2 jl w6 v2’s underpowered?

What amp is it?

What other power related issues are you having?  Headlight dimming? Dead batteries? Anything?

I can't imagine the shop that would send an amp in for service but allow you to have a charging system that isn't running the amp properly.  That is sort of the first thing I would check.

Have you taken a DMM and measured the voltage at the amp when this happens?

sorry i forgot to put that in my post, its a jl 1000/1 amp, its a slash series amp.  I dont think the thermal protection light ever came on.  I have drove around with the back seat down for a while with the rear view pointed right at the amp so i can see if the low pwer light or any other light came on, but it never did but it does fade at times.  Why do u say the amp in only stable at 1.5 ohms??  The w6 v2's are 4 ohms.  I spoke with the dealer said it was a good amp for those subs. 

My head lights always dimmed, mostly at idle, somtimes when im really banging it when im driving also the light dim a little and the batt gauge get that tick in it when the bass hits.  The battery has been solid.  Ive never checked the voltage at the amp when this happend.........................

Also the bass fades in and out randomly, not only after its been playing for a while so i dont think its the thermal alarm

also the amp is brand new, 2nd one, they both did that, actually third one.  The first one was stolen about 2 years ago and that one did the fade thing also, once in a while.................i really think its gotta be my car, ive known the dealer for a while and have given him a lot of business, im pretty sure he knows his stuff

here are the specs from JL.com

its good from 1.5-4 ohms

That amplifier is the perfect match for those subs.  They are wired for a 4-ohm load... if they were wired at 1-ohm the amp wouldn't turn on at all.

Anyway, it does sound like a voltage issue.  To get your system up and running properly you certainly have some work ahead of you. 

Your battery is also probably dead... pushing that 1000/1 for any length of time should fry a SLI battery in no time flat.  I understand it starts your car and turns your lights on, but you'll find any sort of load and the voltage collapses in no time at all.

Read Darth Yohn's sticky "Upgrading your Big 3" at the top of the topic list in the forum.  This is your first upgrade.  Do not proceed with spending any more money until you do this okay?

Most people here will tell you to get a HO alternator...  since you have a GMC, that should be easy to get a quality HO alt for, this might be a good move for you.  Normally I only recommend HO alts when they are purchased from a company like Stinger.. but Mechman and a few others actually do make quality rewound GM replacement alternators.  This is certainly an avenue of exploration open to you.

I recommend an Optima Yellow, with the above mentioned 'big 3' upgrade and see if that doesn't work out your problem. 

Of course, if you've spent so much money at the dealer, why don't you take it back to them and see if they'll run a DMM over the battery terminals while this happens so you can confirm for yourself whether or not your problems are voltage related.  Chck the voltage at the battery terminals.  If the problem is your car, the voltage will drop below 11v while the amp is cutting out.  This should have been the first thing your dealer did... not box up the amp and mail it to JL.  That's a ridiculous way to solve your problem. 

Is the dealer an actual shop or maybe like a CarToys?  If they're selling more cellphones than amps your in the wrong place.

well the amp isnt cutting out anymore since i got the new amp its just been fading in and out somtimes randomly.  Thats why this is confusing me, none of the warning lights on the amp turn on.  Its just fading, so wierd.............

This is the 2rd time i brought it to the dealer, the first time the fixed the ground (which i fixed and then it stripped the metal again) But the put a self anchoring tap and ive checked the ground a few time, its still solid.  It worked for a while after that then it started doing it again.........supposedly they checked everything, then sent it to JL..........o well this weekend im gonna check all the wires maybe see what the deal is with the big three, scope it out see how much work it is..........

anyone ever experience anything like this "fading" before???

the battery seams like it might be shot somtimes, with the fan on full blast it drops the voltage a little, but no way down to 11.  Everything does get dim tho.     I  think i had it at 11.2 once before with the system BLASTING, but that was on the gauge thats in the radio which isnt truly accurate.  Another thing is i havnt had the system in for a while i guess the batt could look strong riht now caus of that????

im gonna ride around with the back seat down see if any warning lights come on when it fades.

