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Knowledgable audiophiles give input please

ahh well it could be a problem. im presuming you didnt bridge it correctly? i have a two channel amp and if u want me to post a pic of how i have it wired i'll get on it later tonight...
 
I don't know, but could not having any speakers hooked up be part of the problem? I've never had one hooked up w/o speakers being connected. :shrug:
 
getsum111 said:
I don't know, but could not having any speakers hooked up be part of the problem? I've never had one hooked up w/o speakers being connected. :shrug:
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my two channel amp powers only my subs. i have it bridged so its running 800w peak 340w rms. the only problem i ever had with my amp was kickback, but as ive said before i just doubled my ground wires and i havent really had a problem since.
 
Well...I am running it at 4 o-hms right now...my amp at 4-ohms puts out 200w rms for each channel. I am running it out of one channel from the amp and hooked up across both voice coils: + on the + of the first coil and - on the - of the second coil. Checked the voltage...bear with me cuz I am not sure that I am reading it correctly or not... With the car off it shows right under 11v and with the car on it is sitting at 12.5v. I will try and jump the amp right quick and post back.
 
to be clear.. you will need +12Vdc at both the "power" and "remote" (or RMS) inputs of the amp.

The amplifier must see +12Vdc at both locations to power up.
Are you only hooking 12Vdc to the remote, or to the main "power" input as well?
 
Connect amp to batt + & - Connect amp turn on (blue & white wire) to the batt as well. Amp should come on and stay one - if not, defective amp

I have used a cotter pin to bridge the power input to the amp turn on directly on the amp, it worked great- I dunno if it was bad for the amp or not...
 
I've got a 4 gauge power wire running from the battery at the front of the car to the trunk where the amp is. I have the remote wire and the RCA cables running from the back of the cd player to the amp. I have the ground wire running from the ground connection to the rear seat lock. The paint has been ground down to bare metal and it is clamped between the latch bracket and the rear frame. So...the amp turns on with less voltage but then won't run with more? Gah this sucks...why can't sh*t just work for me...
 
im not quite sure where ur grounding this amp to be honest... try disconnecting that and just try it on the trunk latch just to see if that will work any better. thats where i have my grounds, secured by the torx holding down my trunk latch :laugh:
 
Behind our rear seats is a latch. On the back of the rear seats is a hook. When you close your rear seats, the hook goes into the latch and locks. To open the seats, you open the trunk and pull on the knob and push on the back of the seat. The knob unlocks the latch allowing the seats to be pushed forward. The ground is behind one of the two torx screws that hold this latch to the frame of the car. It goes bolt, trunk latch, ground connection and bare metal. I tried messing with my deck by wiring it to the ignition wire to no avail. It seems that with the car on, when I disconnect the remote wire from the amp and push it back in, it comes on for a sec but then goes into protection mode again... So I am thinking maybe the amp isn't getting enough voltage to stay on. Alternator? Battery maybe? Is the inline fuse (80A) too big?
 
Voltage is low

Voltage is low

Your voltage of 12.5 is too low with the car running. Compare to the voltage at the battery/other end of amp power wire.
 
K...had a moment of realization tonight. Maybe I should connect the wire to the power antenna lead... I typed in "how to wire an amp" into google and it said to do this.. To give him credit, CSVT#49 mentioned this when we were messing around with it last weekend, but I never tried it and it kinda slipped my mind til now. Right now I am running the remote wire from the external amp control wire on the back of the headunit. Maybe this is wrong? I tell ya...if this solves it I am gonna be pissed cuz its so obvious. I will try it tomorrow and hopefully this solves things.
 
theorhetically, no.. unless the HU has something wrong with it and is shorting the remote wire to ground (to throw it in to protection).

If you completely REMOVED the remote wire, it should just go OFF, so I don't see that being a PROBABLE cause... but, like I said, I don't know what's the deal with the HU itself.
 
I know this might sound stupid... but with everything else going on - ya never know. Did you possibly connect the amp remote wire to the "other" blue wire on most head units which is for the remote antenna instead of remote for amp? :shrug: Cause when you turn on the car, if the FM radio is not on, no signal gets sent to the antenna if I understand correctly....
:shrug:
 
Blast47 said:
I know this might sound stupid... but with everything else going on - ya never know. Did you possibly connect the amp remote wire to the "other" blue wire on most head units which is for the remote antenna instead of remote for amp? :shrug: Cause when you turn on the car, if the FM radio is not on, no signal gets sent to the antenna if I understand correctly....
:shrug:
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Which would simply turn off the amp, not put it into protect.
I suggest you borrow an amp from a friend and hook it up and see if it works. I think you got a bum amp.
 
There are two wires on the back of my HU. A blue - external amp control - and a blue/white - power antenna. I currently have it hooked up to the external amp wire. I never got around to try and look at this...spent my time on replacing my driver side control arm...took almost all day. But that is where I stand on this. I don't know anyone up here so that I can borrow an amp...I am a transplant from Georgia...now you know.
 
Alright, I finally got back into this project a little bit. I made a box yesterday and got everything hooked up and such. Everything worked and sounded pretty sweet with the car off. So, I turned the car on just to see what would happen...and I noticed that the sub was still firing. In wonderment, I went back to the trunk and looked at the amp, the protection light was flickering on and off pretty much in sync with the bass hits. So, I am guessing that with the car on, my voltage is low because of accessory load or something...or maybe something is wrong with my charging system or electrical distribution? Any ideas on why the electrical system would be lower with the car on? I mean, obviously, when you use electrical things, it is going to consume power, but it is getting low enough to cause problems and it obviously isn't normal. The only things that I have installed that are different than stock would be my head unit, hibeams in place of lobeams, indiglo guages and the sound system. Is this too much? What do you guys recommend to look at next? Thanks
 
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