Amp goes in protect mode

[jchulski20 10+ year member]

ok today i rewired my with thicker speaker wire and now everytime my stereo turn on my amp suddenly goes into protect mode. I'v checked all the wiring and replaced the power & ground wire but it still goes into protect mode. it only goes into protect when i plug the RCA cable into the amp it will turn on. The power light won't even come on! I pulled the fuses on the amp and they were both blown so I replaced them both with the same amp rating and it still goes into protect mode. Also usually when i pull the fuse from the battery it will spark a little as i pull it out or put it back in but now there is no spark at all! Somebody please help this amp is only a year and a half old it cant be bad already!!

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[mast240 10+ year member]

i doubt your amp is blown.. sounds like when you re-wired the speakers, you might have put too low of a load on it.... i would start there. also, just cuz there isnt a "lil spark" when you reconnect your fuse, doesnt mean theres not power... usually when you pull it, a small charge will remain for a minute or so. so, if you pull it and then reconnect it quickly, it most likely wont spark.... but i wouldnt advise pulling your fuse with the battery connected... it can lead to a bad outcome

 

[jchulski20 10+ year member]

i doubt your amp is blown.. sounds like when you re-wired the speakers, you might have put too low of a load on it.... i would start there. also, just cuz there isnt a "lil spark" when you reconnect your fuse, doesnt mean theres not power... usually when you pull it, a small charge will remain for a minute or so. so, if you pull it and then reconnect it quickly, it most likely wont spark.... but i wouldnt advise pulling your fuse with the battery connected... it can lead to a bad outcome

i cant put 2 low of a load on it. its a 2 ohm amp and the lowest i can get my sub down to is 2 ohms and thats in parrallel so it cant go any lower than 2 ohms. Say I turn the stereo on without the RCA cable plugged in the power nor the protect light come on but if I plug the RCA cable in the protect light will come but the power light will stay unlit

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

ok... more specifics then... you re-wired the sub, or the power? and what type/size of wire did you use?

 

[arsonbob 10+ year member]

Bad ground.

 

[jchulski20 10+ year member]

No its a good ground becuase its the same ground i Used when it worked. and the speaker wire that i was using was like 18 gauge i switch up to 16 gauge and that didnt fix it so i bought a new amp install kit and re-ran the power cable and the ground and that didnt fix it but i think what may have happened is when i went to re-install the amp earlier today was i put the power cable in the ground socket and the ground in the power socket and in the process of doing that i think i may have fried the amp amp becuase the reason i replaced the the power cable was becuase the fuse looked a little brown but it wasnt blown then i checked the fuses on the amp and both of them 30 amp fuses were blown i think thats what may have done it but i thought the fuses would have protected it. would the protect light come on if the voice coil was blown? i checked the power wire voltage and it was getting power then i checked the speaker output and i wasnt getting any kind of reading on the multimeter

 

[arsonbob 10+ year member]

Did you check the under hood fusing?

 

[jchulski20 10+ year member]

what fuse would that cause to blow the only fuse i can think of is the radio fuse but the stereo still works. im getting power to the amp but no power is going to the outputs on the amp

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

an amp doesnt have a voice coil bro... but i'm thinkin its something with the wiring as well... did you take a DMM to the amps power terminals, to make sure its getting proper power?

 

[jchulski20 10+ year member]

an amp doesnt have a voice coil bro... but i'm thinkin its something with the wiring as well... did you take a DMM to the amps power terminals, to make sure its getting proper power?

I mean the voice coil on the sub LOL. i'v checked all the wiring and rewired it 3 times yeah i'v cheked everything with the DMM the B+ terminal was getting power I didnt read specifically how much but it was getting power.

here is what i have for wiring right now. power cable in the B+ terminal ground in the ground remote in the remote terminal then the outputs to the speaker terminals on the port on the box then the sub is wired in parralel to get a 2 ohm load at the amp iv triple checked the connections on the sub itself and they are all right.

it has to do something with the RCA cable I think becuase my HU has a sub output on it and I use that but when i plug the RCA cable thats plugged into the HU into the amp it goes into protect mode but when i unplug it the protect mode light shuts off and the power light doesnt even come on or even think about coming on

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

you want to check the specific voltage on the amp power terminals bro... if it falls too far below 12v, it will throw the amp into protect.... a ground can look perfect, but until you actually check it with a DMM (for specific voltage) its almost impossible to tell

 

[jchulski20 10+ year member]

I CAN SLEEP EASY TONIGHT!!!!! I went out there to check the voltage and it was 5.83 volts and i decided i would loosen up the ground wire and it heard it arcing a little so i loosened it a little more and the lights dimmed and the pretty blue light turned on!!!!! im soo relieved i didnt think a tight ground wire would cause that

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

good... i dont think it was a "tight ground" tho bro... i would check your actual grounding point tomorrow, and make sure it is bare metal... grounding it to any paint or rust at all can put huge restrictions on it, and thus, lower your voltage

and then tighten that ground back up... cuz having a loose ground is a quick ticket to catching some stuff on fire

 

[jchulski20 10+ year member]

its grounded right to the frame!!

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

i would still either sand it or grind it down a lil bit...you want to see shiny metal bro. even a lil bit of oxidation on the metal (which can be hard to see) can cause a spike in restriction. thats why anytime i install new electrical, i re-grind the grounding point