Subwoofer cutting out? Clipping or loose wire?

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

My subwoofer has recently started playing intermitently. My amp is not going into protect. When I hit a bump it'll play for a minute and then cut back out. Thing is, when I get close to the sub after it cuts out, I can barely hear a rumble. Normally I would think that it's just a loose connection, but this "low rumble" is causing me to 2nd guess my initial belief. I've checked the wires as good as I can and nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Is it possibly clipping? I have the Bass Boost set to +4db, subsonic filter @ 26hz, Wide Q, x-over @ ~100hz. The subwoofer level on the h/u is normally at 6/15 so I can have headroom when I want to play it really loud which is rare.

Any ideas?

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[LinxuS 10+ year member]

Bass Boost on the amp is usually a bad thing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

How did you set your gains?

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

Got it installed a very long time ago at a JL authorized dealer (2 year warranty if done by a shop vs. 90 day for personal install). Never reset the gains since then since there's never been any changes in my system. Gain is @ 50% though. 2v pre-out on the deck.

 

[Volenti 10+ year member]

Could be a signal level problem, check the rca connections on the amp (wriggle them with the system on), it's a common fault area especially with amps mounted on sub enclosures.

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

The amp is actually secured into an amp wall. When I put everything together I TORQUED down the wiring so I wouldn't have to touch it again until I pulled it out. I'll check the RCA's though. I've actually had trouble with those before because the outer rim is wollowed out and doesn't really "fasten" to the rca-outs on the amp.

When I was coming to work this morning it would play loud fine, then stop, then pick up again. I'm almost thinking it could be a grounding issue since it seems to do it more at high volume.

 

[budahbuddy803 10+ year member]

i would say its a ground issue, but if thats the case, your amp should go into protect for that amount of time it doesnt play. Did you scrape away all paint so it is a very good connection. Also maybe w/e you have securing the wire to the chasis may of came loose?

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

The paint is sanded to raw metal. The ground is actually shared through a distro block and the other amp plays fine, which in my mind rules out the main ground, main power, and remote turn-on. I've had a similar issue with my midbass where they would play up to a certain volume and it turned out to simply be a poor connection at the woofer output on the x-over. However, with a subwoofer there are alot less possibilities than with a 4-channel.

Someone suggested checking the terminal connection inside the box since they had a problem like mine and this was the problem. I'll check on that when I get home. However I don't think that's it.