Don't forget to look at the road ahead occasionally! 

Good post, sedate.

haha yeah i will

hopefully ill figure somthing out soon

im gonna check out the big 3 this weekend, ill let u know how it goes

im not sure its the pro wedge from JL audio, its a 1000 watt amp and the speakers only take 400 watt rms, so im guess they are wired in series?

the speakers specifiacations say they are 4 ohms, i dont know how that w wiring combinatorks tho if it changes with different wiring combinations, but i havnt changed it from the stock configuration.  There is only one input on the box........

yeah ithought it was wired in series

ps......im on my third alternator---------haha, i guess thats why

The wiring of the subs is largely irrelvant.  The voice coils of each sub are wired in series, then the subs are wired together in parallel, to produce a system impedence of 4-ohms.

Anyway, like Alpine Guy said, riniflex01, you are seriously overrunning your stock charging system, and the statement that you will "check out the 'big 3' and see how much work it is" is very strange indeed, considering how expensive alternators and JL repair bills are. 

I have the same problem. Some days my bass hits hard and some days it's as if the levels were turned down and i have to put up my bass settings up on my HU.

I have a 01' Tahoe - and im running 3 JL 12W6-D6 wired in series/parallel off a MTX 2300x amp at 4ohm's bridged. I have a Pioneer DEH-p490IB with stock front speakers, stock rear door speakers hooked up to the factory amp. The factory amp is being turned on through the remote lead from the HU as well as the MTX.

The funny thing is, I recently installed the pioneer deck and thats when this started. Before this I had the factory HU and it would work fine. Actually it would hit harder with the factory HU and im positive the Pioneer has to sound better. I'm pretty sure I wired everything correctly because I bought the wiring harness for the deck. I've installed systems before and never had this weird problem. Im wondering if it's my battery, alternator, or a phase, ohm's problem.

Someone help me out.

The HU has 4 volt pre-outs i dont know how many volts the LOC is. The LOC is still connected though, just not using it.(can this be the problem?)

I have the crossover on the amp set to LP, and on the HU I don't think  you can turn off the crossover features, you can only turn off it's Sub pre-out which is set at 80.

I am going to go out on a well educated limb here and guess that your ground has a resistance reading higher than a addict that just did their hit. Read the what is a proper ground sticky as well. Take a friend with you and have him feel the amp when it starts to fade in and out as well. Definitley do the BIG 3 upgrade as our fearless moderator has pointed out. It is well documented in his sticky of how to upgrade the Big3.

How would I go about measuring the grounds resistance(and by ground you mean the Amps ground right?) with a DMM?

Alright so I figured out what the problem is...

Before I installed my Pioneer HU I was running my subs and amp off my stock deck with a LOC which I left in place after I installed the new deck.

I disconnected my RCA's from my new deck and connected them to the LOC basically bypassing the Pre-outs and "WHALA"  my bass was hitting 100%!

I'm not sure if the Pre-outs on the deck are bad to the point where there is no fix. But today I was reading about a "band aid-fix" on another post here about grounding the rca's outer ring to the HU chassis which eliminates noise. Im going to try this and see if it also fixes the bass problem with the decks pre-outs.The reason why im doing this is because I don't want to be using the LOC. I want to take advantage of the Sub Pre-out features my deck has.

At first I had it grounded to the factory ground wire from the harness but then in an effort to try and fix my problem I disconnected it and grounded it to a metal brace inside the slot where my deck goes. I have a 2001 Tahoe, anyone with a similar GM truck might know what im talking about. I know it's not the chassis, but it's metal......If this isn't a good grounding point please let me know.

Today I will also try and dig through my carpet to get to the chassis and re-ground. Cause I don't trust that little metal brace.