Sub-woofer mysteriously stopped working.

Hey guys, another day another problem. I am having issues with my subwoofer. I have a JBL 10" with a Boss amp. It is wired to tue stock head unit through a "step down". I already checked to make sure that everything is snug and tight. I do not smell anything burning/melting, and have checked the wires up and down. Am I going to have to take the dash apart to se if I can find the problem? Is there anything that commonly goes wrong in an audio system?
I know nothing about electrical systems, much less about audio. Ask me how to take an engine apart, no problem. Ask me how to wire some light, problem.
Thanks ya'll.

 

Get a DMM and pull the sub out, plays some music and see if you are getting voltage to the wires.

Is the amp turning on?

I'd start from the sub and work your way to the HU.

 

check your fuses?

 

Turns out that there is a fuse on top of my amp that I had no idea that it was there. I try to replace the fuse and it blows it out. Now I need to find out where the short is in the system. Thanks ya'll.

 

Check you power wires and speaker wires to make sure you don't have a wire grounding out. Typically that causes a blown fuse. .The sub could be bad as well which can blow fuses but typically you'd smoke the sub before that happens. Still it is possible.

Do you know how to check a speaker with a DMM? If not set the DMM to ohms and check the +/- of the sub. If the sub is 4ohm, the DMM should display around 4ohm and hold steady.. If it jumps around a lot or shows something other than the ohm's the sub is (example: 4ohm sub says its 9ohms = blown) the sub is fried.

Happy Hunting.