[TheKebabMan18]

Hello, I’ve been stalking the forums for some time now but I’ve finally come to a problem I can’t solve or find much more info on.

A few months back I installed a subwoofer in my trunk and it has worked well since without me giving many issues apart from blowing a sub a month back which I’m sure was from a long road trip and many hours of pumping bass.

A few weeks back I was driving around with the bass on a reasonable level but not as loud as I’ve had previously, I received a phone call and after I had finished from the call BOTH the under seat subwoofers had begun clipping and the trunk sub along with that, I bought 2 new/used under seats and trunk sub only to find that they were still clipping after everything was installed, all 3 kept clipping. This has lead me to believe that there is an issue with the amp.

The weird thing is that when I turn the equaliser to be only on the right side of the car, both the under seat subwoofers work fine unless the volume is maxed, anything accept max right equaliser and neither work, I haven’t tried with the trunk sub as I thought it maby be causing the issues but I’m just a lost man at the moment.

Any help is appreciated

[Socket]

Originally Posted by TheKebabMan18

Hello, I’ve been stalking the forums for some time now but I’ve finally come to a problem I can’t solve or find much more info on.

A few months back I installed a subwoofer in my trunk and it has worked well since without me giving many issues apart from blowing a sub a month back which I’m sure was from a long road trip and many hours of pumping bass.

A few weeks back I was driving around with the bass on a reasonable level but not as loud as I’ve had previously, I received a phone call and after I had finished from the call BOTH the under seat subwoofers had begun clipping and the trunk sub along with that, I bought 2 new/used under seats and trunk sub only to find that they were still clipping after everything was installed, all 3 kept clipping. This has lead me to believe that there is an issue with the amp.

The weird thing is that when I turn the equaliser to be only on the right side of the car, both the under seat subwoofers work fine unless the volume is maxed, anything accept max right equaliser and neither work, I haven’t tried with the trunk sub as I thought it maby be causing the issues but I’m just a lost man at the moment.

Any help is appreciated

Sounds like the left channel of the amp is fried.
Is there any distortion on the other speakers or just the mbass and sub?
Are you running a monoblock to power your subwoofer or are you running this off the OEM amp?
If everything is running off the OEM amp, you probably are working it at its maximum and its starting to fail
OEM amps are cheap, easy just to replace and see if the problem goes away
Hope this helps

[TheKebabMan18]

Originally Posted by Socket

Sounds like the left channel of the amp is fried.
Is there any distortion on the other speakers or just the mbass and sub?
Are you running a monoblock to power your subwoofer or are you running this off the OEM amp?
If everything is running off the OEM amp, you probably are working it at its maximum and its starting to fail
OEM amps are cheap, easy just to replace and see if the problem goes away
Hope this helps

It’s just the mid bass and sub, the rest of the speakers work fine as far as my ears can pic up. it does make sense that the left Channel is fried because the aftermarket sub I’m running if off of the left Channel. I am running a mono block to power the sub which is tapped off of the oem amp. Like every YouTube tutorial.

Thanks so much for your reply, will update when I have a new amp going but would love to hear if you or anyone else has other ideas as to what it may be

[Socket]

Originally Posted by TheKebabMan18

It’s just the mid bass and sub, the rest of the speakers work fine as far as my ears can pic up. it does make sense that the left Channel is fried because the aftermarket sub I’m running if off of the left Channel. I am running a mono block to power the sub which is tapped off of the oem amp. Like every YouTube tutorial.

Thanks so much for your reply, will update when I have a new amp going but would love to hear if you or anyone else has other ideas as to what it may be

Youtube tutorials not always totally factual
Good luck with the fix

[TheKebabMan18]

I know there is thread on after market amps somewhere, would anyone be able to link it or if you have any advice or recommendations on an aftermarket amp I’m all ears, don’t have the patience or money to blow an amp a month

[Emilime75]

Start by disconnecting everything that was added for the sub and see what the stock system does then. By everything, I mean everything, including the wiring that was used to tap the signal from the stock system to the sub amp. If the problem persists, then it's likely a stock amp issue. If it does not, then it's something to do with the aftermarket install. Could be wiring, the amp, the sub, hi/lo converter if you're using one...

Also, if it turns out that your stock amp is fried and the problem is on the channel that your sub amp was connected to, you might want to reassess that install so it doesn't happen again.

[TheKebabMan18]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

Start by disconnecting everything that was added for the sub and see what the stock system does then. By everything, I mean everything, including the wiring that was used to tap the signal from the stock system to the sub amp. If the problem persists, then it's likely a stock amp issue. If it does not, then it's something to do with the aftermarket install. Could be wiring, the amp, the sub, hi/lo converter if you're using one...

Also, if it turns out that your stock amp is fried and the problem is on the channel that your sub amp was connected to, you might want to reassess that install so it doesn't happen again.

Could faulty wiring still be the case even if it worked fine for over a month which I know is not that long but didn’t miss a beat. all the taps into the stock amp that I made were soldered on and covered with shrink wrap and anywhere there could be contact under the carpet I used a wire protector so it would not cut through the wires and ground out, I tried disconnecting the amplifier which made no difference to the audio. I am planning on removing the carpet to get a much clearer view of the amp and wiring as it’s hard to get into that area with the CD changer cage in there, I’ll be able to better asses that way, what I think I was going to try is to run my after market trunk sub off of the right Chanel and see if it works as it just distorts in the left Channel. Will update as soon as I get to it, thanks guys

[TheKebabMan18]

UPDATE : I was just in my car switching the trunk sub to the right Channel and I noticed a ground wire to the line out converter was yanked out, I reconnected it and the trunk bass and right Chanel was working perfectly and I went to switch to a centre balance instead of far right and all my subs were working for a glorious 10 seconds until they started clipping again. And I’m not 100% sure if I’m making it up in my head or not but I feel like the left side speakers are alittle quieter when on max left eq. I hope this can clear some more things up

[TheKebabMan18]

Ok I think I solved the issue, my like out converter sits on top of the CD changer cage area and when I took it out and just had it sitting in the boot the system worked fine. I believe either the sound cables or power cables were grounding out on that metal frame so I might make a base for it to sit on away from there. I allready had the audio cables as far in as possible but when light pressure is applied to the surrounding gn it easily slides back which is what I think the culprit was. Thanks to everyone who helped me and will update if anything else happens

[Socket]

Originally Posted by TheKebabMan18

Ok I think I solved the issue, my like out converter sits on top of the CD changer cage area and when I took it out and just had it sitting in the boot the system worked fine. I believe either the sound cables or power cables were grounding out on that metal frame so I might make a base for it to sit on away from there. I allready had the audio cables as far in as possible but when light pressure is applied to the surrounding gn it easily slides back which is what I think the culprit was. Thanks to everyone who helped me and will update if anything else happens

Glad to hear you found the problem and that it didnt require a new amp