System stopped working! please help!

[jorensmith23 10+ year member]

I've done my reading online, and I can't seem to find anyone with the same issue, people keep suggesting basic things like making sure everything is connected. Here's my story. I have had my system installed for months, worked great with no problems. One day driving to school though, the Sub woofers suddenly stopped working and went into safe mode. Every time I start my car, my amplifier would turn back on, and for a very small fraction the bass works and then instantly shut off as soon as the subs have to move at all. I went and checked all my wires, made sure my connections were all still tight, and no breaks in any of the wires. The CD deck still comes on as normal, all the speakers were as normal, and the amplifier still turns on, only until it needs bass does it shut off. My first idea of what could be wrong, is that the amplifier must be broken, or something along those lines, so I wired up a different amplifier that I have used for a long time as well that has proven to never give me any problems before, and the same thing resulted. The amplifier turns on, however no movement comes from the sub woofers. Currently I have my box pulled out of my car, and one of my sub woofers are pulled out because I thought maybe something had come loose on in the inside, however I am seeing nothing. If anyone has an idea of what the heck is going on, please let me know!

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[TMali 10+ year member]

sure you checked batt connection and have a really really really really really really good ground

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

check the coils of the sub with a dmm to make sure there ok. try to wire up a diff sub to your amp. you should check your voltage make sure your alt and battery are ok as well.

 

[hornedfrog1985 5,000+ posts]

Sure they aren't wired below nominal impendence?

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

Sure they aren't wired below nominal impendence?

if it worked for months i would think he would have a issue befor now.

 

[jorensmith23 10+ year member]

I would like to add that I did put a new CD deck in like 4 days ahead of this, and it has been putting more power out, its a 100x4 Channel, although the RMS is probably only 4 or 5 watts more than the one I had before, I do notice the difference in power in my car, and a day before it was having certain electric effects, my speedometer dash light has stopped working after I played my music for awhile, which means probably it just popped a fuse. I didn't bother worrying about it though because I use my GPS system to tell how fast I'm going anyways. I have no idea if one of those small fuses may actually have a roll in this or not, but nothing else electric has been acting up, so I'm not really sure what to look at at this point. The Sub woofers did stop in the middle of them working, so something must have popped, right? :S

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

low voltage im thinking. u might wana check your alt and front battery. what gauge power wire is in your car?

 

[jorensmith23 10+ year member]

I got a high powered alternator and a brand new battery. I mean its obviously worth checking but everything else in my car is having no problems running, power wise. I have 4 gauge wiring from the battery and a 4 gauge ground.

 

[jorensmith23 10+ year member]

and by brand new, I mean 3 months ago about for both of them.

 

[jorensmith23 10+ year member]

I also don't have a different Sub woofer at hand, or a dmm at the moment. I can get one relatively soon, which will probably be the next step, but I can say right now that I have pulled my sub woofers out and all the soldering of the wiring is still good, and all the wiring is correct and in place. They don't seem to have any tears of any sort.

 

[billjones42 10+ year member]

sounds like one of the subs is blown, causing the ampto go into protect.

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

check the inline fuse for a crack.. it sounds like low voltage and a cracked fuse will do that..

 

[jorensmith23 10+ year member]

Is the inline fuse specifically the fuse located on the amplifier? If that's the one you wanted me to check, that was one of the first things I did, on both amplifiers I checked the fuses and both of them were fine.

However to the other post, from what I have read from other people with the similar problem, the sub woofer being blown was the case, or just some kind of soldering breaking. How do I know for sure they are blown though? I have had each sub woofer wired by itself to the amplifier as well to see if maybe one was blown causing them both not to work, however testing them each by themselves showed no result. If they are broken, they would have to had both broke at the same time :S. If that was the case, what possibly was happening electrically for that to happen. These sub woofers are 600 watts RMS and I'm only giving them 450 RMS a piece.

 

[jorensmith23 10+ year member]

Also, it's pretty clear the next step is checking to see if the subs aren't or are blown, how do I do this with the dmm. I have one at home so I'm going to drive one of my subs home and see if this is or isn't the case.

 

[newdude 10+ year member]

If you dont have meter to check the subs pop them with a nine volt battery to see if all voice coils are working ect. Could also be a voltage probelm like others have said at the fuse it may look good and let enough volts thru to turn amp on but not enough to power right. There could be many causes of this but looks like most have been covered. If you still have problems let us know. Might try new fuse or borrow a meter, check subs with battery, check all wires including rca to make sure they are not grounded out anywhere ect ect ect