Sundown amps stuck in protect after going too loud

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

wall of text warning. trying to eliminate questions by covering everything up front. sorry for making another one of these threads but i dont know where else to go.

96 impala ss equipment:

alpine 9887 all soldered connections

sundown saz1500 @ 1 ohm

sundown sax100.4

dc 15" lvl 4 d2 ported @ 32hz

sundown sa-6.5cs, focal is-165, jl c2-650

innovative wiring car battery wires (like big 3)

sky high 1/0 for main +/- wires and saz1500

knukonceptz 4g for sax100.4

knukonceptz twisted rca 4-channel and 2-channel both 20ft

installed over two years ago with zero issues until now. took my time doing the install.

riding like this for over 2 years with no problems! about a week ago i fine tuned my head unit and amps (eq, lpf, hpf, subsonic, etc etc) and today i turned my music louder than normal (22 of 32 when i usually stop at 19 of 32) and my cabin speakers cut off so only my sub was playing. turned off my radio and checked it out when i got home and now both amps go in protect mode immediately when the car is started.

been researching and doing trial and error and here are some points that everyone talks about that i have done.

1.) power / overheating issue - i have the stock alternator with innovative wiring upgraded battery cables (1/0 and 2g copper cable) and a sears diehard battery. positive battery wire is sky high 1/0 with 300amp fuse running back to a 1/4in copper bus bar. never had voltage issues, dont blast music, dont bump at red lights, no light dimming issue, never went into protect before, never overheated, never smells burnt and never any smoke from amp. dont see an issue here.

2.) ground issue - my grounds are all as short as possible. the main ground for the bus bar is 1/0 on my chassis which i once again just loosened, sanded down till metal, and put it back where it was. i have 1/0 for the saz1500 and 4g for the sax100.4. i checked all the crimp jobs and theyre all german gudentite. dont see an issue here.

3.) speakers impedance issue - subwoofer is dual 2-ohm wired down to 1-ohm at the saz1500 which is 1-ohm stable. sundown sa-6.5cs and focal is-165 are wired in parallel for a 2-ohm load at the front stage of the sax100.4 which is 2-ohm stable. jl c2-650 is wired at 4 ohm on the rear stage of the sax100.4 which is 4-ohm stable. dont see an issue here.

4.) "battery test the amp" - battery test is hooking your amp straight to the battery by doing negative on battery to negative on amp, then positive on battery to positive and remote on the amp. i did this to both amps and both times the blue light came on and they did not go into protect. that means they're good and not fried, right?

5.) speaker wire / rca issue - i read to disconnect the speaker wire and the rca cable and test the amp. when only the positive, negative and remote are hooked up and i turn the head unit on, the amps do not power on. while the head unit is on, if i try to plug the rca cables in, the amp goes into protect as soon as the rca's touch. i bought new rca cables and it didn't do anything.

6.) blown fuses - alpine 9887 doesn't have any fuses, and it still powers on. the saz1500 does not have any fuses and it goes into protect. the sax-100.4 has three fuses and none of them are blown and it goes into protect.

im lost. i didnt touch any wires. i turned up the radio 3 more notches and my **** blows up. any idea where to go next?

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[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Fuse by the battery

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

my girl has my caprice right now so when she gets home im gonna throw these sundown amps in there. never had an issue with the caprice audio so if these amps both work in there then im gonna assume its my head unit? i love trial and error! /s

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

Fuse by the battery

one of the first things i checked.

300A sky high audio, still intact.

i thought if that was blown, thered be no power, so it couldn't go into protect?

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

one of the first things i checked.
300A sky high audio, still intact.

i thought if that was blown, thered be no power, so it couldn't go into protect?

Remote still sends a turn on signal

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

pulled out the head unit and grounded the rcas with the wire wrap around trick. also noticed my ground on the head unit was the stock one so i gave it a new ground.

still nothing.

didn't get to test the amps in my other car so that update will be tomorrow.

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

Double check front fuse connection. Where the wire goes in and also where the fuse makes contact. Bypass fuse holder if possible to test. Check battery chassis ground

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Hook the amps up to positive and ground. Get an AUX to RCA cord. Plug one end into your phone and another into an amp. Hook a cheap 4 ohm speaker up to the speaker terminals. I know I've got a bunch of garbage stock and home audio ones laying around at home. Turn the subsonic all the way down and the low pass all the way up. Put gain all the way down to begin with too. Connect a multimeter to the positive and negative power inputs on your amp and read the voltage. Connect a small wire to the positive power input on your amp and the other end to the remote turn on connection. Have a switch in the middle of that wire.

