aftermarket sub fading in and out?

[Sexymeatball]

Well, i recently got my hands on a free 10" sony xplod sub and a 760 watt xplod amp (2 channel), so i did the obvious thing and put them in the SHO I have a high quality clarion head unit and i did all the installation myself, making sure to do everything properly so that i wouldnt have to do it again later (cause it sux!). I seperated the power and the RCA wires on opposite sides of the car, tore up the whole carpet, made sure nothing was rubbing against the wires, etc. etc. Anyway here's my problem. For awhile i have been noticing that sometimes the bass sounds better than other times. For instance, sometimes a low tight bass note from the same song just won't have the same slam that it did the day before (this is without any adjustments or changes to the setup). I dismissed this as my imagination and put it out of my mind until....

Last week i was sitting at a stoplight, music cranking, enjoying the rattling rearview mirror from the perfectly crisp bass notes as onlookers stared in wonder at the taurus that was now drawing attention even without screaming past a new BMW :****: . Anyway, all of suddden as im just sitting there, it cuts out...the sub was still moving air, but not nearly as much as it should. now i know its not just my imagination. It does this off and on and although i havent really had much time to figure it out since im too busy living the college life, i would like to at least get some opinions from people who know more than me about subs (or in this case, more likely the amp). Im almost positive that the wiring is sound as is the ground because i made sure to this right. This doesnt mean that im not willing to recheck it though if someone makes a good case in that direction. Well, thanks for your help in advance.
/Jeremy

 

[Sexymeatball]

no one even wants to take a stab at it? Could it be an inadaquate battery? Dying alternator? Defective amp? at least give me a direction, because i have no idea what it could be. Thanks
/Jeremy

 

[greenbeanmtx]

Hey there, i dont know if im of any help but i had a similar case in my old car and it turned out the amp was dieing. If the amp has been used hard or is older than it could be getting tired. Also sony amps are extremely exaggerated on what they say the watts are. If i remember my numbers right the 760 watt has somewhere around either 250 or 300 watts. If the sub is extremely stiff then it could not be making enough power. Whats the condition of the sub and amp? Are they beaten up or look like they have had a hard life? Also i dont know if you did it or not but if your only running 1 sub off the 2 channel amp try bridging it or if its already like that try doing it to just one side. Sometimes amps tend not to like one or the other. Its hard to say honestly but i wouldnt consider your car as the culprit.....It sounds like the amp to me or mabe a ground but judging by what you have said it sounds like you did everything correctly so i doubt its a ground.

If you want i.m. me on aol my s/n is rotaryrocket85 Im not an expert but ive been messing with this stuff for about 10 years now and have always tried to cut corners so the likely troubleshooting ive done has helped me figure out alot of the bugs. I had an amp do the same stuff ur talking about and i replaced the amp and the problem was gone....... Oh one more thing if you turn the volume down does the bass tend to come back? That is probably the key to a bad amp. Just give me a hollar.

 

[SteedaSVT]

It sounds like the sony amp is almost gone! Try to get another amp and see if it does the same thing.

 

[Sexymeatball]

well, im home today some im gonna tinker with it and see if i cant get it to work. Right now i've got it bridged so i'll try just running it off one channel (it is a pretty stiff sub though). I wouldnt be at all surprised if it is the amp itself, and i never would have bought anything sony if it wasnt free. They used to be floor models where i worked (Sears), but besides consmetically, i really didnt think they were that beat up. I'll see if i can figure out what it is, and if it does turn out to be the amp, well, i think i might be out of luck cause i just dont have the money right now to justify replacing something that half works Anyway, thanks for the responses, they've been very helpful.
/Jeremy

 

[Sexymeatball]

Problem solved! This one i have to credit to my dad (although i probably would have figured it out after trying everything else first). Leave it to him to merely take one of the RCA interconnects out and discover that "hey...this ones not working" Luckily that's all it was, one of the wires inside the RCA jack's sleave had come undone (problem due to my twisting it too much) and was intermittently making contact. Spliced on a new RCA jack and all is well. So glad its not something more serious or expensive. My dad has more claim to fixing everything in this beast than I, thanks to his vast automotive knowledge which i will never surmount. One of these days, i'll post a few pics of his '69 440 gtx ragtop on my cardomain page. Now that turns some heads (he even lets me drive it occasionally ). Anyway thanks for everyones help. Peace.
/Jeremy