Sometimes, the connection is intermittent so you need to move the RCAs while you're checking to insure that the connection is solid. Generally, when there is a bad connection and the connection has been bad for an extended period of time, the insulating material around the connector will be melted. If your amplifier remains in protect mode with everything disconnected, and you’re sure that there aren’t any power or ground issues, then you might have a defective amp. The following demo is from the Installation Primer page of my Basic Car Audio Electronics site. Get the amp down to it's most basic state. If the amp still goes into protect, you have a bad speaker wire or the wire is shorted to chassis ground. Using the demo should help you to better understand where you'd lose voltage when there is a break in the circuit. To know how low your meter reads at 0 ohms, touch the leads together for 5 seconds. This is common on older Alpine amplifiers. Some of the most common causes of an amp going into protect mode include: Fully troubleshooting a problem like this might be over your head if you’re a relative greenhorn when it comes to car audio, so it might be worth asking your friend for some help if he has experience with anything other than just installing components. Clues to a Bad Connection: If you find that one pair of speaker wires or one speaker causes the amp to go into protect, disconnect all speakers from the other end of the wires and separate the wires so they can't touch. Fuses - Open But Not 'Blown': This means that they can no longer function properly and will continue to overheat. An overheating amp can also be the result of a mismatch between speaker impedance and the range the amp is designed to work with, or speakers or wires that are totally shorted out. is a link to this site's home page. Some (like the old Autoteks) light the green LED and red LED initially then the red LED switches off. If the amp only shuts down when the amplifier tries to produce high power (when it hits a strong note), you need to measure the voltage at the time when the amp shuts down. If you read more than 0.01v and the amp is at idle, you may have a bad ground. If your amp is located underneath the seats, or in another confined space, that may cause it to overheat. If your amp failed after extensive use, and you suspect that it went into protect mode because of overheating, you can use the fan method mentioned above to see if a little additional cooling keeps it alive. Remove any connection to the speaker, then turn your amp on and see if it’s still in power protection mode. For those who don't know what a blown fuse looks like, the one on the left below is blown. Normally, both will be above 12v. Remove all of the speaker wiring and RCA wiring and leave only the power, ground and remote leads connected. This is what you should read when you touch the meter across the fuse (out of the fuse holder). If it starts right up as normal, the problem is in the speaker — your amp has just shut down to protect itself. The lights are always lit when the amp powers up but are normally green. If the shield ground of the head unit is OK, the amplifier could have one of several problems. In most of the budget amplifiers, the shield will be directly connected to the NON-bridging speaker terminals. The most common cause of overheating is a lack of airflow. If you know how your amplifier behaves when the amp is in good working order, it will make troubleshooting much easier. If the voltage remains near or above 12v but the amp still goes into protect mode, disconnect all speaker wires from the speaker terminals of the amp and disconnect signal cables from the amp. I get so many questions about amplifiers going into protection (or blowing fuses after remote turn-on voltage is applied) that I've decided to provide a page to help determine if the amplifier is faulty or if a fault in the system is causing a problem. In case that isn’t an option, or you just want to get a head start, here are some easy questions you can ask yourself to get on the right track. Not all amps have a protection mode indicator. At each connection, fuse or other point where the wire is not continuous, check the voltage. Amplifier protection mode is essentially just a shutdown state that car amps can go into under a number of different circumstances. If your amp remains in protect mode at that point, then you probably have a power or ground problem, or you might have a problem with the installation where the body of the amp is making contact with bare metal. In some cases, the connections between the wire and the fuse holder will be a problem. You first need to check the RCA shields of the head unit. In this case, there may be an internal problem with the amp. This is especially true when the power supply has failed. In the event that everything has power, nothing is shorted out, and your amp isn't overheating, then your amp may have some type of internal fault. Power issues may be related to a loose or burnt wire, but a blown amp fuse is always possible as well. Before you dig in any further, you might want to check a few easy points of failure like fuses. Start your diagnostic by checking the power and ground cables and making sure that the amp is physically isolated from any bare metal contact with the vehicle. This If it's dropping below ~11v, you need to determine why. Although amps usually don’t go into protect mode due to a blown onboard fuse, it’s very easy to check and might save you from a headache down the line.

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