Amp suddendly stays ON when car turned off?!

[danpenksa 10+ year member]

I am in the process of troubleshooting a couple of issues with my stereo and am baffled by this.

Few weeks ago, I was out of town and didn't start my car for appx 5 days (I live in Vegas--110 degree heat); got home, and car wouldnt start. Charged battery, but it kept dying. Almost bought a new battery but then I realized I heard a faint nose from the trunk area, which turned out to be my amp. The amp lights (Stetsom 2k6d) were continuously flickering between "power" and "protect," and it was doing this while the car was OFF! I pulled the remote wire out of the amp to shut it off. I then charged the battery and the car is starting just fine.

My mids haven't been working for awhile, so I also went looking for that problem. The amp (JL 300/2) was powered on, with no "protect" or "thermal" lights on. Grounds are all solid, speaker wires are all connected, etc etc etc--yet, there is no sound. I am going to mess around tomorrow to see if its the amp or the speakers. Anyways--I pulled the power, ground, REM, and speakers wires out of the possibly defective midbass amp, and hooked my Stetsom back up. Now the amp shuts off when the car is off!!!!!!!!

I have no idea what caused the sub amp to start working properly, and it may just be coincidence, but is it somehow possible that disconnecting that midbass amp had some effect on the sub amp?

FYI--Have two PSI subs on a Stetsom 2k6 d, Hybrid 731 3-way components actively crossed over on 3 JL 300/2, Yellow Top under the hood, and a gigantic battery in the trunk that I got from David at PSI (he did the install), Pioneer Avic D3 HU.

Any of you gurus know what could be going on?!

Thanks,

Dan

Click to read more...

 

[hari-bhari 10+ year member]

If there is a short inside your first amp between the power and remote leads, that could have been triggering your other amp to stay on...

 

[danpenksa 10+ year member]

If this were the case, do you think it would also cause all the other amps to stay on as well, or is it possible that just one of the amps would power up without the car on?

Thanks for your response.

 

[Bumpin' Goalie 10+ year member]

Where is your remote wire connected? If it is to a 12v constant, then the amp would stay on.

 

[danpenksa 10+ year member]

It's connected to the back of the HU. I've had it since 2009 and it had never stayed on like that; this was only a recent development that has gone away since I unplugged the midbass amp that is apparently not working.

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

i had the same problem 5 years ago ,it ended up being my jl 330/4 making the problem happen.something to do with their proprietry circuit .i was told 265.00 to fix it cuz it had to be sent to jl,so i junked it bought a new amp and never bought another jl product ever

 

[danpenksa 10+ year member]

i had the same problem 5 years ago ,it ended up being my jl 330/4 making the problem happen.something to do with their proprietry circuit .i was told 265.00 to fix it cuz it had to be sent to jl,so i junked it bought a new amp and never bought another jl product ever

I'm not sure why (don't know the internal workings of amps enough to know), but I also think it is that JL amp that is doing it. I have already had 2 of these things blow and be repaired (though not the one I am currently experiencing problems with). Interesting to know that you had the same issue with the same brand amp. Thanks

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

no prob,the only thing that sux about those amps is that that particular part they wont sell to other shops for repairs on their amps i'm told that the part is only about 20.00 too ,they just ream everyone on the labor

 

[danpenksa 10+ year member]

no prob,the only thing that sux about those amps is that that particular part they wont sell to other shops for repairs on their amps i'm told that the part is only about 20.00 too ,they just ream everyone on the labor

Ouch! If, and when, I do send it in, I hope something has changed over the last 5 years--the amp isn't even worth the cost of repair, yet I don't want to mess with pulling all 3 out of my car, selling them, buying new, and reconfiguring my install :/

 

[danpenksa 10+ year member]

i had the same problem 5 years ago ,it ended up being my jl 330/4 making the problem happen.something to do with their proprietry circuit .i was told 265.00 to fix it cuz it had to be sent to jl,so i junked it bought a new amp and never bought another jl product ever

Did anyone ever have any explanation as to why that problem could have occured inside the amp? Trying to figure why mine would just go haywire after 2.5 years for no apparent reason. Certainly don't want to repair it, only to have it blow again, if there is something that I did to cause the amp to fail.

 

[vaiboy 10+ year member]

You can check the JL to see if it really was the problem, hook up the power and ground but not the remote. Use a DMM to test the remote terminal on the amp, if it is reading 12V with no remote wire attached there's a short somewhere in the amp.

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

Did anyone ever have any explanation as to why that problem could have occured inside the amp? Trying to figure why mine would just go haywire after 2.5 years for no apparent reason. Certainly don't want to repair it, only to have it blow again, if there is something that I did to cause the amp to fail.

jl wouldn't say anything except just to send it in.took it to another shop to have it checked out ,and thats what i was told.they also said that they have seen this problem before