AMP issue or car electrical issue?

[kenton]

so im workin on a system for my friend. were doin 4 kicker comps in an s 10 we got the box made and all is workin great. hes runnin on an amp thats a lil weak for the job but we just werent gonna push it hard. so then like 3 days later he calls me and says the amps goin into protect. the amp says run 2 4 or 8 ohm speakers on it but the book for it says its rated for 100w x 2 @ 2ohm so we figured its not the speakers we had them runnin 2 ohm into the 2 channels. its a lightning audio b3.200.2. so i disconnect all or the speaker wires and try gettin it to turn on. it would turn on for bout maybe 5-15 sec b4 it would go into protect. thats with the truck off. we had 12.5 volts on power cable and remote had 10.6 with ignition on. i tried jumpin from the power to the remote to turn it on with 12v to rule out the remote. it still did the same thing. I also have removed the rca cables too now. now the strange thing is that when we turned the truck on with all the cables other than the power ground and remote it would shut down faster. we had 14volt flat on power and remote jumped up to 12.5. but the amp would turn on for maybe 3 seconds max. I then took the amp off and did a test with the batt disconnected from the car and the amp straight to the battery. when i did this the amp did the same thing as it did with the car turned off before 5 to 15 sec b4 protect. now another thing im worried about more than the amp being junk is if his system is messed up because i ran my kicker 654xi i had sittin in my room with the subs to 8ohm x2 and with the amp not really even up or pushin the subs it ran for about 30 sec then it sat in protect. the whole time i did this i had the volt meter on it and it stayed constant at 12.5 volts. the remote also stayed at 10.6. the ground is also good. all the voltmeter readings where from the power inputs on the amp. all were grounded to the ground cable input. im trying to get an answer from somebody who knows what theyre doin. im pretty much stumped at this point. another thing the amp will play music during the period before protect and its not clear as it was before it started this.

[jmilch]

so im workin on a system for my friend. were doin 4 kicker comps in an s 10 we got the box made and all is workin great. hes runnin on an amp thats a lil weak for the job but we just werent gonna push it hard. so then like 3 days later he calls me and says the amps goin into protect. the amp says run 2 4 or 8 ohm speakers on it but the book for it says its rated for 100w x 2 @ 2ohm so we figured its not the speakers we had them runnin 2 ohm into the 2 channels. its a lightning audio b3.200.2. so i disconnect all or the speaker wires and try gettin it to turn on. it would turn on for bout maybe 5-15 sec b4 it would go into protect. thats with the truck off. we had 12.5 volts on power cable and remote had 10.6 with ignition on. i tried jumpin from the power to the remote to turn it on with 12v to rule out the remote. it still did the same thing. I also have removed the rca cables too now. now the strange thing is that when we turned the truck on with all the cables other than the power ground and remote it would shut down faster. we had 14volt flat on power and remote jumped up to 12.5. but the amp would turn on for maybe 3 seconds max. I then took the amp off and did a test with the batt disconnected from the car and the amp straight to the battery. when i did this the amp did the same thing as it did with the car turned off before 5 to 15 sec b4 protect. now another thing im worried about more than the amp being junk is if his system is messed up because i ran my kicker 654xi i had sittin in my room with the subs to 8ohm x2 and with the amp not really even up or pushin the subs it ran for about 30 sec then it sat in protect. the whole time i did this i had the volt meter on it and it stayed constant at 12.5 volts. the remote also stayed at 10.6. the ground is also good. all the voltmeter readings where from the power inputs on the amp. all were grounded to the ground cable input. im trying to get an answer from somebody who knows what theyre doin. im pretty much stumped at this point. another thing the amp will play music during the period before protect and its not clear as it was before it started this.

I need to look up that particular amp,but I am guessing the channels are internally bridged. How do you have the 4 kickers wired? What are the ohm loads of each sub?

Sounds to me like there was a mix up and the ohm load was too low, and the amp was damaged. I would be willing to bet.

And for future reference, the remote line doesnt need 12V to activate. It says 12V because thats what most vehicles/head units put out on the "remote activation" line. I believe 5V or more can activate the remote on the amp, but it varies between amps.

[kenton]

we had all 4 wired in parallel. each is 4 ohm. but we split it up into 2 subs to each channel so itd be 2 2ohm loads. http://imageshack.us/f/191/wirediagram.png/ thats a paint diagram took like 1 minute to make lol. http://www.lightningaudio.com/latech/library/2005/Amplifiers/1230_51318_LA_amplifiers-MAN.pdf thats the manual for it. i figured that with the remote wire also just was ruling it out just in case the amp might want more. i think the manual says bout it bein above 10.5 actually.

[jmilch]

we had all 4 wired in parallel. each is 4 ohm. but we split it up into 2 subs to each channel so itd be 2 2ohm loads. http://imageshack.us/f/191/wirediagram.png/ thats a paint diagram took like 1 minute to make lol. http://www.lightningaudio.com/latech/library/2005/Amplifiers/1230_51318_LA_amplifiers-MAN.pdf thats the manual for it. i figured that with the remote wire also just was ruling it out just in case the amp might want more. i think the manual says bout it bein above 10.5 actually.

Yea on the remote line, each amp is different. But its not the issue.You have them hooked up correctly. And according to the manual it can take 2 ohm per channel.

How is the ground? Is it grounded properly to the chassis? And where was the gain set to?

[kenton]

its grounded to his jack mount but thats welded to the cab i discovered when he brought it over the bolt wasnt very tight mightve vibrated loose but did the same even when it was tightened up. could that have damaged it if its not gettin proper power would that like cause clipping or distortion that would damage the amp? also my kicker amp is fine even tho it also did the shut down thing. his gain was a lil past 3/4. i didnt mess with that at all. didnt even thing to set it at the time cause his subs b4 were i think 300 rms each he said. no clue on what ohm they were tho.

[kenton]

any ideas?

[jmilch]

its grounded to his jack mount but thats welded to the cab i discovered when he brought it over the bolt wasnt very tight mightve vibrated loose but did the same even when it was tightened up. could that have damaged it if its not gettin proper power would that like cause clipping or distortion that would damage the amp? also my kicker amp is fine even tho it also did the shut down thing. his gain was a lil past 3/4. i didnt mess with that at all. didnt even thing to set it at the time cause his subs b4 were i think 300 rms each he said. no clue on what ohm they were tho.

Yes improper ground could easily have damaged the amp. Actually its one of the most common reasons amps fry..

And likely the gain was too high for the amp to put out clean power to those subs which required more power.

So all in all, jut a bad combination of events. But I would be willing to bet the amp is toast. You seem to have already tested it properly.

[kenton]

ok. i kinda figured the amp was toast but there was a lil hope it might be salvageable so he could use it to run his door speakers so they could keep up and sound clean than usin his headunit. but thats pretty much outta the picture. we were thinkin of doin a hifonics 1000watt rms amp its like $150 on sonicelectronics. ive heard good and bad bout them but another thing is he doesnt got the money right now for a real good amp. the only reasons he got the subs was cause they were $50 a piece at best buy and he took his beats headphones back for $300 to buy em. then i made the box for him. its better to run a higher power amp than run one that puts out equal rms right? he might upgrade to better 12s in the future. even tho the 4 comp 12s sounded pretty good in the tiny cab of his s 10. haha.