Intermittent failure.

[Nova5]

I have a suspicion on where the fault lies..

Car. 1997 Chevy Camaro Z28

Infinity Kappa Component 60.5cs's in front doors. W/Tweeters

Infinity Kappa Component 60.5cs's in rear sail panels. WO/Tweeters

Infinity Kappa Subwoofer Ttop stealth box.

Kenwood Excelon 5 Channel Amp

JVC Arsenal HU.

Occasionally I will get a auditory "Thump" through the speakers and then the whole system dies. THe problem has survived from a older HU I replaced as it was to old to handle Bluetooth. That isolates the old HU from the fault list. Eventually the problem went "away" (not a good sign) I found both front woofers had no output, but the tweeters still functioned. I got into the doors recently and found booth woofers had become disconnected, at this point I thought maybe one was loose and the wire bounced making a brief contact and causing a spike, throwing the amp into protect mode. So I connected the wires back and attached them in such a way via the factory water shield bracket that the wire cannot come loose again. On the first test drive I get the "Thump" and shutdown.

So at this point I suspect a woofer is bad. However Both look in good condition, and operate when the car is parked and the amp isn't in its protect mode or stunned by the "Thump"

Does this make sense or could the problem be further up the line and triggered by the presence of the woofer? With them disconnected it doesn't draw nearly the same power through the amp. I have swapped the front and rear input and output wires on the amp, this mostly isolates the amp from the problem as well in my thoughts. This weekend I plan to pull the sail panel speakers and put them in the door location. I will leave the sail panels empty. If the problem goes away I can be certain its the woofers I pulled.. then I need to replace them...

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[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

Test the woofer coils with a dmm. Leave the dmm connected and push down on the cone (gently) to see if it changes at all. Also listen for any mechanical (rubbing) noise but make sure you're pushing down straight.

 

[Nova5]

dmm? Digital Multimeter?

Looking for Ohm or Volt(generation) change?

The whole speaker system makes the audio "Thump" noise, its not isolated to one channel, and while working the speakers don't have distorted or rough sound if it helps.

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

dmm? Digital Multimeter?
Looking for Ohm or Volt(generation) change?

The whole speaker system makes the audio "Thump" noise, its not isolated to one channel, and while working the speakers don't have distorted or rough sound if it helps.

Ohm. In my opinion it sounds more like a problem with your amp but check the speakers anyway if you can.

 

[Nova5]

The crossover box and tweeter remained connected throughout. Only the woofers connections came off the woofers themselves, the wire remained bonded to the terminals on the crossover.

I would doubt a failure on both A and B channels of the amp showing the same problem. Not unheard of by any means, but unlikely. It can happen at low and high volumes. So its unlikely to be overloading from the level being pushed by the HU. Possible a bad speaker is overdrawing.

 

[Nova5]

I saw changes in the ohms reading, sporadic/random values. It wasn't stable or linear as the cone was pressed on lightly.