Subwoofer Hooked Up Wrong

[aviationbje]

Ok so one morning the sub in my jeep got hooked up incorrectly. The positive went to the negative terminal and the negative to the positive terminal. The stereo was turned on. The breaker blew in the subs amp. The breaker was replaced but the whole system sounds shitty. All speakers sound as if they are blown or trying to put out to much base. I found some tests online saying use a multimeter to test and i got results of .003 L (it said it was suppose to be a 1.0 if working properly and extremly high or infinite if blown.) I tested a working speaker also and got a result of .005 L. Not sure if this rules out the chance that the speakers are blown. Not sure where to start though was wondering what is most likely broken in this situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

I can get the system specs if needed the subwoofer and amp are fairly old the 2 fronts are less then 6 months old and the 2 speakers in the rear are old stocks. Also got 2 new infinity tweeters that are less then 6 months old along with a JVC KD-HDR1 that is 6 months old.

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[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

Woah. You need to get a couple things straight first. Nothing will ever get damaged by switching the terminals on a speaker. It just puts it 180 degrees out of phase. However, if the amp was shorted, that could damage it, especially if it didn't have a built in short protection.

You replaced a breaker? You mean a fuse?

You were not reading ohms. You were reading henries, a measurement of inductance, not resistance or impedance (resistance at a specific frequency). Make sure your multimeter is set to the correct reading setting. The ohms symbol is a little upside down horse shoe looking thing.

Try reading the DC resistance of the sub again.

 

[aviationbje]

Yes I meant fuse and i retested the sub woofer and it came with an average of 5 ohms reading. Believe they are 6 ohm subs. Does this guarantee that they are not blown and its most likely the head unit or amp not working properly?

 

[95BlackGA 5,000+ posts]

If they're 6 ohm subs, yes the 5 ohm reading should be correct (Only assumption). Push the cone on the speaker and listen for any 'scratchy' sounds come from the speaker. If there is a scratchy sound, your voice coil is rubbing. Hook up the speaker to another amp, or hook up the amp to different speakers to see if it's the amp, or if it's the speakers.

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

Yes I meant fuse and i retested the sub woofer and it came with an average of 5 ohms reading. Believe they are 6 ohm subs. Does this guarantee that they are not blown and its most likely the head unit or amp not working properly?

Okay, thanks for retesting it. The 5 ohm reading guarantees that the voice coil is not shorted or open, and that the tinsel leads are still connected. The other major thing that could be wrong would be a mechanical issue, but it would move and make noise if that was true.

Take 95BlackGA's advice and try a different sub and amp to see which is the problem.

 

[aviationbje]

Well i tested with some old subs and the amp is fine so it looks like something is wrong with the subs.

I was looking at new ones and im not sure i understand the power needed from an amp would these 2 speakers(Alpine SWS-1042D) work well with this amp(Boss Audio CH900)?