sub turns off randomly

caps are junk, dont waste your money.

 

you can pick up a very basic multimeter from radio shack for less then $20...

 

both caps and batteries have their places... Chances are that your alt is fine if it were having issues you would notice other electronics in the truck having issues, not to mention that there is an indictator light on the dash if there is low voltage in the system... But it never hurts to see what the output is on the alt if its a free test...

 

So that begs the question, how were they setup before? Make a drawing of how your sub is wired and post it or put up a pic.

When the sub is playing, does it sound alright? And you use the term "lights" without identifying which lights. They have a function, they're indicators trying to tell you something.

 

Thanks for the responses. Can't draw a pic considering I'm posting on my phone. But if you look at the diagram you posted, I had it wired to the two terminals on the left(1pos and 1neg). As it was wired like this it sounded just fine. Now I have it wired as shown in the diagram.
There are 2 lights on the amp- one long blue and one diamond red. When its working fine they're both on. Before it kicks off the red goes first then the blue starts to flicker then fades away.
Unfortunately the Kenwood amp manual is almost useless. There's not a whole lot of useful info on it. How can I tell if a fuse is blown on the amp??

 

I notice that amp is fan cooled. Is there anything blocking the fan exhaust? Also, to in an effort to eliminate overheating as an issue let's do the following.

Get up in the morning and when you first start your car and go somewhere start blasting your music like you normally do and start a timer. Report back how long it takes the sub to kick off again. I repeat FIRST THING IN THE MORNING. Not after you've driven a while listening to music and everything is warm. You need it to be in a cold state for a proper assessment.

 

if the fuses where blown on the amp it wouldn't work period its your fuse under your hood that I've seen get flaky in the past. The blue light is just there for looks, the little red one is your power indicator light.... Meaning that when it goes off while the amp has power then it is going into protections, on page three of owners manual list possible problems.....

 

x2 amp is saving itself from melting, turn it down

 

I'm wondering if his wires are shorting out at the terminals at the amp side.

 

There is ample room behind the fan. I started it this morning and I found a song that had a significant amount of bass. I turned the volume up to a high volume, but not maxed out or even close to maxed out. It lasted about 15 seconds then shut down. So I turn the volume down low, and it will hit once or twice then go off, then come back on and hit a couple times again then go back off again.

 

That throws over heating out the window. You have a crappy connection somewhere or the sub is dying and shorting the amp out. Check EVERYTHING. Find a friend that owns a digital multimeter and test the impedance of the sub.

 

Got a multimeter. No idea how to use it. Any tips? I guess $15 doesn't include an instruction manual..

 

Just measured the power wire coming from the battery. 12 DCV. May be dumb but I tried to measure the speaker wire going from the amp to sub and couldn't get any readings. Tried it on both AC and DC settings.

 

Set the multimeter to read the impedance of the sub and stick the wires in the sub terminals on the side of your box. Let us know what you get.

Ω=impedance or ohms

 

So hook the sub up to the box. Do I just take the impedance reading from one of the terminals on the sub?

 

With the sub mounted, like it was functional, stick the DMM probes into the terminals on the side of the box. That impedance is what the amp has been seeing. Find out what it is.

 

Make sure to check all of your splices and connections. If you used tube connectors on spliced wires, make sure that the connection is still nice and tight. If not, I'd recommend pulling out the wiring harness and soldering all of the wires. Make sure all the crimp on terminals connecting the wires to the amp are crimped on tightly as well, and secure well onto the amp connections.

Make sure the power cable for your amp is securely connected to the battery, and securely connected to the fuse that should be located underneath your hood. (Be sure to pull of your negative terminal on the battery before doing this, so as not to melt a wrench). As for the ground, make sure that it is securely connected to metal, specifically a piece of metal attached to the frame, preferably the frame itself. If you have it grounded against carpet or plastic, well... not gonna work too well.

Question: When the amp cuts out, does your deck retain power?

 

The sub reads 2.0 on the multi. Some guy working at an audio shop said you can't run a mono D amp to a 2DVC sub. Truth to this?

 

The truth is that he's a retard. I want you to punch him in the face. Then when he's all like, "WTF, why'd you do that?!?" Tell him that's from Steven and he says you're a retard and should be fired.

Your sub is a dual 4ohm coil configuration. You must have it wired in parallel to be getting 2ohms AT THE BOX TERMINALS. This is a good thing. Your amp is 2ohm stable which means you should have PLENTY of clean power for that sub.

So the problem is either your wiring job or your amp. The sub is fine.

 

Yeah the deck is unaffected. All connections are sound.