Amp shutting off repeatedly

[Chrisk13 10+ year member]

My friend recently helped me install an amp, sub, and new speakers for my car but i've recently ran into a problem. During a drive everything would play and sound normally until after about 5-20 seconds my sound would fade out to nothing quickly and the amp's power light shuts off. About 15 seconds later it would fade back in and repeat this process. Later in the day when I tried to repeat this it seemed to play perfectly fine and nothing happened. What could be the problem that is causing this to happen?

Not sure if this is needed but I have a Rockford Fosgate R300-4, Pioneer TS-SW2501S4 10-Inch sub. and a pair of Pioneer TS-A6874R 350 Watts speakers.

Any help on this or ideas of what to check would really be appreciated, i'm new to this and am not sure on a lot of this. Thanks!

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[Imtjnotu 5,000+ posts]

Check and make sure ur ground is secure and in a good location....also where are your gains and bassboost on the amp set at...lastly what does your electrical system consist of??big 3? Big power wire?

 

[myjaja 10+ year member]

I dont think he really needs a big 3 done with that amp ^^

Try checking your ground wire like the person above said. Also if you have a dmm, check the voltage back where the amp is and check the voltage up front on the battery.

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Grounds are very, very sneaky. What you think is a good one may not be. That would be the first thing I checked. The next thing would be to check to make sure the remote wire is in there good. It might just be loose and cutting it in and out.

 

[Chrisk13 10+ year member]

For my electrical system, unless something was done to my car before I got it which I highly doubt, it is completely how it comes stock. The front gain is very low, only a bit above the bottom while the rear gain is slightly above half. I believe around 1-2. I'll check the ground soon and see how that looks. When I use a dmm, about what voltages should I be looking for?

Thanks for the help so far everyone!

 

[tdford5 10+ year member]

this sounds like his ohm load is to low for this amp if amp is rated at 2 ohm and ur running a 1 ohm load this could cause amp to overheat and shut down and then come back on ,ive had this problem before

 

[Imtjnotu 5,000+ posts]

For my electrical system, unless something was done to my car before I got it which I highly doubt, it is completely how it comes stock. The front gain is very low, only a bit above the bottom while the rear gain is slightly above half. I believe around 1-2. I'll check the ground soon and see how that looks. When I use a dmm, about what voltages should I be looking for?
Thanks for the help so far everyone!

nothing below 12 while playing full tilt

 

[Chrisk13 10+ year member]

If the ohm load is too low how could I fix that? Also, I have seen the protect light flash on before when the volume is high up.

 

[Imtjnotu 5,000+ posts]

Then maybe it is not ur voltage droppong and is indeed a ground issue

Ur ohm load depends on ur subs check the wiring chart on the12volt.com for availible loads

 

[Chrisk13 10+ year member]

The protect light means that it could be a ground issue? And any reason is was working for almost a month fine until it did this? Or could it be just luck if it is a ground issue?

 

[Trancer 10+ year member]

The Protect Mode light could mean alot of things. It means its having to go into protect mode because something is triggering it; protecting it from burning up.

So yes, ground could be one of many possibilities along with voltage drop, ohm load is too low, etc... as already mentioned.

From reading your post, it sounds like you are running a 4 channel amp for your subs and your speakers. Do you have the speakers on channel one and two and the subs on channel 3 and 4 or do you have them together? That amp is barely going to push your sub that is rated for 300 watts rms. Your amp only does half that power bridged or you may just be giving it 75 watts from one channel. The model number you gave is for a single 4 ohm sub, meaning you can only run it at 4 ohm, so there is no need to check out the12volt.com for wiring options. Can only be ran one way inside the box, but either on one channel or bridged to channels 3 and 4

 

[Chrisk13 10+ year member]

That's correct. The speakers are on 1 and 2 while the sub is on 3 and 4.

 

[Chrisk13 10+ year member]

So I checked the ground and it turns out the wire was attached to metal that was painted so it was getting no connection, as well as being loose. I sanded it down and reattached it tightly. The protect light no longer goes on and there seems to be no more problems. Is there any possibility damage could have been done to the amp though from the use without the ground?