View Full Version : At the shop...
introvert
06-15-2010, 03:52 PM
My mids/high amp for the front and rears died about two weeks ago. Finally made time to stop by the shop to get it checked out. I already checked fusing and grounds. Hoping they can fix it (and the amp isn't toast).
We will see how it goes..
introvert
06-15-2010, 07:47 PM
What a crappy ass day. First day back from vacation and I'm utterly slammed. Get some free time to head to the shop.. I'm there ten minutes and some f--king crackhead rides in after a hit & run, police chase and gets beat down by police then tells them he has a bomb in the car!
http://www.kcbs.com/bayareanews/Bomb-Threat-in-San-Jose/7474287
*Edit: At least a dozen cops were on the scene with handguns drawn when they entered the store to take this dude..
http://eroded.org/~lou/photo_3.jpg
So I'm stuck there for 3 hours while they evacuate us, call in the bomb squad and deem that the guy is mentally ill, there's no bomb and had to tow it away from my car. (He parked next to me) Then the shop tells me my Soundstream amp is fried. Not a good 1st day back from vacation.
HaHa.. that sucks man.
What soundstream... I happen to know one of the soundstream designers, Wade Stewart and he's now doing repairs ;)
introvert
06-17-2010, 08:25 AM
It's a Rubicon 4.600. Sounded great until it went into protection mode. I need to make some time to re-check the grounding to my ground distribution and to also make sure my cap is grounded properly. Going to try and sand down the metal, re-ground all the cables and hope for the best. The guy checked the amp with a meter and disconnected the ground at only the amp.
Not sure what caused the fault. I was driving and had to brake HARD at a red light. Next thing I know only my sub amp is working. I was listening to music loud at the time and had been for a while, so it possibly could have overheated. All the fusing on the Ruby was fine so I don't think it was a surge when ABS kicked in.
I'm hoping it's just grounding because it looks like I won't be able to file a repair claim. I bought the amp new from buy.com and had it installed by a Soundstream authorized local dealer. Unfortunately it looks like they only honor that hardware guarantee if it's purchased through onlinecarstereo.com .. If it turns out it is indeed toast, I guess I may be going Audison or maybe Cadence for my next 4 channel.
check speaker cables to make sure one did not ground out to metal.. that's a sure fire way top piss an amp off, and remember that on 2 of those 4 channels (-) is not ground, its driven.
introvert
06-23-2010, 03:51 PM
Checked the grounds, still in protect mode. I'm waiting on a distro block to come in so I can take out the cap.
Did you check the speaker wiring to make sure NONE of it was grounding out? No sense in causing further problems.
VegaS10
06-24-2010, 03:53 AM
Take the amp out the car and hook the power, ground and remote to a battery OUTSIDE the car.
If it does not go into protect, amp is more than likely good.
If it goes into protect, throw it at your nearest politician.
introvert
06-24-2010, 07:40 AM
Did you check the speaker wiring to make sure NONE of it was grounding out? No sense in causing further problems.
Damn, knew I forgot something. Going to check that out next.
Take the amp out the car and hook the power, ground and remote to a battery OUTSIDE the car.
If it does not go into protect, amp is more than likely good.
If it goes into protect, throw it at your nearest politician.
Yeah, that was going to be the last resort just before I make the decision on buying a new amp. Question - it doesn't need any load connected to the speaker outputs?
Question - it doesn't need any load connected to the speaker outputs?
Nope, it's not a tube amp/it does not have output transformers.
In fact just for grins you could disconnect all I/O with the exception of power/ground/remote as a starting point before removing it and continuing on with the rest of the testing.
The reason I'm adamant about testing in this manner is because of your comment on braking HARD. this means that something may have physically changed externally to the amp, given those are pretty robust amplifiers, and don't tend to have issues with a solid stop barring a solid stop off the top of a building, the scenario makes me wonder.
hate to see people go thru more headache than they have to
introvert
06-24-2010, 10:02 AM
One good thing about checking the grounding last week - the ground distro was mounted to a painted surface. I went ahead and sanded/re-mounted. I need to get something to crimp 1/0 AWG so I can finish up replacing the grounds in the engine bay.
