This is my first car and is my first stereo and my first time wiring up and mounting everything. Everything is perfect and i have had no problems except for my amp. Ok you know the red and white cables that come from the back of the stereo and go to the amp? Well I have my remote turn on wire good and everything and when those 2 cables arnt hooked up to the amp it is ON.... but once i plugged the cables in the amp just shuts down... and so does the stereo. The amp is a brand new 100W... the fuse is ok and isnt blown. I just cant figure out why? I have a cap hooked up also, but even if I run the power cable though the cap and directly to the amp it still does the same thing... Why is it doing this? I kinda want a little thump in the back... those two 6x9's dont cut it for bass and when i just hook the sub up through the stereo... it has a little thump but very little.

Anything I can troubleshoot?

 

ok, stop everything as it sounds like you are about to let the magik smoke out of some of your electronics.

Welcome to the audio forum. I do not want to make you feel stupid but I think we need to start from the beginning to make sure we are talking about the same stuff.

Red and white cables - this sounds to be the RCA cables that carry the low level audio signal from the deck to the amp.

REMote - this is normally a blue(orblue with white)wire on the back of the radio that is commonly ran with the rca cables to tell the amp when the deck is on. When the radio is on it has +12V on it and it then tells the amp to turn on and start to draw power from the main power cable.

Power cable - this goes from the battery to the amp and HAS to be fused with in 12 inches of the battery. This is the wire that supplys the main power for the amp, bigger is better.

ground cable - Goes from the amp to a solid and clean part of the chassis. This needs to be the same thickness as the power cable.

Caps - and neat little toys that do not add much. For the time being take it out so we can narrow down problems.

Does this sound like what you have so far?

 

I have 4 gauge wiring for the power to the amp. RCA cables is what i meant... i was gonna say RCA but I didnt wanna sound stupid. Yes I have the correct remote wire hooked up. I went from the diagram off the CD player and hooked up all wires correctly to the amp. BUT my ground wires are 12 gauge... that I am guessing is my problem. So I will take out the power cap out(I have already been lectured for my power cap in here... and I read the FAQ's) and put it in after I have the amp figured out. I am gonna be doing alot of night driving and I would hate for my headlights to dim....

Well I will get some bigger 8 gauge ground cable.

And is 8 gauge big enough?

 

Since your power wire is 4 gauge, then your ground needs to be 4 gauge also. That will help.

 

8 awg should be enough but you would really want 4 awg. This still would not solve the problem you are describing.

The power light stays on until you plug in the rca's?

What kind of equipment is this? Model number for everything will help.

 

It is a cheap *** amp! I will get some numbers tomorrow. I am gonna get some new 6-8 gauge wires sometime this week and get everything worked out. I will get all the info on the stuff tomorrow. Yeah I'll try out the bigger wire... Also what size fuse should i get? I was thing of getting one of those heavy inline fuses. But what amp/watt numbers should I get? the one in the amp is 7.5 amp/watts (I dont know if they are watts or amps)

 

The fuse is rated in amps. If the one on the amp is rated to 7.5 you really don't need more then 7.5. You will have a hard time finding that small of a large gauge fuse, so I'd just run a 20, 30, or 40 amp. Just make sure you have a fuse in the line that comes off the battery, it is not an option.

 

you power wire HAS to be fused with in 12 inches of the battery. IF it is not then disconnect it and until you put one on it.......

 

Yeah its not connected. So im guessing the smaller power lines are my problem? Well soon I will get like 25ft of some 6-8 gauge and redo those power cables to the amp. And I might just take the power cap off... the amp is only 100w

And i'll just get a 20amp fuse...

 

I got it all figured out.... I just need some power cable and then I am done, I wired up the amp with some a little of 8 gauge to a seperate battery and the amp worked and thumped the sub better then I though... now just need money for a main + power cable and some new ground cables and relocate my ground connections and mount my 6x9's in the back and then drill some bigass holes in my door for my little 4" speakers.


thanks for the help guys.... turns out that power cable wasnt big enough to juice up the amp