After you hook it up, put volume all the way up on your phone, turn the amp on, and slowly work the gain up. If the amp works, it's not the amp. If the amp does not work, there's an internal problem.

I said connect the multimeter to the speaker terminals so you can make sure that voltage doesn't tank and rule out the theory of the fuse up front being blown. If the fuse is bad but not completely blown, voltage will drop a ton when current flows through it

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

Hook the amps up to positive and ground. Get an AUX to RCA cord. Plug one end into your phone and another into an amp. Hook a cheap 4 ohm speaker up to the speaker terminals. I know I've got a bunch of garbage stock and home audio ones laying around at home. Turn the subsonic all the way down and the low pass all the way up. Put gain all the way down to begin with too. Connect a multimeter to the positive and negative power inputs on your amp and read the voltage. Connect a small wire to the positive power input on your amp and the other end to the remote turn on connection. Have a switch in the middle of that wire.
After you hook it up, put volume all the way up on your phone, turn the amp on, and slowly work the gain up. If the amp works, it's not the amp. If the amp does not work, there's an internal problem.

I said connect the multimeter to the speaker terminals so you can make sure that voltage doesn't tank and rule out the theory of the fuse up front being blown. If the fuse is bad but not completely blown, voltage will drop a ton when current flows through it

going to work on that now. hopefully update soon

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

think i got a break.

i disconnected the amp and removed it from the car. added 2ft of 4g wire to the positive of the amp with a small wire jumping it to the remote. i also added 2ft of 4g wire to the negative on the amp.

bring the amp under the hood and do negative on amp to negative on battery, then positive/remote on amp to positive on battery. blue light comes on, all is good. hook up an rca to the amp and my phone with an extra speaker i had and it plays. success! now i know the amp is good.

bring the amp to the trunk and do the same test (with the wires used to power/ground the amp), nothing. no blue light, no red light, nothing. bring the amp back up front under the hood and connect it to the battery again and blue light comes on and plays. now i know the problem is my wiring.

bust out the voltmeter and do some reading (with car off).

- battery negative and battery positive reads 12+ volts

- battery negative and front side of 1/0 300A fuse reads 12+ volts

- battery negative and back side of 1/0 300A fuse reads 12+ volts

move to the trunk and do some more testing..

- sundown 1500 positive wire and sundown 1500 negative wire reads 4 volts. wtf?

- sundown 1500 positive wire and trunk hinge ground where i DO NOT have it grounded... reads 12+ volts. wtf.

so here i think my main chassis ground is faulty.. more testing..

- sundown 1500 positive to main chassis ground *bolt* reads 12+ volts. ok nothing wrong?

- sundown 1500 positive to the actual wires of the chassis ground.... reads 4 volts. wtf?

inspect the main chassis ground wire for the amps and its all corroded.

took a break to come inside (giggity) and write this update.

going back outside to redo the main ground wire and hopefully that fixes everything.

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

had to stop for the day due to plans but when i removed the main chassis ground wire for the audio i noticed that the first five inches from the bolt had ballooned up and it was rock hard. there was mad corrosion and im assuming that is the culprit. later on in the night when my plans are done im going to redo the ground wire and do a new solid connection and give it all a shot.

wish me luck!

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

problem solved!

guess I'm an idiot and didn't take proper precautions when I grounded the wire to the chassis. I just crimped a ring terminal on the wire and screwed it it. leaving the wire and bolt exposed to the weather caused big time corrosion on the wires that are crimped inside the ring terminal. it definitely ballooned up and is noticeably hard and firm giggity.

there's an "old school impala ss SQ build" thread on another forum that I was kinda copying to a degree and after he screwed in the wire to the chassis he sprayed it with truck bed liner. tomorrow I'm going to take it off again and put the plastic sleeve on the ring terminal, put wire loom around all the wire exposed, put some battery terminal grease on the bolt and chassis and lastly spray the bolt and chassis with plastidip (since I already have a can).

here's the culprit. this is the same size wire. replaced the wire and everything kicked back on!

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

and here's what I'm working with now. gonna make a floor with cutouts and wrap everything in OEM style/color carpet and have a lil cutout on the back wall so you can see the color matched sub box. note that the water damage on the bottom of the back wall wasn't from being in my car