Amp Troubles

I have a mates car which i am currently working on solving a problem for him and so far i have had no luck whatso ever. Ok there are 2 amps running in the setup. One small kicker amp which is running with no problems running the front stage. Then when i have the second amp hooked up for the sub and start to increase the gain i get to about a quater of the way up and the amp just drops out. No power whatso ever. Even when running with just the sub amp it still does the same thing. I have check the grounds and even run using all the wiring that i was for the kicker on the sub amp and still no luck. So i have eliminated the amp being at fault by replacing with the exact one i have running in my car. And all the wiring seems to be fine. I have also connected up a different sub to the system and the same result. The only things i haven't had a look at r up at the headunit or anything to do with the rca's. So if anyone can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

What model # is the amp and what size power and ground cables are you using? Also where are you getting the ground? And when you say the power just drops out, is the power light on the amp shutting off?

The problem amp is a jaycar 2x100rms so nothing special. Power is 4ga running into a distrobustion block then they got 16ga running to both amps, but the grounds that have been used on the install are 16ga as well running to 2 seperate points. They are both ground behind the back seat which i can't get to, to have a closer look. But yeah the light on the amp shuts off.... then if you adjust the gain down it stays on.... but that is basically at the point that the sub barely works.

I think you need to get rid of the 16 guage power wire.......FIRE HAZARD!!! and use an 8 guage power lead off the block and same guage ground aswel. and ground to the same point. that should do it.....I think your just seriously starving the amp

I think the problem may be the size of the cable its not supplying the amp with enough power. 16 gauge should never be used to power an amp, the minimum i would say  is 10 but I would suggest an 8. So upgrade both your power and ground (you need to do so for both amps) and most likely the problem will go away. But I would not turn anything on until you upgrade the cables because it’s an accident waiting to happen.

When you upgrade the grounds, combine them. What I mean is ground them to the same spot. Having 2 amps grounded in different locations can produce a "ground loop" and you may get some interference.Squirrel

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Thanks bberman. I'm just glad the install i did in my own car isn't like this one i'm trying to fix in my mates car that is spose to be "professional". But i'll give it a shot and see how i go.

Ok guys just to update you on the situation. It seems to be something with the sub. Seeing as the box and everything will take forever to take appart and out to have a close look he is going to get the installer to do it. Upgrade all the powers and ground to 8ga and there was still no differnce then hooking up another sub again the amp was fine with it then back to his and it just bombed out. So either there are some wires crossing in there or the sub is just screwed.

If the amp has speaker short protection it's possible the sub was blown and creating a short in the speaker wiring once enough power was being sent to it.Ethan

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