Have a 2004 V6 with stock Mach speakers, Alpine CDE 9852, Profile Baja HA1000M 1000 watt amp that pushes 500watts RMS at 2ohms bridged to my 10" Kicker Comp-VR (300watts rms). Recently my subs cut out and I tried some things to see what the problem was. Tried checking the wires behind my headunit (amp shutoff, RCA) and they were fine. Checked the ground, fuses, power cable. The subs and amp aren't blown because I tried hooking up my friends box and amp up to my wiring and it didnt work. Any other suggestions? Could it be the headunits preamp out are burned out? It was a fairly hot day when this happened if that could effect it in anyway

 

Did you check the remote wire? Does the amp turn on when the HU is on?

 

Yea. The green light indicator comes on, not red (protect mode). So that means that the remote, ground, and power are all connected right but the green light wont be effected if the RCA's are connected or not. This is what leads me to believe its something wrong with the RCA's or the Preamp outs on the headunit if possible

 

Try using another source (portable CD player, ipod, etc) that has RCA outs and plug it directly into the amp (with gain way down to start so you don't blow everything up of course). If you get sound out of the subs, then the fault is in the RCA cables.

If that works, you could then try to plug this sound source into the HU end of the RCAs and see if it still works. If so, you've just ruled out the RCA cable entirely, and the HU is to blame.

 

So you mean take like an Ipod, use a 3.5mm audio to RCA convertier, plug the existing RCA's that are connected to the amp into that and see if that works? Thats a good idea... and if the subs work then it would mean the RCA outputs on my HU are bad, not the actual RCA's right?

 

Hmm...not sure if I understand what you said exactly, so let me try to explain again. This should be what you have now:

Head Unit <--existing rca cable--> Amplifier <--speaker wire--> subs

The first thing I proposed would look something like this:

iPod <--3.5mm to rca cable--> Amplifier <--speaker wire--> subs

The second thing I proposed would like like this:

iPod <--existing rca cable--> Amplifier <--speaker wire--> subs

In the first scenario, the iPod would be in the trunk, close to the Amplifier; the goal is to make sure that the Amplifier works with a different input source.

The second scenario tests the existing RCA cable, and depending on the results will point the finger at either the cable or the Head Unit.

Just remember to keep that amp gain turned down to start with; the signal strength will most-likely differ from the head unit to the iPod, and you don't want any surprises in the form of a couple blown subs or amp.

Hope that helps!
Rick