Remote wire killed amp???

[motocross019]

Okay, so i have a JL250/1 pushing 2 JL 10in subs. I put the setup in my truck and it worked fine for about 4 weeks. Then one day it started to stop working about 30 seconds after i turned it on and it wouldnt work unless i restarted it. When i got home my amp started smoking so I pulled everything out and checked all my wires. Everything was fine but the remote wire. When i put the test light on it, it would light up the bulb bright but then it would dim down and go out. I ran a new remote wire to another 12v source and hooked the amp up again, the power lights and everything comes on but it has no output. Could my amp have fried through the remote wire? Or is there another problem i havent found? Anyone had anything like this happen before? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

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[goingdef 10+ year member]

Hmm .....magic smoke yea it's dead but I don't think low voltage on the turn on lead would do it I would check over everything before dropping another one in.

 

[chargdbassbuick 10+ year member]

Okay, so i have a JL250/1 pushing 2 JL 10in subs. I put the setup in my truck and it worked fine for about 4 weeks. Then one day it started to stop working about 30 seconds after i turned it on and it wouldnt work unless i restarted it. When i got home my amp started smoking so I pulled everything out and checked all my wires. Everything was fine but the remote wire. When i put the test light on it, it would light up the bulb bright but then it would dim down and go out. I ran a new remote wire to another 12v source and hooked the amp up again, the power lights and everything comes on but it has no output. Could my amp have fried through the remote wire? Or is there another problem i havent found? Anyone had anything like this happen before? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

personally i dont think that was the issue. the remote wire purpose is to signal to the amp to turn on or off , via voltage signal. the remote wire is usually between 18-12gauge does pull minimal 5-10amp , reason why remote wires are usually not very big in gauge . i put money on bad ground or voltage drop. but i could be wrong , help i could help

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Low voltage on the remote wire would just turn the amp off. You've got a different issue here.

 

[motocross019]

I cant figure out what else it could be cause everything seems to be fine and it was working great for awhile. My truck has a factory amp that powers the door speakers so when i put the head unit in i had to hook the remote wire from it to the factory amp wire on the harness, so when i hooked my other amp up i just wire tapped that connection and ran the remote wire to the amp from it. Could that have something to do with it? Because when it started dying the door speakers would cut out when the JL amp would. And when you put the test light on the remote wire it starts bright and then fades off and the door speakers die when the light goes out.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

I cant figure out what else it could be cause everything seems to be fine and it was working great for awhile. My truck has a factory amp that powers the door speakers so when i put the head unit in i had to hook the remote wire from it to the factory amp wire on the harness, so when i hooked my other amp up i just wire tapped that connection and ran the remote wire to the amp from it. Could that have something to do with it? Because when it started dying the door speakers would cut out when the JL amp would. And when you put the test light on the remote wire it starts bright and then fades off and the door speakers die when the light goes out.

Yeah, there is only a small amount of current running over that remote wire. Your HU might not be putting out enough for both amps. If you only use one amp, either one, does it cut out? If it doesn't, you will have to wire a relay in there, and run your amp's remote wires off of that.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Okay, so i have a JL250/1 pushing 2 JL 10in subs. I put the setup in my truck and it worked fine for about 4 weeks. Then one day it started to stop working about 30 seconds after i turned it on and it wouldnt work unless i restarted it. When i got home my amp started smoking so I pulled everything out and checked all my wires. Everything was fine but the remote wire. When i put the test light on it, it would light up the bulb bright but then it would dim down and go out. I ran a new remote wire to another 12v source and hooked the amp up again, the power lights and everything comes on but it has no output. Could my amp have fried through the remote wire? Or is there another problem i havent found? Anyone had anything like this happen before? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

I can't imagine how a remote wire could cause that. Something else is going on.

 

[motocross019]

Well the factory amp works fine by itself now without my aftermarket one. I tried to hook the aftermarket one back up but im pretty sure its fried because the power lights come on but it has no output so im afraid to hook another up and have the same thing happen if I cant figure out what the problem really is.

 

[motocross019]

personally i dont think that was the issue. the remote wire purpose is to signal to the amp to turn on or off , via voltage signal. the remote wire is usually between 18-12gauge does pull minimal 5-10amp , reason why remote wires are usually not very big in gauge . i put money on bad ground or voltage drop. but i could be wrong , help i could help

Its grounded to the bolt on the seat. It was working fine for awhile so the ground couldnt of gone bad could it? and the hot wire is straight from the battery and always has 12v to it. The remote wire must have been shorting out and causing the amp to shut off when this started happening. So all i know is that my amp is toast and there was a remote wire problem. It couldnt have been a coincidence that the amp fried when the remote wire started shorting i dont think. Its just strange to me that it happened at the same time and i cant find anything else wrong with it.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Its grounded to the bolt on the seat. It was working fine for awhile so the ground couldnt of gone bad could it? and the hot wire is straight from the battery and always has 12v to it. The remote wire must have been shorting out and causing the amp to shut off when this started happening. So all i know is that my amp is toast and there was a remote wire problem. It couldnt have been a coincidence that the amp fried when the remote wire started shorting i dont think. Its just strange to me that it happened at the same time and i cant find anything else wrong with it.

