The specs on the setup:

Head Unit: Panasonic CQ-HX2083U
Amp: Sony XM-1652Z (1000 Watt, 2 Chan)
Sub: Kicker CompVR 07CVR102 (Dual 2 Ohm Voice Coils)
Cap: 1.0 Farad Cap (unknown manufacturer, don't remember)

It's been working great for the past year but just last week it started acting up. The lights would dim when I was using the system at night and the volt meter on the dash would drop DRASTICALLY when the bass would hit. (The battery gave up the ghost this weekend and I replaced it.) Shortly after that I noticed that my bass would not turn on until I turned up the volume on my stereo. My HU goes to a max volume of 40 and I listen to it anywhere from 15 - 30. Now, when the stereo is sitting at ~28+ the Subs will hit just fine. When it falls below that though, nothing. I checked the amp and it's powered on and the green light is glowing while the red light for the "protect" feature is off. The digital readout on the Farad Cap reads ~14. But today it started not working even with the volume turned up. It didn't work for 10-15 minutes, then the sub just turned on and worked fine for the next 10 minutes or so until I got home. What's the deal? Anyone?

 

sounds like you have a bad ground or a shorted remote wire.

 

Could be an internal pre-amp issue or bad RCA cables too. Is there a way you can try another set of cables or run cables from a buddy's car to try a new source? My friend and I just had a set of RCA's take a dump on his car, absolutely no sound whatsoever but the amp was on. Switched RCA's real quick and we were in business.