If you are in there again toss some nolox or conductive jelly in there to prevent oxidation. It can be had int he electrical section of stores an round the breaker boxes, if they have an industrial electrical section=FTW! This will prevent rust and aid in conduction.
HondaFreak
06-24-2010, 10:52 PM
If you are in there again toss some nolox or conductive jelly in there to prevent oxidation. It can be had int he electrical section of stores an round the breaker boxes, if they have an industrial electrical section=FTW! This will prevent rust and aid in conduction.
Does this work on grounds as well? If so I'm all over that crap. I got open grounds everywhere in the race car that ARE going to rust eventually.
Christian
Absolutely! It's good shit. Nolox/penetox. For RF grounding on AL-->AL the arrestors are sold with a jelly with ground up AL and copper in it. Nasty wicked stuff, if you touch it thenit will be EVERYWHERE in NO TIME.
Side note.... All this talk of blown amps, guess what? Mine died Friday on the commute home FML! Bad thing is that they don't make it anymore and the WHOLE system was designed around the geometry of that ONE amp ;) I'm gonna pull it tonight to see if it's something simple. Signs are pointing to the LV side of the PS that drives the low impedance drive of the sub channel and the 25W/Ch stereo pair. It's not in protect, it's just got no sub and no tweets with the tweets getting distortion like one leg of the bipolar supply is missing.
JL has a flat rate repair system, if it's roached beyond what i feel like doing then it's $180 including return shipping. Not cheap, but not too awful bad.
http://www.idealindustries.com/products/wire_installation/accessories/noalox.jsp
Mighty_Mouse_Ep
06-26-2010, 12:45 PM
http://www.idealindustries.com/products/wire_installation/accessories/noalox.jsp
Wow seems like good stuff i think i am gonna pick one up. So what supply do you have Chad is it the 55 gallon drum lol
introvert
06-26-2010, 06:16 PM
Good news: It looks like the RCAs are the culprit. Took a while to troubleshoot it, but I was methodical. I just find it odd that the Kicker XI's are the ones to blame. I probably should have just re-run the cable, but I inspected it a good distance on each end and they appeared to be fine and undamaged, nor grounded to anything. I didn't feel like cutting the zip ties and removing all the door jam shrouds and whatnot.
I checked the headunit to make sure that the outputs were fine. All 6 channels appear to be problem free. Didn't have any slack to move the other 2 channels to see if the inputs on the amp are toast, though. I'm optimistic that the amp is functional, since it's out of protect mode without the RCAs.
Hopefully a new cable gets me back in business.
*edit: Good call on giving the wiring a more thorough inspection, thanks guys!
take a 1/8'' to RCA and drop it ont he amp to see if the speakers make noise... RCA's SHOULD NOT make an amp go into protect.
BUT, BUT sometimes if the RCA grounds out it can piss off a differential input.
introvert
06-27-2010, 07:51 PM
take a 1/8'' to RCA and drop it ont he amp to see if the speakers make noise... RCA's SHOULD NOT make an amp go into protect.
BUT, BUT sometimes if the RCA grounds out it can piss off a differential input.
I didn't think RCAs could cause a protection fault, either. In any case I plugged in my iPod classic via 1/8" <-> RCA and tested all 4 channels of the amp. Looks like it's good. Planning on ordering new RCAs tomorrow. Thinking of going with Monster 400 series XLNs or maybe Stinger. Was debating on going with Knukonceptz Karma or Krystal but have seen a lot of negative reviews.
introvert
07-01-2010, 02:22 PM
Update: I picked up a set of Monster Cable 400 series (http://www.monstercable.com/mpc/productPageMPC.asp?pin=2936§ion=inter) 4 channel RCAs. Came in on Tuesday, but no time to actually work on it until I rolled out of bed at 5:30AM this morning to make time.
Ran the new set... What happens? Amps aren't powering up. I think I killed the remote wire while pulling the old cable out. Dont feel like tracking down where the kink/cut is, just going to pick up a new remote wire and some Noalox while I'm at it. HOPEFULLY get all of this crap fixed by this weekend.
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