amp cuts out
 

I recently switched (I would say upgraded) cars form a 92 LX protege to a 99 ES Midnight Blue Protege! I love the new car and the first thing I did was transfer all my custom stuff over from the 92, to the 99. But after I put in my stereo it kind of stopped working. I know it was working perfectly on my 92 and I could crank the bass and it sounded great, but now no matter where I put the settings on the head unit or the amp it cuts out at a medium/loud volume. By cuts out I mean the amp shuts itself off. Why would it do this in the newer car! One would think that a newer car would have less problems than an older one. Well anyway I don't even have another amp to put in to test to see if my amp is just shot or if my ground is bad (though it shouldn't be). I scraped the paint off the frame under the front right passenger seat bolt and mounted a 2ft 4ga ground wire to the amp under the passenger seat. It cuts out even if I have the passenger seat out of the car! So it's not a heat issue.

does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks a lot,

Jon

yeah man mine used to do it where do you have the amp located?because whats happin is the amp is get overheated and shutting off do you have the speakers bridged cause if you do that can cause the amp to shut off.......now what your sayin is it shuts off then it will come back on right....well get back and let me know...

yeah it cuts out...but if I turn down the amp's gain, then it will kick back in. I have it installed under the passenger seat...but the passenger seat isn't even in right now...so it's not getting overheated because of placement. Any other ideas? What I really need is another amp to test my system with...

nah the no point in trying another cause that wont help your gonna have to turn the gain down some or not play it as loud cause i was having the same prob with my but thats when i had it britged to my 2 10" alpine type-r'sbut after i unbriged them so each speaker is on its own channel the amp stop shuting off it sucks the bandpass box thumped so damn hard it wasnt even funny but hey thats the price you pay when you dont have the best amp in the world the other thing you could do is buy a amp the is liqued cooled or a fan cooled amp but that doesnt always work cause my exclion amp is automatic fan cooled and it would still shut off cause i sware you could cook an egg on it so im thinking you have it bridged so unbrige it is your best bet......

so how did it go you get it working right or is it still cuttin out?

haven't gotten to work on it yet...Too busy working. I'll let you know if I get it working.

lol work whats work......lol nah im at work right just there ant shyt to do so i come on here and help and be helped ya know yeah just tell me how it work out.....

What kind of subs and amp are you running? Are they bridged or in series? And that is the resistance of each sub? This probably isn't overheating, hence fan or water cooling wont help. It's probably just the amps auto shutdown to protect your subs because too much power is being forced into them.

I'm just gonna assume youv'e got an amped sub(s) setup. so do this.. Put a multimeter on your sub and test the resistance (ohms) YOU can do this from the external wires just fine, but disconnect it from your amp first... OYU can go from there. Assuming a normal setup, you shoudl be runnign 40hms and bridged to your amp, right? if your speaker's resistance tells you something drastically different, you've got a blown sub.

hey thanks guys, I'm going to use my digital multimeter when i go back to my parents house this weekend. i can also clean my engine compartment, so I'll post pics. I also recently painted my trim in my 99 ES with light titanium metallic SEM bumper coater paint and topped it off with the SEM Trim clear. So I'll post pics of that too! It looks freeking awesome.

Thanks for all the input. I'll figure out the ohm load I'm puttin on the amp and see how I'm wiring my subs...it's just been so long since I wired them i can't remember how I did it. Then I'll see if I can get my friend's amp from home to test everything in my car.

-jon

you're just pushing it too hard...either get a more powerful amp or a sub that requires less power....it's that simple...however you could probably turn your ac blower on feet and it would help keep the amp cooler for now

The thing is that I have been running it this way for 2 years and it has worked perfectly. Like I said in my original post. So The problem is something with the moving it to the new car. As i have not changed any of the wiring or ways that I'm hooking it up...

You could have a short in the wire running back to the subs. It could also be a sub, if the woofer is shorting on "impact" it will clip the amp. It all depends on the gear you are running.

I finally figured this out a few weeks ago, it was my Sony Explode Head Unit. It was overdriving the amp when I had loudness and the xplode feature on at the same time. I switched it from explode to the volcal EQ and then the subs hit hard and clean again. Weird...oh well, I'm just glad it works now.

-Jon