Electrical Issues

[clemson27]

This might not be the exact place to ask, but I am lost. I have a 2011 Chevy Cruze Ls 1.8l Auto. Great car, I've put around 20k miles on it already and only had to change out a cam sensor, besides regular maintenance. Right when I bought the car I installed a sound system (my hobby). I've installed many systems, so yes its all installed correctly. I will put what the install consists of down below. When the car is idling (not moving) the high bass notes and the low bass notes play perfectly fine. Now, when I'm driving down the road, the low and deep bass plays perfectly fine however any song with really high bass notes is when things start happening. When the really high bass starts hitting, the radio will cut out and the bass will just hit, stop, hit, stop and so on. I have a bass knob. The bass will hit, stop, hit, stop until I turn the bass knob back down, then the radio will turn back on and continue where it left off like nothing happened. Also, when the high bass notes hit, along with the radio cutting out until the knob gets turned down, the gauge cluster will display " Service traction control" or " Service Stabilitrak" turn the bass knob down, everything continues like nothing even happened. It makes no sense to me. The deep louder bass will play fine, but songs with high bass... not gonna happen. Any help here would be much appreciated.

Battery voltage drops like 13.3 at max so that's not an issue.

Build:

Stock alternator with "big 3" 0 gauge wire

Single run of 0 gauge back to amplifier in trunk (also the amp is grounded in trunk, sanded the surface nice and shiny)

Amplifier is an Audiopipe APMI 2k

Rockford Fosgate Balanced Line Driver (factory radio doesn't have RCA's) ( tapped in to left and right tweeters for signal)

Subwoofer is a Sundown X-15 Dual 2ohm wired to amp at 1ohm

Box is 4 cu. ft. tuned to 32hz

Click to read more...

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

why are you changing out the cam angel sensor at 20K miles?

i'm pretty sure its a bad connection/s

also make **** sure your engine block ground is sufficient. ive seen current kill sensors because of leaky grounds!

 

[SuperDuty350]

I was going to say rattling a ground loose

 

[clemson27]

The ground is really tight and bare metal. Also, if it were a bad ground, wouldn't it just kill the amp rather the radio? I can upload images of my big 3 if that will help.

 

[clemson27]

I bought it at 50k, Ive put around 20k on it since ive owned it.

 

[clemson27]

Here is where my grounds are for big 3 - https://ibb.co/euWXyv

https://ibb.co/mkFZdv

 

[SuperDuty350]

The ground is really tight and bare metal. Also, if it were a bad ground, wouldn't it just kill the amp rather the radio? I can upload images of my big 3 if that will help.

Do you know where your radio is geounded?

 

[clemson27]

Do you know where your radio is geounded?

No idea, it's the factory radio so wherever they have it grounded

 

[staan]

sounds like the issues is apparent when you add 2 things to the mix, heat and motion. eliminate one sit with the car running until it is up to temperature and see if it happens without movement. seems like it could be a regulator going bad when its hot.

 

[clemson27]

sounds like the issues is apparent when you add 2 things to the mix, heat and motion. eliminate one sit with the car running until it is up to temperature and see if it happens without movement. seems like it could be a regulator going bad when its hot.

Not sure what you mean but when its cold out, sub is stiff, amp is happy, it'll do it a lot. When its hot out and i've been playing it awhile, it doesn't happen as often.

 

[staan]

sounds like a cold soldier joint on the voltage regulator for your alternator

 

[clemson27]

How would that affect my issue though? My voltage is fine, like i said it'll play the deep low bass, just having issues with the high bass.

 

[staan]

whatever frequency your playing at the issue is causing the bad circuit to vibrate and lose connectivity

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

sounds like when it start to pull heavy current it starts acting bad.

its sounds like a bad connection somewhere. it could be on the H/U it could be the amp.

 

[shredder1 10+ year member]

Signal is good?.. No loudness turned on? Flat everything... don't try to EQ anything through the HU...

I've seen severely clipped signals cause stranger problems... if not it's gotta' be a bad connection somewhere... Ground?

I like the cold solder suggestion, unique... but your voltage remains good...