Safe power disconnection?

[Daznatch]

Im having a small issue with one of my Amplifiers in my car and im sure its just a loose wire somewhere because the amp itself keeps turning on and off rapidly but used to work fine before i drove a little irrationally during a lunch break. im trying to avoid any internal issues with the Amp so i was just trying to turn it off for now or disconnect all power to it until i can take it into the shop this weekend. i have a second battery in the back of my car as well to help maintain audio when the car is off. My question is how would i safely disconnect power to the amp thats having an issue just for a little while until i get it in the shop, because the amp itself does not have an ON/OFF switch or button on it to turn it off so would i be okay to just find wherever the ground wire is and disconnect that? or should i disconnect all attached wires from the Amp in question and just leave the wires laying somewhere they wont touch anything else? or would that just create a live current at the end of the disconnected wires, im not educated on this particular subject so any help would be very appreciated!

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[HardofWhoring]

The remote wire, the one usually mounted between the power and ground, IS the power switch. Turn it off, and take that out immediately. That might be your problem. If it was a main power or ground switch, it would most likely stay powered, on and cause massive resistance. Check all power connections and make sure they are incredibly tight. If it's a power wire, you probably already have burn marks.

 

[Daznatch]

The remote wire, the one usually mounted between the power and ground, IS the power switch. Turn it off, and take that out immediately. That might be your problem. If it was a main power or ground switch, it would most likely stay powered, on and cause massive resistance. Check all power connections and make sure they are incredibly tight. If it's a power wire, you probably already have burn marks.

I tried looking for the remote wire but I just simply don't know which one it is and don't want to just start unhooking things if I don't know exactly which one I'm unplugging, no worries though I'm just gonna take it into the shop this morning and have it taken care of cause I know nothing about any of this stuff thank you for trying to help tho!

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I tried looking for the remote wire but I just simply don't know which one it is

Standard color will be blue and it will be a very small single wire most likely connecting to your amp nearest the power and ground cables. If you remove this be sure to tape up the bare wire because shorting to ground may damage your head unit.

I'd say your best bet is to disconnect the cable from the +12V terminal at the secondary battery and also up front where it connects to your primary battery. If you don't know whether or not there's a problem in the +12 side you probably don't want any of that power cable to have voltage on.

Make sure neither shorts to ground if the other is connected, safest way is to disconnect ground terminals from both batteries before you begin.

 

[huberoy123 10+ year member]

As previously mentioned, the easiest thing to do is disconnect the cables at the amplifier and tape them off.

 

[HardofWhoring]

There aren't many wires coming off the amp. There's: power in (12V Batt +, usually the big red one), power out (Ground, usually the big black one), signal in (usually RCA), signal out (speaker wire). The SWITCH/POWER BUTTON - the remote wire is going to be blue (with a white stripe). It's a very small wire, usually 16awg. Honestly if you can't tell which is which, or don't want to bother, than yeah, take it into a shop.

The remote wire is going to be blue (with a white stripe). It's a very small wire, usually 16awg.

You should have a fuse inline on your main power wire, take that out. You don't need to disconnect the battery to take it out, but I always disconnect from batt neg to put it back.

Again the remote wire is not part of the power supply, it's just a switch button, (that is remotely controlled/turned on by the head unit, because why would your amp be on, if your head unit is not).