-check ground and power for loose connections -check for ANY wires touching eachother -check for Xed polarity -check for shorted power (screw through wire maybe?) -if not that, then check to see if you fried the amp
This is how you check the amp. Disconnect all rcas from your HU to your amp. Now with just the speakers hooked up, power up the amp. See if the protection light comes on. If it doesn't, then with one of your finger, touch the rca cable on your amp's input terminal. If the amp produces a humming noise, then the amp's fine. If however, your amp still goes into protection mode, it's probably blown. I know it's confusing but if an amp had incorrect gain setting, let's say your HU was 4V and your amp's gain was set to 2.5V or lower, your amp will slowly die. This is why it's very important to set the gains correctly.
ok i tried what you said isaac with the finger thing, but nothing happened, i think.
one thing i did try was take out both fuses. i connected everything without the fuses in and the protection light didn't come on. but the sub didnt work either.
another piece of info which i dont know if it is relevant or not is, when everything is connected fuses in and all that, i turn the ignition on and the sub kicks twice. i had a look in the boot at this. i would touch the remote wire to its terminal and the sub doesnt kick as such, but it does two long movements. it moves out stays for a bit then slowly moves back to where it was.
anyway, going with your gain setting idea... how do i set the gain and how do i find out what it should be for each the hu and amp? i had a look on the instructions for each but there is nothing in them about gain...
Hey Aaron, for the HU, look in the manual for it. Under the spec, it'll say pre-out voltage. It's usually 4v. Some of the older ones are 2.5v. As for the amp, if you look at the gain control, it'll say 4v - 8v on left side and .5 - 1v on the right. So let's say your HU is 4v, then looking at the amp, you'll have to guess where the 4v should be. It shouldn't be that hard. You mentioned that when the ignition is on, you get 2 kicks, that almost sounds like a blown amp. It does that once for the power on and once after the power is on. One of my blown amp did the same thing. You also mentioned that you're still getting sound? If so, then your amp is not blown. Check the gain setting and see.
From looking at the HU's spec, it doesn't list the pre-out voltage. So then you can assume it's 4v. On the amp lot of them will say "gain", however, on your pic, I see one that says level and the other one is too blurry to see. Look at the min V number and the max v number. Try and find 4v setting. Where is the setting at right now on the Level? Just curious. Don't worry about the amp blowing. It happens. Happened to me too. You can get it repaired from most places. Before you get it done, make sure the price is half of the amp's original price or less. If not, then it's better to buy a new amp.
Really, then that's a sh**ty manual. They have to tell you what the min and max voltage is. Without that, there's no way you can match the HU's output voltage. That is weird. Even my old amp had the voltage listing for the level/gain control. From my older amps, the ones that don't say anything on the amp, they're usually 4v. So min = 4v and max = .5v. With that setting, if you had it at 10 oclock setting, it would killed your amp slowly. Most amps can only take so much with incorrect gain setting before it dies.
Ok keep this tip in mind for the future. Whenever an amp doesnot list the v in the setting, start off with the min. First turn up the HU's volume till you hear distortion. Then turn down a notch till it's gone. Now turn the gain/level slowly on the amp till you hear distortion. As soon as you hear that, turn it back down towards the min till you hear clean sound. That is the setting it should be at. Of course you won't have to do that if the amp had the numbers listed on the control. If you end up buying a new amp, look for ones with 8v or higher. Zapco/Orion/PPI have ones that are 12v and up.
so with my amp what do u rekon happened to its circuitry? is it a matter of me opening it up and fixing it? cause i dont want to have to fork out masses of money for something like a new resistor or some crap like that.
Fixing an amp is not that simple. It takes lot of experience and knowledge. Try getting a quote. It might range $60 - $150 depending on the shop. Is the amp worth getting fixed? Is it a great brand?
Oh I didn't know it was BOSS. Those suckers break down too often. I thought you had Zapco cause the picture looked like one. You should invest in a better brand. Stay away from Boss/Pyramid and Sony. Since you have Boss, don't get it repaired. It'll break down again and again. Have you tried Orion/Zapco/PPI/RF/Kicker/JL/JBL/Audiobahn/MTX? You'll be better off with those. Australia is almost like Canada. We get sh***y amps and brands at high prices.
