troubleshooting on kicker kx850.4?

Hi All,

I bought a remanufactured Kicker KX850.4 from an online reseller. Upon hooking it up in my vehicle, I had the following symptoms.

I connected everything for 4 channel operation, but when the amplifier turned on, and an audio signal was sent to it, it appeared as though the amplifier was running in bridged (2 channel) mode instead.

The right speaker on amplifier 2 was given FAR too much power, and began smoking. The left speaker on amplifier 1 had the same symptom, but instead blew the fuse on the passive crossover.

Using a digital volt meter between the positive and negative connections of those channels revealed that there appeared to be a dead short between the connections.

After this, the amplifier showed the protection LED blinking.

I've emailed the support team of the reseller, and they are no help. they offered no troubleshooting suggestions, and have basically told me I'm up a creek.

I'd like to know if there are any other tests I can perform to see if I've hooked this thing up incorrectly, or if it's really a manufacture/repair defect and I'm stuck buying a new amp.

Any suggestions that you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Disconnect all speaker wires from the amp, turn it on, and if the protection light still comes on, chances are you have one or more shorted output transistors.

Just gave it a try with no speaker wires connected, and no RCA's connected, and it still had the same problem.

Looks like that may be the problem.

Assuming that it's not a warranty repair (here's hoping) any guess on what that repair would cost if done by Kicker?

I have no idea about their rates,  You could call them,  I am sure they have a flay rate for their repairs.     You should be able to get it repaired locally for about 60 dollars.

i am an idiot wrote:

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I have no idea about their rates, You could call them, I am sure they have a flay rate for their repairs.     You should be able to get it repaired locally for about 60 dollars.

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Just wanted to thank you for your help, and let you know that I sent it back to Kicker, even out of warranty, and they repaired it at no cost.

It turned out to be a shorted output transistor as you stated.

Thanks again for the help!

Glad to help  and thank you for taking the time to let us know you were able to get it resolved.