My amp pops or rather makes the subs pop when I eject a cd or turn the car on or off. It seems to be putting out a lot of noise that I can't seem to find the source of. Anyone have any ideas? This is making it very hard to tell if the amp is setup right.
check: -head unit ground (use chassis ground to bare metal, not the ground wire from the factory harness!) -ground the RCA lines from the head nit (some head units like Pioneers are notorious for losing a circuit in the ehad unit that causes the RCA pre-outs to lose their ground and require the RCA shielding to be grounded externally.) -make sure the amplifier gain isn't cranked up too high, causing the amplifier input stage to be over-driven and clip or get feedback. -make sure amplifier is grounded close to the amp with sufficient gauge wire, to bare chassis metal. -make sure the RCA cable is not pinned, pinched, or otherwise damaged. -make sure the power and signal lines to the amplifier are not run next to an ignition source or crossover/filter network.
How would I go about grounding the RCAs? I'm using some monster cable rcas that are for home theater. They have a small wire that runs between the two rca connector wires. Would this be a ground? If so do I need to ground both ends of it? I'm guessing yes I do.
My HU was installed by Best Buy. They did it for free at 10pm when I bought the HU so I let them. They didn't wire the ground to anything they just capped it. It has worked fine until recently, so I don't know if that would be a problem.
pull the head unit. ground the ehad unit itself to bare chassis metal (don't use the factory wiring harness ground line) the middle wire on teh RCAs is for the remote trigger on your amplifier. it goes from the REM wire of the head unit to the REM wire or terminal on the amplifier. This tells teh amp to turn on when the stereo turns on. See if that fixes the problem first. Then we'll worry about grounding the RCA lines, because that's a bit trickier and requires a bit of ghetto rigging.
I ran a ground from the frame to the HU ground and still have a little pop, but not as bad as it was. I did switch the rcas to the second output and now I have a lot better signal strength. I guess that one output is going out.
I have been thinking of shortening the ground on my amp. Right now it is 3-4ft. The wire gauge is like 5 or 6 and my power wire is 4. It all came in a kit for Walmart so it has some odd gauges.
Shorter the grounds, the better. Also having the same gauge for your ground as your positive is a good idea as well. A couple feet of 4 gauge wire shouldn't run you too much.
I know. I just used what came in the kit. I would go pick some up, but no one around here sells bulk wire like that. Does lowes have anything that would work?
I kind of doubt Lowes would have anything...they might, though.
I'm guessing your (+) and (-) are different gauge sizes? That's surprising, usually those amp wiring kits have the same size wires. Of course any car audio shop will have it. You might also check Best Buy or some other store that sells car audio and installs it.