amp cuts off when i hit the gas

[Ryan shaw 10+ year member]

when i'm stopped at a red light or something, when i hit the gas to start suddenly, mr front door speakers cut out for 3 seconds then come back on. they are on a separate kicker zx100.2 amp and go through a pioneer avh 4300 head unit. the sub amp does not cut off or the amp in the head unit.

what the hell could be causing this?

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[brodeisel 10+ year member]

check your wiring thats what i would do to start.

 

[duanebro 10+ year member]

sounds like it is sensitive to voltage changes. do you have any way to monitor your voltage?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

loose wire somewhere??

 

[Z1NONLY 10+ year member]

Two things should happen when you hit the gas. Your system voltage should go up, and weight should transfer to the rear of the vehicle. A simple way to see if this is related to voltage (sensitive equipment) or wheight transfer (loose/pinched cable), would be to get the voltage to increase without transfering weight. You could park the car and slowly rev the engine to some high RPM's short of the car's redline, or just put the car in a low gear and slowly increase your speed up to the pont where you are keeping a steady speed at a high RPM.

Don't spend a lot of time at high RPM's if you are sitting still. Most cars want/need air flowing into and through the engine bay to keep things cool at those higher RPM's. (The fans can't duplicate the amount of air you get at road speed.)

If your car is in good working order, a few seconds or even a couple minutes idling at high RPM's shouldn't be a problem.

The key is to find out if the problem is related to motion or voltage.

 

[Ryan shaw 10+ year member]

seems to be related to motion, which makes no sense to me.

side note, i think my battery is nearly shot, it's got a resting voltage of around 13.8 running, 11.5 sitting

 

[subzero 5,000+ posts]

If your running stock voltage setup, then it is a loose wire. If your running a H/O alt it might be generating too much power for the amp. Or the amps voltage regulator might be shot somehow.

Start with what you know. If it is all stock then check the wiring, might be lose or stressed somewhere. Check all terminals. Check the RCAs, remote turn on, Ground, power. Then check other things. maybe something is shorting out, a short would cause all sorts of strange issues.

This is the biggest pain when it comes to car audio.

 

[Ryan shaw 10+ year member]

god i know it ***** lol. i am running a 300amp alt, checked all my wires and it seems "normal", nothing to strange. only using 8 gauge for ground but it't only a 100w amp

 

[subzero 5,000+ posts]

whats the voltage output on the alt. If it is above 15 it may cauz issues, and also you may be over charging the batts if your only using 100 watts, Maybe try stepping down the alt a litle...

 

[Ryan shaw 10+ year member]

well the sub amp is 8000w lol, so i need it. and it's output is only 14v. and the amp doesn't cut off when i have the rpms high while driving, just that jolt of motion seems to mess it up

 

[subzero 5,000+ posts]

ha, yea, ok cool. check wiring then. I killed an amp when I first got my adjustable h/o alt. accidently set it for 17.9volts. momentarily, killed the amps power regulator. havent been able to fix it since. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I recommend going to orilets, and getting the battery checked,along with the alter with and without a load..Its FREE

 

[Z1NONLY 10+ year member]

Now you need to determine what connections and components could do this to your front speakers without causing a problem for the rest of your equipment.

If it's a consistent ~3 seconds that the audio drops out, it sounds like the amp is losing power for a moment and then going through its normal power-up.

Power, ground and the turn on lead are all suspects. It could be something inside the amp, but check the easy stuff first. Make sure the ground is tight both at the point it connects to the car, and the amp. Make sure the power cable into the amp is secure the double check each connection point up to the battery. (connections on the fuse blocks and of course at the battery itself) I would even try a different fuse. I have never seen a fuse create symptoms like this, but I have seen fuses go open near the end caps. (where you can't see) -Low on the suspect list but easy to do so..

I would also check the turn on lead connection on the other end. (at the radio or other amp, wherever you get power for it)

A low-tech way to troubleshoot this problem would be to play some music at a moderate volume than go around and "jiggle" different wires and connections. maybe even tap the amp itself to cause a little vibration and see if it reacts. (about as much force as a polite knock on a door shouldn't hurt a healthy amp)

The problem with this method is there is a slight chance that you could damage your amp. Jiggling a loose power or ground connection *could* cause an amp to "hurt itself". The risk is small enough that I would take it with my own equipment, but this is your stuff and your call. With most new amps the risk is pretty small. Keep the volume moderate to low if you do this.