Head unit going on and off

[stemz 10+ year member]

I have a kenwood head unit a z editon 2 way 1200 watt amp a kicker 4 channel 200 watt amp i have 2 comp setups in the front and back of my car and 2 kicker 12" subs thats my car audio set up the problem is that sometimes im bumping it and the head unit randomly turns of and it only happens when i turn up the volume...instead of running a 0 or 4 gauge wire back amd spliting it i ran 2 8 gauge wires back cuz i didnt have any on hand both 8 gauge wires are fused but idk if that might be the cause of my problem any ideas??

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[stemz 10+ year member]

Any ideas?? I have no clue what might be causing the issue could the amps cause my head unit to turn off please help...

 

[NIHL8ION]

Check your ground or maybe even add a ground for your head unit & check your remote wire connections... But I've never seen an amp causing a head unit to shut off in my experiences...

 

[stemz 10+ year member]

Can the 2 power cables i ran back to my amps cause any issues to my head unit??

 

[NIHL8ION]

Can the 2 power cables i ran back to my amps cause any issues to my head unit??

Where exactly did you run these power wires from???

 

[stemz 10+ year member]

Where exactly did you run these power wires from???

I ran both cables from the battery both wires are fused aswell...i had an old pioneer unit that did the same thing it would turn on and off randomly then i started hearing whining out of my speakers i opened my unit up and it turned out being that the ground fuse to the rca ports was blown so i ended up grounding the rca ports on the units shield it solved the engine whine but the unit kept turning on and off randomly i thought it was just time to up grade it was an old radio. So i upgraded to a kenwood i took it to a shop and got it installed but with in a couple of days the unit started doing the same thing turning on and off idk whats causing the issue...

 

[black05alti]

definitely check the grounds before assuming anything else..

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

Pull the HU out and check all the wire connections for it. Like suggested above add a ground to the HU. It is possible you are pulling too much power for your electrical system and your HU shuts off due to some low voltage protection I suppose. Check your voltage when you are running hard, make sure you're not dipping below 12volts often. Problem may be able to be solved with the Big 3 upgrade, or upgrading your power wires if voltage is an issue. If none of these, then I would guess just a bad HU.

Pioneer HUs have definitely been known to have some grounding issues.

 

[stemz 10+ year member]

Pull the HU out and check all the wire connections for it. Like suggested above add a ground to the HU. It is possible you are pulling too much power for your electrical system and your HU shuts off due to some low voltage protection I suppose. Check your voltage when you are running hard, make sure you're not dipping below 12volts often. Problem may be able to be solved with the Big 3 upgrade, or upgrading your power wires if voltage is an issue. If none of these, then I would guess just a bad HU.
Pioneer HUs have definitely been known to have some grounding issues.

Thats what i was thinking that i was pulling to much power it only shuts of when i bump it hard and it usally happens on the heavy notes...if i run a 4 gauge wire back and split 8 gauge to each amps will that solve my power issue?? I havent done the big 3 but its something im planning on doing but with my 2 amps its only 1400 watts i didnt think that was enough to push it. How do i check the voltage??

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

get a dmm (digital multimeter) u can get them at radioshack or really any electronic store. The cheapest ones are usually around 20$ and work just fine. A dmm is one of your best friends in car audio. You could also install a volt meter, they are easy to install, just need to hook them to a positive on the batt or somewhere on the circuit and they will read the current volts.

 

[stemz 10+ year member]

I havent really had time to check the wires but im jist wondering if i have a stock battery and a stock alternator would 1400 watts be enough to overwhelm my electrical system and cause my head unit to shot off?? Will a bigger batter solve my electrical issue??

 

[NIHL8ION]

I havent really had time to check the wires but im jist wondering if i have a stock battery and a stock alternator would 1400 watts be enough to overwhelm my electrical system and cause my head unit to shot off?? Will a bigger batter solve my electrical issue??

This problem is due to either the wiring going to your HU, or the HU it's self, I seriously doubt 1400 watts is enough to overwhelm your electrical system to the point of causing your HU to fail. One easy way to narrow this down would be to 1st run yourself a direct ground from a steeing column support bracket bolt or other good ground under the dash / behind the HU and test again... If it still shuts off then run a direct lead to the battery with some normal primary / remote wire and jump your IGN / switched & constant power / memory wires together on your HU and hook them up to your test lead direct to the battery... Test again, if at this point it doesn't shut off anymore, than your harness is not supplying uninterrupted consistent voltage for your HU to function properly, so you can just make 1 permanent lead to the battery for your HU, and run another lead to your fuse panel to tap into switched / ignition power and be done with it...

 

[stemz 10+ year member]

This problem is due to either the wiring going to your HU, or the HU it's self, I seriously doubt 1400 watts is enough to overwhelm your electrical system to the point of causing your HU to fail. One easy way to narrow this down would be to 1st run yourself a direct ground from a steeing column support bracket bolt or other good ground under the dash / behind the HU and test again... If it still shuts off then run a direct lead to the battery with some normal primary / remote wire and jump your IGN / switched & constant power / memory wires together on your HU and hook them up to your test lead direct to the battery... Test again, if at this point it doesn't shut off anymore, than your harness is not supplying uninterrupted consistent voltage for your HU to function properly, so you can just make 1 permanent lead to the battery for your HU, and run another lead to your fuse panel to tap into switched / ignition power and be done with it...

That sounds like a good idea there one more thing i noticed i drive a vw jetta those cars when they are low on break fluid a break light beeps on and off so the thing is that i bump hard then the unit randomly shuts of sometime when it does the the abs and break lights turn on and start beeping and that only happens when the unit shuts of sounds like a bad ground?? Ill tes what u told me and ill check it out thanks

 

[stemz 10+ year member]

This problem is due to either the wiring going to your HU, or the HU it's self, I seriously doubt 1400 watts is enough to overwhelm your electrical system to the point of causing your HU to fail. One easy way to narrow this down would be to 1st run yourself a direct ground from a steeing column support bracket bolt or other good ground under the dash / behind the HU and test again... If it still shuts off then run a direct lead to the battery with some normal primary / remote wire and jump your IGN / switched & constant power / memory wires together on your HU and hook them up to your test lead direct to the battery... Test again, if at this point it doesn't shut off anymore, than your harness is not supplying uninterrupted consistent voltage for your HU to function properly, so you can just make 1 permanent lead to the battery for your HU, and run another lead to your fuse panel to tap into switched / ignition power and be done with it...

Ok so this is what i found when i took out the HU i found a couple of wires lose on bothe sides of the harness (the hu harness and my stock harness) the ones leading from the hu harness are covered with tape but the ones from my stock harness are lose the are labled illumination dash, mute, amp turn on/off if these wires happened to touch each other would it cause an issue?? I also tested the battery and the alternator and those came up normal aswell i didnt check the grounds to the radio yhe wire that where lose i taped them

Maybe that was the issue

 

[NIHL8ION]

Ok so this is what i found when i took out the HU i found a couple of wires lose on bothe sides of the harness (the hu harness and my stock harness) the ones leading from the hu harness are covered with tape but the ones from my stock harness are lose the are labled illumination dash, mute, amp turn on/off if these wires happened to touch each other would it cause an issue?? I also tested the battery and the alternator and those came up normal aswell i didnt check the grounds to the radio yhe wire that where lose i taped themMaybe that was the issue

The illumination & mute wires are not even needed in your case as with most, and the amp-turn-on lead should be connected to the remote leads for any amps you may have, if not tape them all up separated from each other... Hopefully your loose connections were the culprit of your issue...