In need of help BIG time!?!?

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

It sounds like you had a loose ground connection and it cooked the cable at the connection. Cut it back till it's clean, scrape the burnt crap on the car back down to bear metal.

Use a meter to determine if you are reading voltage at the amp. You should see +12 volts and continuity to ground.

Ignore the cap. (except don't touch the terminals on the cap= shock hazard)

 

[Nova1723 10+ year member]

It sounds like you had a loose ground connection and it cooked the cable at the connection. Cut it back till it's clean, scrape the burnt crap on the car back down to bear metal.
Use a meter to determine if you are reading voltage at the amp. You should see +12 volts and continuity to ground.

Ignore the cap. (except don't touch the terminals on the cap= shock hazard)

Yeah the last time this "type of thing" happened I called the guy that installed it and he said the cap was fried and I needed a new one and after I installed the new one it still wasn't working right and then after checking everything I saw that the ground connection to the frame of the car was seriously loose... rattled loose I would think so we tightened it and it was working perfectly so I bought the new cap for nothing but at least now I have a spare. But the thing is this time the connection was fried and burnt on the frame of the car and at the end of the ground wire... is the whole wire fried should I get a new wire and end connection or just cut it and use the old connector? What kind of meter are you referring to? Just a regular old volt meter? And where specifically do I measure on the amp? I appreciate your help!

 

[Nova1723 10+ year member]

Why don't you drop it off at an audio shop so they can determine the problem for you? You will know within an hour.

I would be all for this but I teach and coach so I'm not free till after 6pm each night and they close at 5pm and are closed on the weekends =/

 

[mrogowski 5,000+ posts]

Can you not drop you car off in the morning and pick it up after work/next morning?

 

[romans535 10+ year member]

have you checked the cap. Your pos and neg terminals might of touched, it happened to me before CA.com

 

[Nova1723 10+ year member]

Can you not drop you car off in the morning and pick it up after work/next morning?

Unfortunately no I live 15 mins outta town and don't have a ride to and from, I have spring break in a number of weeks but I hate waiting... i want my bass lol

 

[Nova1723 10+ year member]

have you checked the cap. Your pos and neg terminals might of touched, it happened to me before CA.com

Yeah I looked over the cap and everything "seems" to be fine.... would the LED still light up and read 14.0 if the cap went bad??

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

The 14 is merely a display of your system voltage, created by the alternator. The cap being good or bad would not affect this, beyond if the gauge itself on the cap was bad.

A faulty cap would not shut the entire amplifier/stereo system down. You probably have either bad ground issue, or a signal issue.

I wasn't gonna bother helping because, honestly, this question bores me (no offense)... but you are a teacher and a coach, I really respect that... let me know what I can do to further help.

 

[Nova1723 10+ year member]

The 14 is merely a display of your system voltage, created by the alternator. The cap being good or bad would not affect this, beyond if the gauge itself on the cap was bad.
A faulty cap would not shut the entire amplifier/stereo system down. You probably have either bad ground issue, or a signal issue.

I wasn't gonna bother helping because, honestly, this question bores me (no offense)... but you are a teacher and a coach, I really respect that... let me know what I can do to further help.

Thats what I can't figure out why the whole system would shut down as you mentioned, what do you mean by "signal issue"? And no worries not offended. I just want to fix this that's all, I want my bass!

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Thats what I can't figure out why the whole system would shut down as you mentioned, what do you mean by "signal issue"? And no worries not offended. I just want to fix this that's all, I want my bass!

If your h/u outputs crap out on you, or the RCA cable goes bad... the amp would appear to stop working... but in reality its simply no longer receiving a signal to amplify. Not saying that is your problem, but it sounds like a possibility.

 

[mazdakid 5,000+ posts]

Maybe one of your students know about car audio? Id have one of them check it out for me if you don't know what to look for.

 

[alotofbang 10+ year member]

have you checked the rca's and remote

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

Your ground wire to the amp should be no more than 3 feet long to begin with. If it's just a small section that's burnt and the rest is fine you can just chop off the damaged section and use the good section. If a significant portion of the wire is cooked, corroded or has damaged insulation then replace it. Cleaning the car back down to bare metal, at the point of contact, to get a clean ground connection is critical.

A simple digital multimeter can be had for just a few dollars. They can be used to test for positive voltage and differenent locations, and also to test continuity to ground from differenent points in the electrical system, and many other uses.

As stated above, also carefully examine your remote wire, rca's, speaker wires and anything else to see if the heat, or anything else, damaged your system.

Unfortunetly it sounds like your shop is ripping you off and not helping much. That's common. You come in with a loose ground and he wants to sell you a cap. Very cliche'. It happens alot to people who don't have a good grasp of how thier systems work. It makes it easy for the bad shops to take advantage of you. Learing more about how your system works and how to fix it makes you a smarter shopper and less gullabile consumer in the future.

 

[Nova1723 10+ year member]

Your ground wire to the amp should be no more than 3 feet long to begin with. If it's just a small section that's burnt and the rest is fine you can just chop off the damaged section and use the good section. If a significant portion of the wire is cooked, corroded or has damaged insulation then replace it. Cleaning the car back down to bare metal, at the point of contact, to get a clean ground connection is critical.
A simple digital multimeter can be had for just a few dollars. They can be used to test for positive voltage and differenent locations, and also to test continuity to ground from differenent points in the electrical system, and many other uses.

As stated above, also carefully examine your remote wire, rca's, speaker wires and anything else to see if the heat, or anything else, damaged your system.

Unfortunetly it sounds like your shop is ripping you off and not helping much. That's common. You come in with a loose ground and he wants to sell you a cap. Very cliche'. It happens alot to people who don't have a good grasp of how thier systems work. It makes it easy for the bad shops to take advantage of you. Learing more about how your system works and how to fix it makes you a smarter shopper and less gullabile consumer in the future.

My ground wire is about 2 ft long if that, and yes its just the end that is "burnt" or corroded. Should I replace the end piece that I put the bolt through to screw into the metal frame?? What locations should I test for positive voltage? Thanks for the help!

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

First disconnect the main negative battery terminal under the hood. This disables your entire electrical system.

Cut the wire slightly beyond the burnt part to make sure you make a cut in "clean" cable, if it's still long enough you can use it. Inspect it carefully. If anyother part doesn't look right, replace the whole thing. It's not expensive. Get a new crimp eye terminal to connect the wire to the car. Sand down to bare metal to get a new ground connection.

Make sure all your other power, ground, speaker, rca, remote wire connections are tight, not burnt or worn. Physically touch them and try to tightent them down a little more. They don't have to be gorrilla tight, but tight enough that they aren't comming loose without a tool applied to them.

Now take your meter and set it to continuity. Put one probe on the negative terminal on the amp, the other probe on any exposed metal surface or exposed screw. You may need to scratch the screw or find a place where the paint is scratched off the car to get a good contact. Your meter should read near zero or beep at you when you have continuity. That means your ground wire is passing current from your amp thru the metal chassis of the car.

Now reconnect the negative terminal on the battery under the hood. Now set your meter to DC voltage. Now test between the negative and postive terminals on the amp. It should read around 12 volts or slightly above.

Turn on your engine and turn on your stereo. Test the same between the remote terminal and negative terminal. It should read the same.

Your stereo should work normally.