In my girlfriends car her stereo is messed up somehow. I'm not really a genious in this area but...

None of the stereo is factory, it's all aftermarket stuff. Now...it used to be, everything would work for about 20 minutes then the amp would pop into protection mode. Then if you'd 'reset' the headunit it would work again, for another 20 minutes or so. NOW, it works for half a second then pops. Everything connected to the amp doesn't work. Only the tweeters are hooked to the head unit, and they work while everything else doesn't. Make sence? Any help?

 

I'm not an expert either, but it sounds like a bad ground wire somewhere...have you checked that yet?

 

i agree with checking for the ground, as well unhook all the speakers from the amp and see if it powers up and stays on then one by one hook them up and see which one shuts it down and you could possiably have a short in that wire

 

Good point also!

 

So you guys think this is a wiring problem? Alright...I thought it was possibly something inside, but I'll check everything again, thanks!

 

could be the amp, but i would check wiring first, its cheaper as well

 

I had a similar problem with my stereo. Check (if you can) that the resistance of the speakers matches up with the amp. Sounds like you may have a mismatched setup, that's what my problem was. The symptoms were similar, luckily I had the extended warranty on the amp, cause I ended up frying the board of the amp. Twice. I had the subs running at half the resistance (that's the ohms rating) than what the amp could handle. So (since you say you're not a stereo guru) this means for you: if the amp is rated at 4 ohms, don't use a 2 ohm speaker cause it can fry the amp by drawing too much electricity. Easiest way to test this if you don't have any owner's manual or can't find it online, just unplug the speakers from the amp, drive around for a while, see if the amp went into protection mode. That will at least rule out the amp having a bad ground, then plug speakers back in one at a time. Post up what happened, I'm interested to see what it is.

Abe

 

Yea I was kinda thinkin that was the problem. All these parts were bought used and her step dad and brother put it together pretty...well...not good. They used some weird connectors and ****. When I get more time with it I'll check it out. Thanks guys!

 

Does anyone know where I can get backdated information? The peices used are a few years old I think, and I'm not sure what the specs on these are. Thanks again!

 

Manufacturers sometimes have old product info on their websites, user's manuals etc. My "old" Kicker Solobaric subs have the manual on Kicker's website. If not then try their contact page, they should be able to email you a PDF or answer any questions about their own equipment. I actually called up and talked to a tech guy at Kicker, he was a damn genius but explained every answer so I could understand it since I don't have an engineering degree.

I would try Google if I were you. Do you know model #'s?

Abe

 

I had her tell me what it said on the parts...at the time, I haven't really had a chance to look myself, but the subs say Pioneer IMPP on them...I don't know if that'll help or not, they're 12's. She has a Jensen amp...aren't those supposed to suck? Anyways, I'll probably get the model number off of that tonight.