if it turns on and goes away after you turn it up a little more, its not bad, thats normal, its just the variable resistor, it could possibly have anything in the process that can cause distortion, like dirt or a bit of corrosion or some sort. You only need to worry about when it stays on fully and not when it just goes on like for a bit, is the light currently on a 1/4 turn and it has the light on fully? And some times that's all it takes to make the amp run at its full power.
Is there a way to clean the terminal or just leave it be and turn up the gains till I get a solid light. And the subs were brand new and have had them maybe a month but not seen a lot of heavy pounding for nearly that long
The distortion light was not solid it was like a faint blip never stayed solid but I was worried to turn it up more so I don't know what to do
That is fine, its just a dirty terminal, when it is a bright red is when its good, also with your other problem with the smelling a burning something, How long have you had the subs? Did you buy them brand new or used? How long have you been actually using the subs?
Nah there isn't any way to clean the variable resistor, its fine just leave it be, and if your already smelling stuff, your pushing them too hard too fast, I know people tell others that you don't need to break in a subwoofer, I believe you do, i'd play it lightly to medium, don't full on blare it. Wait about another month, or at least a good 20 hours... slowly your subs will get louder and sound better and then you can push them. You also gotta set your gains on your head unit all to 0 and keep it flat then set amp to its proper level with DD1.