Need some help please.

[Puremetal89]

Hey everyone I've been in the game for a while now,, blown my share of speakers and subs, on my way to going deaf. My set up is: kenwood excelon (not sure the model is a single din) hu, 2 alpine pdx amps 1000x1 300x2, 12" kicker l7, focal p165 front components 6.5".

Everything except the amps are only a couple years old. The amps are about 12 years old. What has just started happening is intermittent very loud clipping at any volume from the sub. The bass sounds great when its not doing it. I can be at mid or even low volume and all of a sudden it will sound like it is at max volume heavily distorted. When it happens if I turn it all the way down it will continue for a few seconds. I can also play it at what I consider my max volume with no change in the intermittent noise.

Any thoughts? I doubt it is volume knob the max vol on the deck barely sounds distorted. Can a blown sub do that even at lower volumes?

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[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Kinda sounds like one of the coils are about to go. Id pull the sub and take a look at it and even put a DMM on each coil see if its still within limitations without power of course.

 

[Puremetal89]

I'll give that a try. I noticed on the way home it didn't act up but I didn't have it cranked today. When it happens at lower volumes I had just been blasting it. Like go into a store for 5 mins, start car with volume down and it is doing it. Likely because coils are still hot I guess?

 

[Puremetal89]

Kinda sounds like one of the coils are about to go. Id pull the sub and take a look at it and even put a DMM on each coil see if its still within limitations without power of course.

Both VCs are close to 4 ohms. I remember my old alpine type x would throw the amp into protect when it had a voice coil go.

I'll go ahead and clean grounds and connections. But I dont have a spare set of rcas and if its not wiring what are the possibilities a HU or an amp could do that?

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Hmm.How is your electrical for the system? Enough supply for the demand? Ive had an alt. begin to go out before and didnt keep up with the charging of the batteries and had pretty much the same issue as this in one my vehicles in the past. Majority have been a coil issues though.Whats your electrical supply consist of,(batteries and size of alt, and how old are they?Check voltage at idle.?Check for corroded connections,at battery and fuse at battery/batteries and if you have done big3 check at alt for corrosion also.Just trying rule a few things out/something start with

 

[Puremetal89]

I have a 07 Corolla with a dual battery, big 3, original alt and it's been fine for 10 years. But if you've seen those symptoms, that gives me a place to go. I'll AVR my charging system and clean all connections. I'll let ya know, thanks.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

I had this happen years ago. My crappy fuse block had melted and was causing the amp to intermittently see 9 volts causing lots of distortion and clipping. Voltage would go back up and it would sound fine for a little while.

 

[dragon.breath 10+ year member]

I have had a bad rca cable cause a similar problem. It would short out intermittently and cause all kinds of distortion.

 

[Puremetal89]

I have had a bad rca cable cause a similar problem. It would short out intermittently and cause all kinds of distortion.

I finally had a chance to remove my HU and swap cables side to side from mid 2ch amp to mono amp. No more clipping from the sub. But also no clipping from my components now which I was expecting. I drove around for 30 mins beating the hell out of my sub. It should have done it multiple times.

Is that possible? Or did I just magically fix it by unplugging and reconnecting the rcas lol. RCAs dont care what kind of amp they are hooked up to do they? It's the HU that pushes the signal to the amp. Or do the crossovers prevent clipping?

 

[Puremetal89]

So it wasn't fixed, it just didn't do it on that drive...of course.

Anyway I've had the sub turned off via the head unit. So everything is still connected and I am still getting loud intermittent pops from the sub even though it is not playing any of the music. Is that looking like my amp is going bad?

 

[Puremetal89]

Update:
My intermittent problem became permanent. Verified low signal from HU. Power grounds at amp. Rechecked sub voice coil continuity.

Friend had a test amp. Everything works. So my 12 year old alpine pdx 1000 finally **** the bed. Guess those are the symptoms if anyone ever runs into it lol.