Blown Sub?

[KliqueOC 10+ year member]

Last week I bought an Alpine combo consisting of a Type R 15 and an Alpine mrx-m100 amp to power it, with the sub in a pre fab slot ported box (for now). I've been VERY happy with it in my car, until today I was playing a bass heavy song at close to max volume, then my bass cut out. I popped the inline fuse under the hood (4 gauge wire) so I headed to the stereo shop that installed it.

They put in a new fuse and I still had no bass. After pushing on the sub cone some and hitting the box around here and there, the bass came on, then would turn off as I increased the volume. He said my sub was on the way out so to be prepared for it to stop working completely. The sub still sounds clean when it's working, but I notice it turns on/off when I turn it up or go over a bump or something. To me it sounds like loose connections? I've never had a blown sub work on and off like this. Either it sounds like **** or stops working completely. What are your thoughts?

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[09civic 5,000+ posts]

You clipped it to death due to lack of voltage.

 

[Mitch86 5,000+ posts]

Possibly a broken tinsel lead...

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

A blown sub won't cause it to cut off like that (unless one of the leads broke and only makes a connection once in a while). Is the metal where your ground wire is attached to sanded down to bare metal?

 

[K_Watson 10+ year member]

Something was not right...

What wiring upgrades have you done besides the power wire to the amp?

(Even if you have 0 gauge wire to the amp it's pointless unless the big 3 under your hood are not upgraded too.)

 

[Full Tilt 10+ year member]

You clipped it to death due to lack of voltage.

Definitely a possibility.

OP, how'd you set the gains? How's your electrical in your car? Do you have a volt meter in the car that shows your voltage?

 

[KliqueOC 10+ year member]

I let the shop handle everything as far as setting the gains, connecting the ground etc. so I'm sure it's sanded down to metal as it's a pretty reputable higher end shop. I have not done any other wiring upgrades to the car yet. He wanted to sell me an Image Dynamics 15 for $150 once this one went out (if in fact it is on the way out), so not sure if I should just go that route and let them handle it so it's on them if anything goes wrong again. I did not buy this setup from them.

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

I let the shop handle everything as far as setting the gains, connecting the ground etc. so I'm sure it's sanded down to metal as it's a pretty reputable higher end shop. I have not done any other wiring upgrades to the car yet. He wanted to sell me an Image Dynamics 15 for $150 once this one went out (if in fact it is on the way out), so not sure if I should just go that route and let them handle it so it's on them if anything goes wrong again. I did not buy this setup from them.

I don't think your sub is dead. Something is loose and is having trouble making contact. If you want to make sure to rule out the sub, take it out of the box, unplug any wires going into the terminals, set your multi meter to measure resistance and then check each terminal individually

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

I let the shop handle everything as far as setting the gains, connecting the ground etc. so I'm sure it's sanded down to metal as it's a pretty reputable higher end shop. I have not done any other wiring upgrades to the car yet. He wanted to sell me an Image Dynamics 15 for $150 once this one went out (if in fact it is on the way out), so not sure if I should just go that route and let them handle it so it's on them if anything goes wrong again. I did not buy this setup from them.

Was everything new when you got it?

I think it's more likely that you have a wiring or amp issue if you blew the inline fuse. Either way, take the sub out of your box(with no power to the amp of course) and inspect all of the wiring inside of the box. Look at the tinsel leads(they're the silver wires that are connected to the positive and negative terminals of your sub), and see if they're frayed or broken. Make sure the wires are snug that connect to the subwoofer terminals, and the terminal cup on the box(assuming it has one).

If all of that's fine, go back to the shop and ask them if they can test the sub on a different amp. That way you can either know for sure that the sub is bad, or rule it out completely.

Do you know the model of the ID sub they're trying to sell you?

 

---------- Post added at 11:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 PM ----------

 

unplug any wires going into the terminals, set your multi meter to measure resistance and then check each terminal individually

This too.

 

[KliqueOC 10+ year member]

Was everything new when you got it?
I think it's more likely that you have a wiring or amp issue if you blew the inline fuse. Either way, take the sub out of your box(with no power to the amp of course) and inspect all of the wiring inside of the box. Look at the tinsel leads(they're the silver wires that are connected to the positive and negative terminals of your sub), and see if they're frayed or broken. Make sure the wires are snug that connect to the subwoofer terminals, and the terminal cup on the box(assuming it has one).

If all of that's fine, go back to the shop and ask them if they can test the sub on a different amp. That way you can either know for sure that the sub is bad, or rule it out completely.

Do you know the model of the ID sub they're trying to sell you?

 

---------- Post added at 11:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 PM ----------

 

This too.

The equipment was fairly new when I bought it. It has been working great for a week now every day at high volumes. It was just this particular song with super deep and long bass notes that seemed to do it. I'll pull it out this weekend and have a look. Thanks for explaining what the tinsel leads are, I had no idea. I've been out of the audio scene for a while and this is the first stereo system since.

 

[KliqueOC 10+ year member]

I don't think your sub is dead. Something is loose and is having trouble making contact. If you want to make sure to rule out the sub, take it out of the box, unplug any wires going into the terminals, set your multi meter to measure resistance and then check each terminal individually

So measure the wires coming from the amp with the multi meter? At what setting and what am I looking for?

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

So measure the wires coming from the amp with the multi meter? At what setting and what am I looking for?

You'll need to set the multimeter to read resistance, which is measured in Ohms. The symbol will look like this:

.

You need to put the leads on the actual terminals of your sub, with no wires connected. Your sub will either be dual 4 or dual 2 Ohm, meaning each terminal should be reading somewhere around 4 or 2 Ohms, respectively. Each terminal might be off by as much as .5 Ohms.

 

[KliqueOC 10+ year member]

You'll need to set the multimeter to read resistance, which is measured in Ohms. The symbol will look like this:

.
You need to put the leads on the actual terminals of your sub, with no wires connected. Your sub will either be dual 4 or dual 2 Ohm, meaning each terminal should be reading somewhere around 4 or 2 Ohms, respectively. Each terminal might be off by as much as .5 Ohms.

I do know my sub is dual 4 ohm. So of it reads 4, then it should be ok or am I missing something here? Sorry it's a bit confusing. Oh and I didn't ask the model of the ID sub he offered. He just said it was around the same power handling as my type R, around 800 or so rms.

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

I do know my sub is dual 4 ohm. So of it reads 4, then it should be ok or am I missing something here? Sorry it's a bit confusing. Oh and I didn't ask the model of the ID sub he offered. He just said it was around the same power handling as my type R, around 800 or so rms.

Each set of terminals should read around 4 ohms. If one terminal reads something crazy like 80 or 0, then you know for sure the sub is bad.

 

[KliqueOC 10+ year member]

Each set of terminals should read around 4 ohms. If one terminal reads something crazy like 80 or 0, then you know for sure the sub is bad.

I pulled the sub and each set of terminals read 3.7 ohms. I do not see any tinsel leads on the speaker, they must be enclosed within the sub, but everything seems solid with the sub itself. The nuts holding the terminals to the inside of the terminal cup inside the box are a bit loose (loose enough to turn by hand), so I'm going to tighten everything up once it stops raining and then give it a go.