Amp cuts out when car on

[MDew1 10+ year member]

Hi, I recently installed an amp, sub, and 4 speakers in my 2002 Honda Civic. With the car off, everything sounds and works fine. However, when the car is turned on the power light on the amp dims & turns off and all of the speakers cut out intermittently. It does it regardless of volume, or whether or not the sub's on. Admittedly I probably don't know what the heck I'm doing, but I've double & triple checked the wires & connections and it's all solid. I turned the amp gains down, and checked the ground and fuses and still no luck.

Deck: Pioneer DEH-P5800MP

Speakers: Sony XPlod Two 6x9 300W 4ohm, Two 6.5" 4ohm

Sub: JBL 12"

Amp: Alpine MRV-F450 5/3/2

Could you please give me some ideas of what this might be or things I could try out to fix it?

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[brmcm15 10+ year member]

what do you have your sub wired to?

is it a D2 or D4? or something else?

 

[jguti92 10+ year member]

did you check your inline fuse from your power wire???

 

[MDew1 10+ year member]

what do you have your sub wired to?
is it a D2 or D4? or something else?

Your going to have to explain that one for me. I'm a newbie...

did you check your inline fuse from your power wire???

Yes, it appears okay. If the fuse was out would it still power on?

 

[jguti92 10+ year member]

well sometimes the inline fuse start's to go bad so its still making a connection but not getting all the power my friend had the similar problem and after hours of searching we found out the inline fuse was starting to go bad

 

[MDew1 10+ year member]

well sometimes the inline fuse start's to go bad so its still making a connection but not getting all the power my friend had the similar problem and after hours of searching we found out the inline fuse was starting to go bad

Hmm that's probably something to check then. Is this something that's visible on the fuse or how do you know?

 

[jguti92 10+ year member]

well they only i catched it was with a volt meter the fuse seem to be okay but the volt meter revealed it all

 

[MDew1 10+ year member]

I bought a multimeter and tested the amp according to these instructions, which were really good (since I dunno what I'm doing):

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Car-Stereos-3638/2009/4/installation-amp-subs-2.htm

When I turned the key to accessory with the stereo on, the amp didn't come on (usually it works fine in accessory mode). I tried starting the car and the amp light came on (no sound) and slowly dimmed out, popped on again & slowly dimmed, etc. like usual. So when I tested the current of the power wire (with it set to accessory) it read close to 0, and fluctuated between 0.75, 0.19, and so on. I tested the remote wire and it was at a steady 11.34.

When I opened the hood & checked the input side of the fuse it was at 12.74, and checked the output side of the fuse and it was at 12.74 as well. However, I held it on there and then it started fluctuating between 9, 11, 7, 2, etc. So that pretty much means its the fuse, right? Is the fuse just faulty or is something causing it to do that (an overload of power somewhere?)

 

[Toxic_Acoustiks 10+ year member]

Your going to have to explain that one for me. I'm a newbie...
Yes, it appears okay. If the fuse was out would it still power on?

what he means by D2 and D4 is dual 2 or dual 4 ohm, hes asking if your sub is a dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm sub

 

[MDew1 10+ year member]

I'm not sure on the sub, I don't have the info for it (I got it for free) and it's encased in a box that I don't feel like trying to take apart...

Another issue I've started having since hooking this all up is the display on the CD deck will alternate between the regular display and an inverted image, which is really annoying when driving at night because it shines a blinding bright blue light in my eyes. It's not in demo mode, and even if I cycle through the different display modes they all do it. I didn't change any of the power or battery wires when hooking it up either. Any ideas on that one?

 

[jguti92 10+ year member]

ok well it sounds like your power is gretting drained somewhere i mean i am not an expert on electrical system but that would be my guess......it sounds like the fuse is fine but replace it anyways there really cheap.. maybe is your actual power wire? did you run it through the fire wall or how did you run it?? anyone else got any ideas?

 

[MDew1 10+ year member]

I went for a drive today for a few hours and the amp & stereo seemed to be working fine most of the time, despite cutting out a couple times. That's what makes this problem so hard to diagnose, since it isn't consistent. It seems to cut out completely at random, the volume level doesn't matter. I ran the power cable from the battery through the firewall and along the driver's side under the interior kick panels (because I ran the RCA & speaker cables on the other side).

 

[jguti92 10+ year member]

ok have an idea maybe when you cramped the the wires they are still a little loose check that out.......that would make alot since if your driving around and it cuts in and out....try to re crimp the power wire let me know

 

[MDew1 10+ year member]

ok have an idea maybe when you cramped the the wires they are still a little loose check that out.......that would make alot since if your driving around and it cuts in and out....try to re crimp the power wire let me know

That was the first thing I thought of as well, and it was loose. I bought a new 4 gauge connector ($20 for 4 of them!!!//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif) and re-crimped the connection to the amp and it's rock solid. That wasn't it though. The connection to the battery & fuse were all good too. Tried to buy a fuse today but nothing's open, so I'll try that Tuesday...

 

[jguti92 10+ year member]

did you get the fuse yet?