Stereo keeps powering off...?

[Sir C]

I'm not sure if this is the right section for this but since the problem seems to manifest itself with my stereo I thought this might be the place to try to figure out what's going on...

Every so often, unexpectedly, my sound system will spontaneously power off. Head unit and amp. Not as in being switched off but as in no power going to it. And then, at some point, it will all come alive again.

I noticed, this evening, leaving work, it was off. But then, when I had to stop and get out of the car for a moment, leaving the engine running, when I opened the door there was a pause before the "door open" alarm kicked in and, when it did, the stereo came on...

Initially, I was thinking that I had a bad connection somewhere. Maybe a loose ground. But now I'm wondering if it's got something to do with a relay or a fusible link or something...

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

[needsboost]

make sure your HU is powerful enough to push your speakers. they blow when they are overloaded

[aliasisapac]

still sounds like it's not grounded...

if the headuint is actually powerful enough to push your system...

[Sir C]

I'm running a simple 180w head unit through a 200w amp into a 300w sub. Most of the time, and for the past few months, it's all worked fine until recently when it's started quitting on me, and then, when least expected, coming back on. Although it hasn't come on in the past five days...

I haven't driven at night, recently, and tonight (leaving work, later than usual) I also noticed that my door, dome and other interior lights weren't coming on, either. Now I'm wondering if the amp may have been overloading the circuit of fuse #19 (which covers all those interior lights as well as audio...?) and whether I should consider upping the 10 amp fuse to a 15 or re-routing the amp to fuse #14 (theft alarm horn and horn relay)? I guess I need to get under there and check those fuses...

[Sir C]

Got under and checked the fuses and found that they probably hadn't been touched in 15 years. Pulled the fuse, cleaned the blades, blew out the slots with a can of compressed air, popped it back in and...Voilà! All is well.

[aliasisapac]

cool! glad you figured it out!


makes me want to go look at my fuses...

[94PearlwhiteTT]

Originally Posted by needsboost

make sure your HU is powerful enough to push your speakers. they blow when they are overloaded

How does this make any sense at all? Almost any headunit is not even close to a speaker RMS output, not to mention aftermarket speakers. Glad you found it though, I was going to say a bad ground also.

[JamesRHayman]

Originally Posted by 94PearlwhiteTT

How does this make any sense at all? Almost any headunit is not even close to a speaker RMS output, not to mention aftermarket speakers. Glad you found it though, I was going to say a bad ground also.

this is very possible...it comes down to distortion

you put a big load on a small amp (4 loud playing speakers of one little deck)

the speakers require a lot of power, and so the deck trys to put out a lot, but when doing this the deck power gets to a point where its no longer pure sound, and instead gets distorted and distortion makes the speakers move unnaturally, when they move unnaturally, they get a lot hotter, and get to the point where they can blow or burn out, when the coils in the speakers get so hot they melt the thing plastic coating over each strand, and then short out.

pure sounds will never destory a speaker, rockford fosgate (spelling?) proved it in the 90's. the took a regular tweeter (about 1 inch diameter) and played a pure sound signal for 3 days straight, a 1000htz signal, with ZERO distortion. the power fed to the speaker was 10,000 watts. after 3 days the tweeter was still in perfect working order.

This sounds like absolute BS, but i promise you all, its very much true.

[94PearlwhiteTT]

Originally Posted by JamesRHayman

this is very possible...it comes down to distortion

you put a big load on a small amp (4 loud playing speakers of one little deck)

the speakers require a lot of power, and so the deck trys to put out a lot, but when doing this the deck power gets to a point where its no longer pure sound, and instead gets distorted and distortion makes the speakers move unnaturally, when they move unnaturally, they get a lot hotter, and get to the point where they can blow or burn out, when the coils in the speakers get so hot they melt the thing plastic coating over each strand, and then short out.

pure sounds will never destory a speaker, rockford fosgate (spelling?) proved it in the 90's. the took a regular tweeter (about 1 inch diameter) and played a pure sound signal for 3 days straight, a 1000htz signal, with ZERO distortion. the power fed to the speaker was 10,000 watts. after 3 days the tweeter was still in perfect working order.

This sounds like absolute BS, but i promise you all, its very much true.

You are very correct in this, distortion is probably the #1 cause of speakers blowing/going bad, as long as you have your system setup right; tuning, power, etc, it should last you a very long time. Thats definitely one thing I've noticed with the factory infinity system in our cars, the amp likes to cut power on big bass notes, because it can't handle them (distortion), which in the long run saves our speakers. But anyways, this still doesn't really relate to his problem... just though I'd post!