Accessory pop, but not your standard problem!

[Yvarg 10+ year member]

No, the first thing I did when I got the car was to rip out the factory stereo (which didn't even work), and install a Pioneer head unit. I am using a wiring harness I got at best buy for the head unit. I'm wondering now, since I've ruled out the RCAs, could the problem be in the remote wire that tells the sub amp when to turn on and off? That's the only part of the subwoofer set up that is connected to the wiring harness. Thanks for your suggestion Shilo, I'll try swapping out the remote wire.

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

well, what about that eq, and "all that jazz" you put in there to kill whine? i think that you masked your problem right there. most likely it has to do with the factory grounding. check your engine bay first. take a small peice of wire and put it between the rca shield(outter ring) and the head unit body as a test

 

[bugflipper 10+ year member]

Try to take the eq out of the equation. It is best to isolate one component at a time.

BTW you really need to go with bigger guage wire for the power and ground. Regardless if it is reading zero or not you are most likely going to have trouble in the future by doing that. Whether it is the amp or the sub that goes, or an electrical fire. I know you have it fused, but speaker wire is not coated the same as power wire. Another option to explore is the amp may be running out of voltage, popping into protection mode then right back out. Could also be a loose solder point on the back of the deck, eq or amp inputs or outputs.

Not trying to be smart at all, but if you read up on some tutorials here. Then save some money and buy a little bit better equipment, you wont have to chase down problems in most cases.

Have a good Holiday.

 

[Yvarg 10+ year member]

Thanks so much for all your help, guys/gals.

akheathen: I did the ground wire test that you suggested. No go, it still popped.

bugflipper: I wasn't aware that having too small of a wire size could actually damage the equipment! I'll definitely look into buying some better stuff (though, I probably would have know this if I had read the tutorials like you said). I had my sister help me out by sitting in the back seat watching the protect LED on the amp while I fiddled with the electronics to see if I could get it to pop again. Wouldn't you know, that's exactly the problem! Will upgrading the power and ground wires solve this? Thanks again (and happy holidays to you too)!

 

[kramer_212 10+ year member]

not sure if it was mentioned, but if you have gone through and tried without your eq and straight hu and it is still there you could try a "band-aid" ground loop isolator, for the rcas, friend used to have a problem like this this is what we ended up having to do.

 

[bugflipper 10+ year member]

Sub amps have a high amperage draw. They need to maintain a constant voltage to work properly. If you limit the amount of power coming in, it will try to shut down to keep from burning itself up. The issue is a small gauge wire with a component trying to draw a lot of amperage that the wire cannot support. It puts stress on the wire. So you run the risk of melting the coating on the wire. I am assuming you have no fuse on the power wire. If so in turn when the wire insulation melts the wire turns red hot from arching on metal then catches the wire insulation and surrounding material such as upholstry on fire. So over a simple problem potentially your car could burn up. I have no idea what your amp is but 4 ga should be alright for it. The biggest Visonik amp I could find was a 1600.1, on a stretch it could really do 800 rms, but honestly I doubt that with 25a x2 fusing. If you intend to go with around a 1000-1200 rms amp in the future, you may want to go with 2 gauge power and ground wire. It's easier to just run once for what you intend to do in the future as apposed to wasting money on a smaller gauge then needing bigger later. Here are a couple of wiring kits. Sewell 4 Gauge AWG 2000 Watt Amplifier Installation Wiring Kit | eBay AKF2 Absolute KIT 2 AWG Amplifier Installation Kit +RCA | eBay There are stickies on the electrical section you need to read up on to be familiar with installing. There also should be a tutorial in the amp section on setting the gain once you have adequate wire feeding an amp.

I really can't say if it will solve your problem, but it will prevent a problem. If it is turning on and off from going into protect, most likely that is the pop you are hearing. But truly it could be many different problems. That is just the most likely one.

Good Luck

 

[Yvarg 10+ year member]

Thanks, Kramer. I think I've ruled out that the EQ is not interfering with the sub at all.

Bugflipper, thanks; swapping out the power wire is my next plan of action. The exact amp is this one: Amazon.com: Visonik VB112 Amp 350 Watt 1 Channel Mono Car Audio Power Amplifier: Electronics

Claims to be 350 watts, but I can't find any mention what impedance that is at. I'm assuming it the "350" is probably peak wattage, to give the amp more market appeal. Honestly, I don't need anymore than that. The little 8" woofer in my sub is rated for 120 watts rms at 4 ohms, and it cranks enough without turning the gain all the way up on the amp. Thanks again for all your help. I'll probably end up purchasing that first kit you linked to. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif