Speakers shut off after couple minutes?

[grislybear]

Hey guys I'm glad to be a part of this community. Admittedly I was always just a car audio enthusiast, and never took the time to learn how to properly install a system myself. I'm wishing I did now, as relying on audio shops sometimes leaves you open to getting jipped. I want to give a quick background on my set-up and then I'll go into the problem I just last week started to have.

I'm running full Alpine Type-R speakers with a Alpine head unit as well as 1x Alpine MRX-F30 and 1x JL JX500/1 amp. I have a 12" JL W3V3 subwoofer. I got all of this installed 1.5 years ago at a shop, at the time the two amps and Type-R speakers were brand new.

The problem I'm having now is that after maybe 5-10 minutes of turning my car on and driving, all the speakers stop working and I can just hear the subwoofer working. However the sub isn't producing any tight bass that matches with the songs playing, it kind of simply just... works? When I turn the car off and then after awhile turn the car back on, the speakers will work for a bit. I noticed that if I turn the volume up past 15 or more, they die immediately. If I leave it at a lower volume they will die eventually (just takes a bit longer). This past week I've been driving with no sound at all, head unit turned off, and I noticed that at times there will be a static sound coming from one of the speakers. Most of the time (95%) this happens when I turn my steering wheel to the right while driving. Some days it happens, other days it doesn't. Some days it will just happen without me turning my wheel at all.

I called the shop and they told them everything except for the part about the static feedback when I drive (cause it didn't happen yet at that time), and they said it was either a shorted amp or one of my speakers was out and that caused all the rest to cut out as well. I should also note that every time I turn on my head unit there is a very loud POP from all my speakers. This has ALWAYS been the case, ever since my system was installed.

Can any of the pros here give me some advice to what they think is wrong? I was planning to head down to the shop on Sunday to have them take a look at it, but I really don't want to get ripped off. If it's just a loose wire or bad grounding or something like that, I don't want to fall for some BS about buying a new amp or replacing speakers, etc. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post.

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[The Silverman 10+ year member]

Hey guys I'm glad to be a part of this community. Admittedly I was always just a car audio enthusiast, and never took the time to learn how to properly install a system myself. I'm wishing I did now, as relying on audio shops sometimes leaves you open to getting jipped. I want to give a quick background on my set-up and then I'll go into the problem I just last week started to have.
I'm running full Alpine Type-R speakers with a Alpine head unit as well as 1x Alpine MRX-F30 and 1x JL JX500/1 amp. I have a 12" JL W3V3 subwoofer. I got all of this installed 1.5 years ago at a shop, at the time the two amps and Type-R speakers were brand new.

The problem I'm having now is that after maybe 5-10 minutes of turning my car on and driving, all the speakers stop working and I can just hear the subwoofer working. However the sub isn't producing any tight bass that matches with the songs playing, it kind of simply just... works? When I turn the car off and then after awhile turn the car back on, the speakers will work for a bit. I noticed that if I turn the volume up past 15 or more, they die immediately. If I leave it at a lower volume they will die eventually (just takes a bit longer). This past week I've been driving with no sound at all, head unit turned off, and I noticed that at times there will be a static sound coming from one of the speakers. Most of the time (95%) this happens when I turn my steering wheel to the right while driving. Some days it happens, other days it doesn't. Some days it will just happen without me turning my wheel at all.

I called the shop and they told them everything except for the part about the static feedback when I drive (cause it didn't happen yet at that time), and they said it was either a shorted amp or one of my speakers was out and that caused all the rest to cut out as well. I should also note that every time I turn on my head unit there is a very loud POP from all my speakers. This has ALWAYS been the case, ever since my system was installed.

Can any of the pros here give me some advice to what they think is wrong? I was planning to head down to the shop on Sunday to have them take a look at it, but I really don't want to get ripped off. If it's just a loose wire or bad grounding or something like that, I don't want to fall for some BS about buying a new amp or replacing speakers, etc. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post.

Could be ground, could be gain...unfortunately i'm not a pro...

Is your amp going into protect or blowing fuses or anything like that? How thick are all the wires?

 

[grislybear]

How do I know if my amp is going into protected mode? I don't think any fuses have blown. I'm not sure how thick the wires are, I'll try to find that out tomorrow during the day when I can take a look. I think it's also worth noting that when I tried to check for obvious signs of problems, when I unplugged one of the RCA cables going into the 4-channel amp, there was some sort of white residue coated on the tip that I was able to scrape off (for the most part) with my fingernail. What could this be? The RCA cables used were definitely not the highest quality, could that play any role in this?

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

It sounds like one of the speakers is shorting out on you, causing the amp to go into protect. I'm having a similar problem except it's completely random when it happens.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

sounds like bad wiring. most issues are from bad wiring.

 

[grislybear]

I hope it isn't because of a blown speaker... I spent all this money on a system with the mindset that it would be a one-time investment. Bad wiring on the other hand, well that should be easily fixed. Is there an easy way for me to troubleshoot this myself? So I can at least know if the shop is lying or not when they tell me one thing or another. At the very least I expected everything to last 5+ years. I just checked the warranty and Alpine just has a pretty useless 1 year factory one. Lame!!! I would appreciate some more input from anyone else as well. So the random static noise when I'm driving is because of the shorted speaker?

 

[globalminds_ent 10+ year member]

Did u instill yourself??? Always install everything yourself if u can. May take longer but just do it right and don't cut corners

 

[grislybear]

Nah I wish I did install it myself. Normally I'm good about taking the time to learn things I'm really interested in, but with car audio I really just wanted it done and to forget about it. I didn't think I would ever live to regret paying someone else to do it for me. Most of the time the easy way just isn't the best way to do things! What does the random static feedback from the speaker mean? Does that still sound like something that rewiring the system would fix?

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

sounds like a bad install. There should be no turn on pop with the alpine head and amp. I doubt that its a speaker issue as well because you say if you leave it at low volumes it will still cut out it just takes longer. my guess is that the rca's are getting smashed somewhere and only now causing the system to shut down. Might also explain why the system pops when it turns on.

just re read the post to make sure I wasnt missing something and I did. sounds like corrosion on your rca cables. I would really start there. Just get a new set and run them over everything straight to the amp and see if it still happens.

 

[MutantDreams 10+ year member]

The best tool I could recommend you getting is a dmm. With that you can check to see if a speaker is blown, if the amp has voltage loss because of the ground, among other things.

 

[grislybear]

I'll buy a new set of RCA cables and put them in myself to see if it solves the problem! I appreciate all the help guys and I'll be sure to update everyone on what happens. It's worth nothing the RCA cables I put into the system are from a crappy Scosche set of cables that came with a cheapo capacitor. When I went to the shop to get my system moved from old Civic to new Accord, I told them to just use the same cables. It makes a lot of sense that the RCA cables are just dying out! *fingers crossed*

Thanks for all the help guys! You guys are pretty awesome.

 

[grislybear]

It was a wiring issue! Easy fix and I just paid $40 to the shop to get it sorted out. So happy it wasn't anything more serious. Thanks all!

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

plz explain what it was?