Need a diagnosis for my system's illness!! Symptoms and treatment attempts listed...

[gev003 10+ year member]

I'm trying to figure out the problem with my recently installed setup.

I have a 2004 Saturn Ion

I'm replacing the factory system piece by piece.

I already had a Hifonics bx1500d amp from the system I had previously in my Ford Explorer. I used it wired at 4 ohms with a single Adire Audio Tempest 15 for more than 4 years and never had a single problem with it.

The Tempest and it's big ported box wouldn't fit in the Saturn trunk so I sold the sub and box and bought a Pioneer Premier Championship dual 2-ohm 12 to put in a small sealed box.

While at the store they had a Kenwood 735u head unit display model for 99 bucks so I picked that up too.

Saturday morning I installed the head unit, no problem. Ran my brand new RCAs from the head unit, along with the amp turn on wire back to the trunk. The Saturn's battery is in the trunk under the floor, so I ran 4 ga. power and ground directly from the battery to the amp. Mounted the amp to the back of the sealed box, wired the sub to 1-ohm and turned it on.

It sounded awesome, got pretty loud but I was more amazed by the low bass impact, very thick. I drove around quite a bit that afternoon and night, played it at moderate to high levels off and on, pushed it hard for short bursts, no problem.

Later that night I had some friends over to show my work, sure enough halfway through our drive the sub stops. I check and see the power led was red, the amp was in protect. I turned the car off, turned it back on and the sub was playing again. Got back on the road to finish our drive, and about 5 minutes in it turns off again, red light in protect.

Got home, turned the car off and back on again, sub started up again, turned it up just a little bit and again with the protect mode. I left it, woke up in the morning and the sub turned on again.

You see a pattern here but now comes the weird part: Now the sub doesn't play, but the power led on the amp is still green. The amp is not in protect, but the sub is not playing. Very frustrating.

Here's what I've done so far:

Changed to a better connection on the ground to the battery

Took the sub out of the box to make sure the wiring was secure

Changed RCAs

Changed speaker wire

Disconnected everything and reconnected

Messed with numerous head unit settings (yes the subwoofer output is turned on)

Any ideas as to what this could be?

I've searched for previous threads about this subject and have exhausted those results.

Your help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

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[Brian_smith06 10+ year member]

im not familiar with the amp but is it stable down to 1 ohm? also it could be low voltage as to why your amp is shuting off. is the amp pretty well vented?

also where are you located at in kc? i am in overland park and i could possibly help out

edit: you never mentioned anything about one ohm i just saw that the sub was a dual 2 so i jumped to conclusions there

 

[Supergumby5000 5,000+ posts]

well, you're amp is going into protect.

That should explain everything, that is, if everything is installed correctly.

Im willing to bet your voltage is dropping far too low, and im willing to bed you have a stock battery with stock wiring //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

running 1k+RMS @ 1 ohm is gonna be rough on your stock electrical system, get a bigger battery and do the big 3.

 

[gev003 10+ year member]

Brian, my name is Bryan and I live in Shawnee. I had a friend from Topeka named Brian Smith.

It says in the amp's manual and was advertised to do 1500 @ 1 ohm mono.

Is it in protect mode now even though the light is green and not red?

I don't know. Now the amp turns on and the light is green, but no sound.

As for the wiring, do I really need to upgrade the battery for this thing to run at 1-ohm? I did not see any change from what I could tell, lights were not dimming or anything.

Thanks for the reply

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

9 volt battery on the sub to see if it is working maybe?

 

[MmatsDude 10+ year member]

symtoms? maybe the system has tumors ******* up all the electrical debeezzz and energyzzz

 

[GAM3OVR 5,000+ posts]

run 0 guage from alternator to your batt in the trunk //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

your stock wiring is probably 8 guage running to the batt from the charging system (your stock alternator)

 

[Ferendon 10+ year member]

Check voltage at the amp. Fuses can blow, without looking blown, especially glass fuses. I've seen plenty of time, with the same symptoms, where the amp was only getting 6v because of a bad fuse, that look perfectly fine.

 

[gev003 10+ year member]

To those saying the weak stock electrical system is to blame: why did it go from working fine, to not working at all? Why did it go from starting out working, to protect mode, back to working, back to protect mode, and now it turns on but no sound from the subs and no protect mode?

Sorry but I'm very //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[gev003 10+ year member]

Check voltage at the amp. Fuses can blow, without looking blown, especially glass fuses. I've seen plenty of time, with the same symptoms, where the amp was only getting 6v because of a bad fuse, that look perfectly fine.

There are 2 60 amp fuses on the side of the amp, neither are blown. The ANL inline fuse to the battery is fine as well.

 

[Brian_smith06 10+ year member]

they are saying weak electrical because your battery is starting out at a high enough voltage to keep the amp going then after you run it for awhile then you dip below a safe voltage to run it at and it shuts off and goes into protect mode. too low of a voltage will damage the amp and cause it to fail and produce the magic smoke that not even a magician to be allowed to possess.

if you want to meet up sometime since you dont seem to be far away i would be more than happy to help you out

 

[1dynasty 10+ year member]

I had a similar problem with the system i currently had. And i understand your frustration believe me. I tried everything, replaced wires, tested headunit. Even got a new amp thinking i had a thermal burn or something inside the amp. It would play and go into protect. Well i was an idiot and had the Ohm load on the amp too low for the 4Ohm SVC G5 i was using. And i was slowly damaging the sub. Unbridged it and it plays great now......plus my stock batt and wiring sucked.....haha. so perhaps it is your wiring/batt. Big 3 is of course the cheapest fix. You might try the idea mentioned of testing the sub to just make sure it still works and nothing fried.

 

[scoob8000 10+ year member]

run 0 guage from alternator to your batt in the trunk //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif
your stock wiring is probably 8 guage running to the batt from the charging system (your stock alternator)

I kind of suspect this too.

You said later that night friends came over. During that drive did you have the headlights on, stressing things a little further maybe?

Just thinking aloud.

Maybe try getting some voltage measurements at the amp, and at the alt.