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Amp shutting off (yes I searched)

Old Apr 12, 2006 | 08:30 PM
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Default Amp shutting off (yes I searched)

Ok, I installed a 12 earthqauek magma and an orion 400 watt max amp I had laying around. My problem is when I turn the volume up my amp shuts off. I installed a 1 farad capacitor and it helped out a little. Before I put the cap in it would last like 10 seconds before shutting off. With cap, its about a minute.
I hooked up a 1000 watt kenwood amp and it shut off almost instantly, so I deffinately getting a voltage drop.

I don't understand why because in my last 94 civic dx (i have civic 94 ex now),I was pushing 2 cadence z1000 amps without a capacitor and i never had this problem.

I can run my volume at 30 all day long but if i turn it up to 32-33 it shuts off.

Could it be my remote wire? thanks Zach
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Old Apr 12, 2006 | 08:39 PM
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From: denver, co
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what ohm is the sub? you might of wired the sub to have to low of an ohm level so the amp could be going into protect mode. when the subs cut out what does the sub show?
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Old Apr 12, 2006 | 10:26 PM
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its a dual 4-ohm, i got wired to run a 2 ohm load
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Old Apr 12, 2006 | 10:38 PM
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how big is your power wire..the bigger the better..check your ground wires..make sure the ground wire isn't longer then 18 inch ground it good...also check to see if any wires are touching..the other might be that the amp isn't strong enough to push the sub..


i'm running two 12 L7 and a kicker sx.1250 watts class D amp, one kicker kx.200 watts amp, one cap and two batterys..no problem..
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Old Apr 13, 2006 | 08:09 AM
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ok i turned the gain all the way down and the bass boost to about 1/2 way and its still cutting as before
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Old Apr 14, 2006 | 01:50 PM
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try checking your ground

sand all paint away and make sure you have a good clean metal surface

Ground wire should be same size as power wire or thicker

Should use bolt to ground mot self tapping screws,

Ground is prolly the most important connection for your amp

Keep ground wire as short as possible the shorter the better

In cases like this i have found the ground to be the problem

use meter and check resistance between amp and ground wire/location, lmk what it reads
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Old Apr 15, 2006 | 08:03 PM
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From: denver, co
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is your amp a 2 channel or a mono? if it's 2 channel than running your sub at 2ohm would be your problem. most 2ch amps don't like being ran at 2ohms bridged
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Old Apr 19, 2006 | 10:05 AM
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its a 2 channel.

If I would wire the 4 ohm voice coils to their own channel would that work? Or would it be a problem? thanks
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Old Apr 19, 2006 | 04:19 PM
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Yeah that will work. The voice coil will just have to be able to dissipate the difference in the power. For example if one channel is running at 100 watts and the other is running at 120 watts then the voice coil will just have to be able to dissipate that extra 20 watts of power through heat. If I remeber right that magma is a pretty beefy sub so it shouldnt have any problem handling the small difference in power. If there is only one gain the difference between the two channels will probably only be a few watts. Oh yeah you will not be getting as much power that way. If its around 200 watts rms or 100 x 2 thats probalby each channel at 2 ohms stereo. You will only be getting around 50 watts x 2 becuase it will be 4 ohms on each channel stereo.

Last edited by 97teg; Apr 19, 2006 at 04:22 PM.
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