stereo cutting out
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Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Discription: General Mobile Electronics Questions and Answers
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=412
Printed Date: August 06, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Topic: stereo cutting out
Posted By: gdog_mm
Subject: stereo cutting out
Date Posted: April 22, 2002 at 12:55 PM
hopefully someone can help me here, this has been stumping me and local installers for a while now. My stereo cuts out (we have discovered only when it rains or when there is moisture in the air). It used to be that one amp would cut out, then would come back and my second amp would cut out, but lately its just the amp for the subs. I have a Sony CDX-c7000x cd player the amps are connected through rca output, and are an Rockford 800.2 , and a 100.2. I have replaced the RCA with $80 ones from stinger,( thinking the wires might be pinched) I have replaced all power, and ground, remote turn on wires, (and they are rock solid for tightness) and even got a new battery, and custom wound alternator to try to fix the problem. The system also has a 1Farad Rockford CAP connected. With the new charging system the voltage is constantly 15Volts (14.98) when the hardest bass hits it drops to about 12-13V. The cutting out can happen at any volume, bass boosts on or off, and didnt matter if the subs were wired in parrelel bridged or if it was stereo. If it matters the subs are 2 Clarion 15" 600W SVC. I am planning on upgrading to have two 800.2's bridged to their own Rockford 15" 1200W Sub, so I need this fixed soon. Any ideas, please help
Let me know if you need more info. Thanks in advance for your help.
Replies:
Posted By: wcsdirect
Date Posted: April 22, 2002 at 3:29 PM
Have you had the CD player looked at. I had a Keenwood that would do the samething and luckily I bought it at circuit city and got the warrenty, so they just replaced it. But I woul dhave that looked at. Also what kind of auto do you have? Sometimes, you can have a cigarette lighter short out when it rains and that can cause a few other things to short too.
Posted By: pat28ca
Date Posted: April 22, 2002 at 4:24 PM
definetly get the head unit checkout. you didn't mention whether the deck cuts out or not . sometimes i notice on my car that the same thing would happen. what it was, was the fusses were loose at the fuse box make sure that all the fuses aren't loose ,even the ones at the amps. if the power through the remote wire cuts out( from the deck shutting off ) then the sympomt will be to all the amps. but also check out the ground on your system. try to get rid of all parasite resistance if you can good luck
Posted By: NyxBass
Date Posted: April 22, 2002 at 5:43 PM
Does the remote wire cut out? I would try to force the cut out w/ a hose or something and then check if the remote is still 12v+. If not, it's probably your head or the remote wire itself. If it doesn't, it must be somehting in the amps or their power supply. I would check for shorts on every wire, including speaker wires (I know it's a pain). Other than that...I really don't know. /NyxBass
Posted By: Velocity Motors
Date Posted: April 23, 2002 at 12:35 AM
Personally I would look at the amp's internal soldering to see if there are any cold solder points on the RCA's, speaker terminals or power/Ground terminals. We have had a problem like this where the ambient air temperature would vary and the expansion and contractions would cause the solder to let go and cut the subs in and out. Check the internal solder joints of the CD player too , as this problem is consistant in both amps ( check all equipment for possible cold solder while your at it ). My 2 c's ------------- Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA
Posted By: Thinkster
Date Posted: April 27, 2002 at 1:31 AM
Now you said in your message that the stereo cuts out and both amps cut out. Can you be more specific as to if it's just the audio that is cutting out or is the power cutting out or ??. When the amp for the sub cuts out, does the power indicator light go off on the amp or does it stay on and there is just no audio output? I would use "process of elimination" to figure out the problem. Assuming it's just the audio that's cutting out, you could use something like a portable cd player along with a mini-RCA cord to hook up to the amp's input. Just start with the volume very low and make sure your getting 12V to the Amp Turn On lead. If everything works fine with the portable CD player as the audio source, that could mean there's a problem with the head unit or the RCA cables/connection.
Posted By: gdog_mm
Date Posted: April 27, 2002 at 9:17 AM
ok the vehicle is a 1990 vw golf, and the cigarette lighter is on another fuse than the radio. And sorry I was not so clear before but it is ONLY the data signal thru the rca's that cuts out, there is 14.6Volts on everything, sometimes if you turn the volume up you can hear music playing very faintly. The system is absolutely secure for fuses wires, and grounds, its been redone twice. I am going to try to run new wires on a seperate fuse to the stereo and see if that solves the problem at all, incase there is a short in a wire in the dash. I have opened up the deck, and checked for cold soldering but didnt see anything bad.
And the portable CD player is an awesome trick, I've done that before, dunno why I didnt think of it now. Thank you to all for your help so far. I will let you know how it goes.
Posted By: Thinkster
Date Posted: April 27, 2002 at 1:25 PM
From what you have said, it sounds like the problem is in the head unit. You said if you turn up the volume, you can hear the music faintly which would seem to me that the head unit is getting power and is actually on. There may be a faulty component rather then a cold solder joint that is responding to cold temperatures or moisture in an adverse way which is cutting out the line level outputs that go to your amps. Is the stereo still under warranty?
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