Amp not powering up

[fltdriver82]

System was working, suddenly stopped. With one of my amps I am getting protection light, the other two will have power light on but no sound. Only one amp at a time in my truck, now with all three if I jump the power to the remote with original remote connected it will turn on, but won't turn on if I jump the power to the remote without the original remote wire in it. Pulled the HU out and my remote connection looks good, don't have a multimeter but do have a 12v test light and both power and remote wires are turning the light on.

Any help is appreciated, I put a quick connect jumper in for now but if you guys feel I should re-run the remote I will as soon as I can.

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[shizzzon 10+ year member]

I had extremely hard time understanding issue.

There seems to be multiple issues.

Disconnect all amplifiers and test each one individually first.

 

[fltdriver82]

Sorry, I was cold and pissed and not thinking clearly.

There is only one amp in my truck, thought maybe the issue was the amp so I hooked up another in it's place, then tried a third amp. Same result with all of the amps, no sound to speaker when wired normally. All three amps work fine in my other vehicles.

In the truck the amps will only produce sound when the + and remote terminals are bridged as long as the remote line is in the remote terminal. If the remote line isn't in the remote terminal then using the jumper wire has no effect. Can't figure out for the life of me why it won't power up when jumped if the remote line isn't in it. Has me wondering if it's the power line not getting enough power to the amp, but I don't have a multimeter so I can't test it.

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

Um..... If the remote wire is not in the terminal.. it will NEVER power on..

That's what is suppose to happen.

"If the remote line isn't in the remote terminal then using the jumper wire has no effect"

Of course.. because you are not initializing the relay.

 

[fltdriver82]

My problem is it won't power up with just the remote wire in the remote terminal, I have to jump from power to remote for it to turn on. I was just saying that I though it was weird that it wouldn't turn on when I jumped power to remote without the remote wire hooked up, if that makes more sense.

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

STOP DOING THAT!

That means the remote wire is being used as POWER instead of a relay wire.

Sounds like the power cable is dead, therefore jumping does nothing.

Jumping with remote wire from headunit works because it's switched 12v and you are jumping across power and remote.

Keep doing that and you will likely have a FIRE!

So, inspect the power wire for blown fuse or bad connection.

I don't see how the power cable turned a light on before..

My suggestion still stands and if you still cannot figure it out, completely throw out all current wire and start over.

 

[fltdriver82]

Maybe if I spell it out it will make more sense to you:

With each amp I've tried to connect in my truck I get the following

power, remote, and ground hooked up I get no sound

Power, remote, and ground hooked up plus jumper from power to remote I get sound

power and ground hooked up plus jumper from power to remote I get no sound

I would understand it if when I jumped power and remote it worked every time (means remote wire is bad) but can't figure out why it won't work when I jump power to remote without the remote wire from the HU in the remote terminal, but does work when the remote wire is present. Does this mean that the power wire is not supplying enough power?

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

Maybe if I spell it out it will make more sense to you:With each amp I've tried to connect in my truck I get the following

power, remote, and ground hooked up I get no sound

Power, remote, and ground hooked up plus jumper from power to remote I get sound

power and ground hooked up plus jumper from power to remote I get no sound

I would understand it if when I jumped power and remote it worked every time (means remote wire is bad) but can't figure out why it won't work when I jump power to remote without the remote wire from the HU in the remote terminal, but does work when the remote wire is present. Does this mean that the power wire is not supplying enough power?

I'll say it again-

STOP DOING THAT!

That means the remote wire is being used as POWER instead of a relay wire.

Sounds like the power cable is dead, therefore jumping does nothing.

Jumping with remote wire from headunit works because it's switched 12v and you are jumping across power and remote.

Keep doing that and you will likely have a FIRE!

So, inspect the power wire for blown fuse or bad connection.

I don't see how the power cable turned a light on before..

My suggestion still stands and if you still cannot figure it out, completely throw out all current wire and start over.

 

[fltdriver82]

I was only doing it with low volume for less than a second. Just got done fixing it, the power wire had shifted in the engine bay at some point and got the insulation melted, it was grounding out. Guess it wasn't letting enough power through in it's "injured" state but had enough to turn my test light on. I posted my last post, well typed and clicked reply, before there was anything that you posted so I don't want you to think I was ignoring what you said it just wasn't there when I started replying.

Cut the bad section out, and secured it against the side of the engine bay, still don't know what it got close to to melt the insulation, maybe my Throttle Body cooling line (only thing close), initially thought that the wire melted it from inside but there were a couple semi-melted spots on just the outermost part of the insulation. Guess that's what I get for leaving myself a little slack in the wire for just in cases.

Once again sorry if my posts seemed like I was ignoring you, I wasn't and Post #6 helped me fix my problem, THANKS!

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

You can always go to lowes and purchase a couple feet of their gray flexible conduit

its under $1 per foot.

That and some 3:1 heat shrink. That should heavily protect your wire under the hood.

 

[fltdriver82]

I've got about 20+ft of wire loom just laying around, might just throw some around it to be on the safe side.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

You should NEVER use one of those 12V test lights in a car. They pass too much current and there's a lot of things that can be damaged by probing with them.

 

[fltdriver82]

It was a tester that came with my RKE/auto starter, pretty sure they wouldn't include it if it wasn't safe to use on vehicles. This one just had alligator clips for + and - then a probe that would either turn it green or red for - or +. I just clipped the alligators to my ground and power then ground and remote, just to verify both were getting power.