Devastation thy name is my system.

[Driv3]

Howdy,

I'm at the point where i'm clueless on what my problem is. Let's start at the beginning. I recently bought a second amp for my front and rear fill and have for the past 2 weeks have been happily enjoying my quaint system. Today after hitting a couple balls on the range, I turned on my car, everything is normal, turn on my music, starts to play at a low volume, turn it up a little more and BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM. My sub machine gun slaps at full potential and did not stop when i paused the song so i turned off the car. Turn it on, same thing x2. Drive home in silent fear.

Go home, hit up the old PC, and decide the best course of action is to check my wires and unplug my sub amp (sub amp is connected to speaker amp). Wires check out. Thinking it was some junky rca cables, I turn on the car, with just my speakers and start playing, turn it up, POP! BLAM BLAM BLAM! speakers stop play. Alright, It's gotta be the main rca Right? Check it with the volt meter, 0.00 , it checks out.

Plug rca into sub amp, only turn on car battery, sub works like a freakin' peach? wth?

Checked my head unit's pre amps and they measure .784 which i understand is ok.

Please help

tl;dr Sub rapid fires upon car turn on, rcas don't seem to be problem.

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[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

Sounds like your amp is dying. Swap in a different amp and give it a shot.

 

[Driv3]

Well the only amp it would be then is the speaker one because my sub amp worked on it's own. It still turns on and everything and is also brand new, Idk, is there some way to troubleshoot the rca in and out on an amp?

 

[NIHL8ION]

Well the only amp it would be then is the speaker one because my sub amp worked on it's own. It still turns on and everything and is also brand new, Idk, is there some way to troubleshoot the rca in and out on an amp?

OK the sub amp works when not daisy chained to your mid / highs amp correct? Does the other amp work ok on it's own without the sub amp connected to it's rca outputs?

 

[Driv3]

yes, when chained the sub amp will not work. On it's own, peachy. Alone the speaker amp didn't work, did the same thing with speakers (blam blam blam) but then just stopped playing music but i think the amp stayed on. Ill check again. this is why im questioning the preamp out and in / internal rcas. My speakers also have developed a loud pop when i turn on the car. if that means something, i didn't find the rcas to be grounded though.

 

[TreyE 10+ year member]

Dont daisy chain speaker amp with sub amp would be the thing to do here right? There are different preouts on back of HU for a reason, front, rear, sub.

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

I would assume that loud pop you're hearing is the amp turning on, if it didn't do that before I really feel like there's something wrong with that amp as I said before. Try running individual RCA's for each amp, and if you're still having issues then it is something with one of the amps. Are you running the RCA's into the sub amp then chaining them to the highs amp or vice versa?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Let's see some pictures of the equipment and nearby wiring.

 

[UsAmpsFreak]

Before swapping amps as has been mentioned go through a normal troubleshooting test. Run a new rca to said amp just draped through the car, unplug all speakers from it and hook up a test speaker. If all works well begin plugging in things one by one until the issue occurs again. That will narrow down what the problem is.

 

[Driv3]

There are different preouts on back of HU for a reason, front, rear, sub

Yea, not all head units have more than 2 pre outs, like mine!

Are you running the RCA's into the sub amp then chaining them to the highs amp or vice versa?

My speaker amp is larger (size wise) so it worked out that i use it as "the master" amp. So my sub amp is connected with 6 ft rcas.

Sorry about lack of pics, ill take some tonight but i really don't think it's the wiring. Hopefully it is.

 

[UsAmpsFreak]

Until you do some real troubleshooting you are just guessing what might be wrong with it. You need to start eliminating possible issues (speaker short to ground, dead short in power cable, rca's, speakers)....

No one that knows what they are talking about will be able to give you good advice until you do those tests. Everyone else will just be guessing and getting you no where.

 

[Driv3]

Until you do some real troubleshooting you are just guessing what might be wrong with it. You need to start eliminating possible issues (speaker short to ground, dead short in power cable, rca's, speakers)....
No one that knows what they are talking about will be able to give you good advice until you do those tests. Everyone else will just be guessing and getting you no where.

The power's / grounds are fine, voltage fine, head unit pre outs fine, rca's fine read 0.00, Do you know how to troubleshoot amp pre ins/outs?

Already did the ones i know and wrote them in my initial post (if you read it),