wowwww,

alright well my amp hasn't been working for the last couple days....and the power light turns on with the cd player and the ground is good. All the wiring has been triple checked. So I was just about to assume the amp was dead.

THEN

My buddy came over today and we hooked up his amp to my car.....and my sub played beautifuly. Then we hooked up MY amp to HIS car.....and it PLAYED!!!! So then I assumed it would work in mine, so we put it back in, and sure enough it doesn't.......WTF!!!!!!!!!! That makes absolutely no sense.

One thing I noticed though is that when we put my amp in his car, the red light came on a lot brighter than when I had it in mine. He has the exact same wiring kit as me, and the same wattage amp (400).

So anyone have any ideas? Otherwise I'm gona jus call Ripley. lol :-/

 

Check the voltage at the amp with the amp turned off, both cars.

check from ground to batt + at the terminals.

If you don't have a DMM, now is the time to buy one. $10 at sears, it will pay for itself more than once.

what is the total impedence of the subs per channel? What can the amps handle?

the two problems I'm looking for here are:

1. low voltage protection in the amp

2. low impedence protection in the amp

niether of which is a problem, but a good indicator of what is going on.

 

I'd just call Ripley. Then I would laugh if I actually saw it on TV.




yeah, do the things junkyarddog mentioned.

 

Check the voltage with the amp turned on too. If you have a problem with wiring, it typically won't show up under the type of low current draw that your multimeter places on the system. The multimeter has a resistance somewhere in the mega-ohm to 10 mega-ohm range, which places a current draw of practically zero on the system. With minimal current draw, insufficient wiring will still show full voltage potential. At high current loads, the wiring will THEN pose a major restriction which will be evident by a voltage drop at the amp.

Put your friend's amp back in and crank the sh*t out of the stereo. If you have more than a .5-.75 volt drop compared to the voltage right at the battery, then you may have wiring issues.

Just make sure that you check the voltage at the battery with the stereo at the same volume, otherwise this is worthless.

 

Curious- say the amp was hooked up to his buddy's car, but without the sub hooked up- and then say that his buddy cranked the volume. The sub wouldn't really be "working", would it? Because no speaker was attached? Or would it actually heat up and draw current like it was working?

I'd try buying a cheap set of preamp "extenders" from Radio Shack, have your amp wired to your friends car, and extend your RCA's from your car to his car. Then turn on your radio and see if you get sound from your buddy's car.

 

you're right. with no load on the amplifier (sub connected) the amp won't be working. light hitting the gas with the cable not attached to the carb

your second suggestion seems a little difficult. have a good installer bench test the amplifier. if it works fine on his bench, the problem is in the car, plain and simple. I'm betting a low voltage situation, and/or a ****ty ground (one could help the other be worse too).

bmoney

 

Remember that even with no load or signal that there is still some idle current, usaly not much but on some of the cheaper amps can pull up to 5A at idle.

 

alright guys good news

I hooked a wire from my Batt to the remote and it works!!

So obviously my remote wire going to the HU isn't getting correct voltage.

I tested the voltage at the blue antenna wire by itself and it was about 8V. With the amp remote wire connected it read 2V.

I'll just have to find a new source for my remote wire........what do you guys suggest?

 

.........

:-/

 

disconnect the remote wire from the amp turn on lead and connect it to the RED ign. lead on the harness. This will turn the amp on with the key, but it'll at least work.

bmoney

 

Do what HamiltonAudio said for turn on. Out of curiosity, what's the brand/model of the HU and amp?