New Subwoofer not turning on, very stumped

I know this is an old thread, but I have a similar problem with this same amplifier/subwoofer.

I checked with a multimeter, and I have 14.1v on the power line with the truck on. I have 14.1 on the auto power line coming from the head unit, and my ground is working fine. I used 4 gauge wire even though this unit works with at least 10 gauge.

This sub/amp worked fine for a year, but then stopped working. I replaced the power wire because I was running a 10 gauge one before and the fuse in the power wire near the battery kept blowing out. I thought that the gauge wasn't enough, and changed it. Now with the new one, the amp doesn't turn on at all when the HU is on. I have the amp on auto on, and it still doesn't work even though the HU is sending the correct voltage to the amp.

I don't know what else to check at this point. O checked the things that everyone mentioned before and still nothing.

Rus

 

Check the ground wire on the amp. Ideally it's a short run to chassis, make sure it's not corroded and secured to bare metal (not painted, rusted, etc). Since you have a DVM you should be able to put DVM in ohms and put one lead on the amp ground terminal and the other on a known good chassis ground point. It should read < 1ohm. Also if you have the headunit remote wire run the amp should not be in auto remote mode. Auto remote attempts to detect audio input signal from the headunit and turn on without looking at the remote wire. Check the fuse and socket on the amp, make sure it hasn't corroded. If you still aren't having luck at this point disconnect the speaker/sub output wires. A short can shut down the amp, although it usually takes a few seconds for that to happen so you should see the amp cycle on and off.

 

Thanks for your reply.

I checked the ground wire, and it has good contact to the bare metal of the truck. So that is not the problem, for sure.

I turned off the auto remote option to see if the amp worked, but it didn't. So maybe that's not the problem either?

I checked the fuse on the amp and that's ok. The socket is also in good shape, so that shouldn't be the problem either.

The ground and power wires are new and are gauge 4. I installed them today making sure that everything was done correctly.

What I still need to do is see if the low signal wires (i have the stock HU and don't have RCA connectors) have power. Since you mentioned that the amp senses audio input to turn on, i need to verify if there's signal there at all. My door speakers are working fine, so i suspect there's signal in those wires now. I'll see what results i get.

The multimeter confirms power from the battery into the amp, it confirms power on the auto start wire from the HU, and it confirms that i solid contact to ground. The amp doesn't smell like burned, so I'm guessing it's in good condition. This amp doesn't come with the protect option that other amps have, so that isn't the problem here either.

Any more help will be welcome. Thanks, everyone,

Rus

 

From the stock headunit outputs you should actually be wired to the high inputs on the amp not the lows. In either case you said you have battery voltage on the power terminal of the amp and a good ground, so just jump the power terminal and the "remote" terminal. Then try the auto sense switch in both positions. The power led on the amp should turn on. Sometimes these things fail without burning up so if you have 12v on power and 12v on remote, a good amp fuse (check that with your meter to be sure) and a good ground, and can't get the power led to turn on you've got a bad amp.

 

I think I have a toast amp. I did all the things that you said, and the unit doesn't work.