Faldain

So I will start this thread off my giving you all the needed facts:

Head unit: Older Clarion CD Player
Amps: 2x400amp California Amplifiers (stop laughing, they were free)
Subs: 2 JL 10's
Sail Speakers: Pioneers of some kind

I have my amps wired through a relay and connected to my factory dash gain switch so I can turn them on and off when I want. Picked that suggestion up from someone on this board a while back.

Problem: On occasion, when I start my TA, and crank up the stereo I notice I only have Left channel sound...I play with the fader/balance and I have no right channel sound. I turn the radio off, and back on then I have both channels. The second part of this problem is, on occasion, I will lose my sub-woofers, until I turn the remote switch off and back on, then no problems. The subs are running off of the "rear" channels until I buy a new head unit with pre-amp outs,

This all started about a week after the final wiring and installtion of my system. So last night I pulled my head unit, checked all the wire connections, checked my grounds, everything was good. I can't seem to track this down.

I had a suspicion that it might be my head unit going bad (I also had a problem before building the system with my head unit not always "remembering" its settings even with the memory wire checked & double checked) BUT that doesn't seem to explain why the subs would go out because my sail speakers still work.

That little problem has gone away and now I have this. I've build other systems in other cars before, so I'm not a total green horn. The other odd detail is that there is never any distortion going into or out of any of the failures.

Its probably something simple that I am over looking.

Thanks for your time!

TheBandit

what ohm do you have them wired at? and what is your amp stable at? wheres is your gain set? hopefully your gain isnt turned all the way up.. for the left/right problem i have no clue sounds like maybe theres a problem with your headunit... which maybe is even causing the sub problem

Faldain

Everything is running at 4ohm, my amps say they are 2ohm stable but I would't try it with these. Gains are @ 3/4 up (pry high, but any lower and there is practically no movement at all). Yesterday I was bored so I performed a little root canal and just disconnected everything, and wired it back up. So far the problem hasn't happened again but I'm still waiting. The only majpr change I made, was to replace the front speakers with some pioneers I had sitting around. All wiring seemed good, nothing loose or burnt....fuses all correct sizes etc...

Time will tell, I mean I'm still tracking a strange electrical drain in my car thats been there since before my stereo wiring. There was some speculation on another post earlier this year that my HU was drawing too much for the memory and draining my battery (which again supports my HU failure theory). I may drop the factory unit back in to test this theory.

Thanks!
-Corey

TheBandit

check all your wires from your amp... cosmetics on them.. im not sure but maybe theres a hole in one? i just go back over and check it all.. and you have your rcas running on the opposite side of your power right?

Faldain

For the time being I'm still running the factory speaker wires back to the amp. Now that you mention that, the power lines do run down my right side in close quarters to the right speaker lines....hmmm, I always figured that would give me distortion, but like I mentioned earlier, none at all.

I'll experiment later this week. Also, I noticed that my gain control **** on the dash is always hot. I can't for the life of me remember if it was like this prior to my rewire...not a big deal as long as I remember to turn it off.

Thanks!

Faldain

Resurecting an older thread of mine. The head unit isn't the problem as I first thought. There seems to be some short in the wiring of my relay. I know this because:

1) I disconnected the power to my amps ( rewired and haven't finished yet). The radio still does the same annoying thing (dropping stereo) but now has also developed the habit of dropping all sound on initial startup.

2) Push the magic button on the dash (the performance sound factory sub button) and all the sound returns.

This all happens with the amps attached and without.

The relay may have a problem (perhaps a bad ground?) I'll be checking that tomorow.