attn: mr. iaai, i need your advise

i have a problem that i cant figure out, ive had my Autotek mean machine 2000.1D since 2006, never had an issue with it so far but a few months ago the amp will cut off completely when the bass hits hard but only sometimes. all the lights turn off and the red protect LED comes on, no sound from amp at all, sometimes it comes back on after a second or two but other times it stays off until you knock on the top of the amp and it will come back on. id does this at random times and it does this even when the amp has just been turned on so it doesnt have anything to do with overheating.

the amp is hooked to a set of RE SX18's wired down to 1 ohm, power wire is tsunami 0Ga to a stinger 1400 i think. i have been through competitions with this amp with no problems to speak of even though the amp had to deal with constant vibration being less than 3 feet away from two 18's and a huge port.

i would really like to save my amp and i would hate having to throw it away. i havent opened it yet but i think it could be something as simple as a loose connection but ive never worked on an amp before.

do you have any ideas as to what could be causing the problem?

this is the amp and how it is mounted in my truck.




i would greatly appreciate your assistance and expertise with this one.

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Can you make it shut off by hitting on the amp? Have you checked voltage at the amp at loud volume?

yea i think i can make it shut off by hitting it. voltage is fine all the way, the voltage drops a little but it stays above 13v. it will only drop below that for a competition style burp. it is running on the stock alternator. the loudness does seem to have an effect on the problem but the problem occurs at any volume.

the best place to knock on it to make it come back on seems to be closer to the RCA end of the amp on the drivers side. this spot has the most effect when trying to turn the amp back on.

i really appreciate your help with this. its a big amp but id be willing to send it to you if we determine that it can be repaired.

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I think I am only minutes away from you. I will be happy to look at it for you. 3737 Florida Blvd. Just across the street from the Hospital.

Just remove the 20 screws from the top cover.

davids car stereo? im not very familiar with baton rouge. im in the new orleans area so its about an hours drive from me i guess. i was hoping you meant florida ave which is just minutes from where i am.

ill take the amp out of the truck and pull the top cover to see if i can find anything obviously wrong and if i cant i will definitely make the trip to come see you.

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I thought you were in West Baton Rouge Parish for some reason. Remove the cover and use an ink pen or something else non conductive, gently press all of the components in the are you suspect. I live in Gonzales. I am 45 minutes from MSY.

If you do need to get it to me, I do eat breakfast at Popeye's in Laplace on Sunday mornings.

ok a quick update, after pulling off the cover and wiggling things around while the amp was on i could not get the amp to cut off by touching the components. i thought i found an uninsulated spot on the top of a coil that might have been shorting against the amps cover but this turned out to be a drop of solder sitting on top.

so i also tested the voltage at the amp while the sound was turned up and found that the voltage dips lower than what i measured before so i started thinking the alternator was the problem. had a friend of ours at crank systems rebuild the alternator and swap the core from a 90A to a 130A. the amp was now holding voltage at around 13v minimum or so i thought and the amp would still go into protect.

this is where it got interesting, i swapped the amp out with a PPI out of my other truck and surprisingly it did the same thing. now im confused so i reset the amp and turn it back on and suddenly the amp wont even come on. i test the power and now the power is resting at 7v, i switch to a different ground and it reads 12.5v so now i know there was a problem with the ground. i installed the system so many years ago that it just must have worked itself just loose enough to drop the voltage. fixed the ground and re sanded the floor to make sure some dust or residue wasnt causing a bad connection. now the PPI amp works fine except that its obviously not as powerful as the Autotek.

tomorrow i will switch the amps again and try the autotek again and see if the problem has been fixed. cross my fingers it works

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I am sure that the Autotek will work fine. It is very important to check voltage when the system is playing hard. No current draw = No Voltage drop.

yea i did check voltage while it was hitting hard but i was testing it at the battery. its hard to get to the power terminals at the amp. its also hard to keep your composure inside the truck when the subs are turned up. i didnt even suspect a bad ground because of how the amp was acting and how it would come back on if you knocked on the amp. very weird symptoms.

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