Have you found a short on the remote wire? What would lead you to think there was a short on that wire?

 

[motocross019]

Have you found a short on the remote wire? What would lead you to think there was a short on that wire?

well maybe not actually a short but there has to be some problem with it because when you put a test light to it, it will draw power for a few seconds then stop. So there had to have been some kind of problem with it the way i had it tapped into the head unit or something.

EDIT: so that had to have been what was causing the amp to shut off in the first place and from what i can tell caused it to burn up somehow.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

well maybe not actually a short but there has to be some problem with it because when you put a test light to it, it will draw power for a few seconds then stop. So there had to have been some kind of problem with it the way i had it tapped into the head unit or something.

I would suggest you stop guessing at what the problem could be, and hunt it down.

You said you tried hooking up the remote wire to only the factory amp and it worked. Your other amp is almost definitely toast if you seen smoke. You need to recheck everything that has been added in there, make sure connections are at the correct places and tight and there are no loose strands, check voltage and make sure you have good grounds, and just do basic electrical checks before you add another one in there and kill it again.

 

[motocross019]

I would suggest you stop guessing at what the problem could be, and hunt it down.
You said you tried hooking up the remote wire to only the factory amp and it worked. Your other amp is almost definitely toast if you seen smoke. You need to recheck everything that has been added in there, make sure connections are at the correct places and tight and there are no loose strands, check voltage and make sure you have good grounds, and just do basic electrical checks before you add another one in there and kill it again.

Im not guessing though. I know there was a problem with the remote wire keeping steady power to the aftermarket amp (probably because i had my head unit running the factory and aftermarket amp) and that my amp is toast. I have ran back over everything and checked voltage and grounds and there are no other problems so from everything that i can see my amp fried because of that remote wire problem. I just didnt think it was possible to fry an amp through the remote wire but apparently thats what happened lol

 

[chargdbassbuick 10+ year member]

Its grounded to the bolt on the seat. It was working fine for awhile so the ground couldnt of gone bad could it? and the hot wire is straight from the battery and always has 12v to it. The remote wire must have been shorting out and causing the amp to shut off when this started happening. So all i know is that my amp is toast and there was a remote wire problem. It couldnt have been a coincidence that the amp fried when the remote wire started shorting i dont think. Its just strange to me that it happened at the same time and i cant find anything else wrong with it.

ground could have been bad from the start , i assume there was contact at the bolt on the seat where you connected your ground . but the resistance was high enough to cause stress issues in your wire heat ,burnt ofc or cca whichever you use. bad ground would work but would not last long. due to high resistance . let me give a example. i bolted to a seat once and when car was started the trunk battery only read 13.1-12.8 . front battery was 14.4+ . my ground was nice and shiny 2 . but the resistance was so high it was struggling to get a good connection. i relocated my ground to a strut bolt which is connected directly to frame . back battery now reads 14.8+ . hope i could help . if i was you i would relocate ground.

p.s. people recommend ground to be no longer then 12inches or whatever . the reason for this is to reduce the chance of engine wine or rca interference . .ground can be rather long with no issues

 

[motocross019]

ground could have been bad from the start , i assume there was contact at the bolt on the seat where you connected your ground . but the resistance was high enough to cause stress issues in your wire heat ,burnt ofc or cca whichever you use. bad ground would work but would not last long. due to high resistance . let me give a example. i bolted to a seat once and when car was started the trunk battery only read 13.1-12.8 . front battery was 14.4+ . my ground was nice and shiny 2 . but the resistance was so high it was struggling to get a good connection. i relocated my ground to a strut bolt which is connected directly to frame . back battery now reads 14.8+ . hope i could help . if i was you i would relocate ground.
p.s. people recommend ground to be no longer then 12inches or whatever . the reason for this is to reduce the chance of engine wine or rca interference . .ground can be rather long with no issues

maybe i'll run my ground different when i get a new amp then. I never really thought about it like you explained it lol that would make sense. As far as I can tell it was a fine ground but all that makes sense. Its just strange to me that the remote wire started acting like that at the same time though. Thats why i thought it was the problem.