headunit?

Post up the specs of your Amp/Sub/Speakers

[HungarianHunter]

initially everything was wired correct, but it seems like you didnt match impedance on your speakers/sub and amp. check the specs of your sub, and the specs of your amp, both should be matching whether it's 4 Ohm or 2 Ohm. Sound is a tricky thing you can have incompatible setup working fine at first but then you scratch your head like what happened. Are you using just 1 amp and 1 sub and speakers direct from headunit?

Post up the specs of your Amp/Sub/Speakers

It says the subs are 4 OHM, there is no Ohm setting on my amp, I checked, so I'm nto sure if there is supposed to be?

Here are my subs: (just in a different box)

http://www.hifisoundconnection.com/S...d/0/rid/123284

And my amp was given to me by a neighbor, I couldn't find it on google for you guys, but the brand is Dual, and it's a monoblock 600watt amp.


If a picture of the amp would help I can do that.

[djakay]

is there a model # of the amp?

[HungarianHunter]

is there a model # of the amp?

Yea, here it is. I just checked the amp for the model (Why didnt I do that before...)

XAM600, here's a link

http://www.etronics.com/p-78405-dual...73637333231313

[littlerick]

your amp and subs should be fine as long as you wire them up positive to positive to amp and negative to negative to amp. you dont happen to have a wire crossed like positive to negative do you?

[djakay]

This could be your issue:

Your sub is
Impedance: Single 4 Ohm Terminal Cup
Recommended RMS Power: 225-450 Watts
Peak Power Handling: 900 Watts

and your amp is
Peak Power @ 2 Ohm 600w x 1
RMS Power @ 2 Ohm 300w x 1
Peak Power @ 4 Ohm 400w x 1
RMS Power @ 4 Ohm 200w x 1

The sub could be drawing too much power from the amp @ 4 Ohms, hence sending the amp in protect mode (not to fry itself) I would suggest getting a different Amp for this sub. if you do, pay attention to all the nonsense they write about RMS, PEAK, and Impedance (Ohm) your amp RMS should be within the range of Subs RMS and Impedance should match as well (in your case 4Ohms)

[littlerick]

i agree totally, i overlooked the rms of the amp i just quickly scanned and thought it was 600 rms and not peak. yeah you definately need a bigger amp