Subwoofers acting up.

[Knucklehead97]

Driving to church this afternoon I had my sub going. It was acting fine, sounded just how it always does. But then I stopped to get gas and when I got back in the truck and cranked it up the sub wasn't bumping. After I got home I have messed with it some and here's what's happening. (Searched the internet and couldn't find an answer for exactly what is happening)

 

It's a Kicker 10" being pushed by a Boss amp. Hasn't had a problem at all and I've had it tuned and bumping for over a month now.

 

Basically it sounds like it's clipping unless it's at a low volume and if you turn it up it sounds terrible and eventually cuts itself off if you turn it up loud enough.

 

I've got 12.2 volts at amp with the truck off and 13.7 with the truck running.

 

The amp does stay on even though the sub doesn't play.

 

Even with the sub working at low volumes I can't get a voltage from the speaker wires coming from the amp.

 

The amp IS cold when this happen. It's not overheating.

 

I have the RCA's, positive wire, and remote wire all ran the same way together from the radio. Is this bad? Never had a problem with it before.

 

The only thing I can think would act this way is the RCA wires jacking up but I don't know how to test them. Anyone have any insight? It seems like the amp is going into protect mode but there are not any light changes.

[HOrnbrod]

I think you blew them up by playing too much Drake...........

[DirtyComanche]

I think you blew them up by playing too much Drake...........

 

That^^^^^^^^^

 

 

Nah, more likely it's just a bad connection.  Make sure everything is tight, wiggle wires while trying it and see if anything produces a noticeable difference.  If there's any options to safely swap channels/inputs/outputs around, do so.  Measure the voltage at the amp under load to rule out issues there.  Clean up any ground connections and check the integrity of them.  Failing that I'd say the amp is a pile of junk; welcome to the reality of mass produced consumer electronics.

[Knucklehead97]

 

 

I think you blew them up by playing too much Drake...........

That^^^^^^^^^

 

 

Nah, more likely it's just a bad connection. Make sure everything is tight, wiggle wires while trying it and see if anything produces a noticeable difference. If there's any options to safely swap channels/inputs/outputs around, do so. Measure the voltage at the amp under load to rule out issues there. Clean up any ground connections and check the integrity of them. Failing that I'd say the amp is a pile of junk; welcome to the reality of mass produced consumer electronics.

luckily I got a 2-year warranty on the whole thing in case this happened. I'm going to do as you said and probably grab an MP3 hookup to RCA adapter to rule out the rca cables being bad.

[Knucklehead97]

Oh and in case it could help narrow things down. It was raining when this all happened.

[Knucklehead97]

So crazy thing. Get off work today and decide to try my sub again (had it turned off through my headunit) Now it works perfectly. Even better than it was before it started messing up. It's hitting way harder and deeper than before. Maybe it's cause I retuned it since I messed with the gain trying to get it to stop messing up, who knows. I'll still be waiting for it to mess up again, though. So I can diagnos it further. Crazy...