Amp Shutting Off

Discussion in 'Car Stereo Amplifiers' started by randy, Nov 9, 2010.

  1. randy

    randy Full Member

    I am running a brand new kicker ZX450.2 amp and a 2010 CVR 12" 2 ohm sub. amp specs at 225x2 @ 2 ohms. amp is about half way turned up with the bass knob turned almost 3/4 way up. on deep bass notes the amp shuts off for a few seconds then comes back on when i turn the bass down OR if the song isnt displaying heavy bass, then when the song does it quits again. im pretty sure my problem lies within the 8ga power/ground that i ran, should have used 4ga. but i figured i would ask here before i spent the money on 20' 4ga wire and re-ran all my wires. lmk if i need to supply anymore info.
    Thanks in advance!


    im pretty positive i have the dvc hooked up correctly, heres how i have it done : both negatives together with a short piece of 16ga wire, then from one negative post to the negative on the amp ( non-bridged ). same for the postive.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2010
  2. ericj

    ericj Full Member

    It sounds like your sub is wired to 1 ohm, but your amp isn't 1 ohm stable. Unless you're running each of the voice coils on a separate channel on your amp in stereo. I can't tell from how you described it. Maybe it's just been a long day. ;)
     
  3. TheViking

    TheViking Well-Known Member

    Im with ericj on this. But what confuses me is that you have both voice coils in parallel, and you say the amp is "non-bridged".....dont quite follow that....

    if its a 2 channel amp, hook up one VC to the left, and the other VC to the right.....see what happens and let us know
     
  4. randy

    randy Full Member

    ok got my sub manual out. according to this i have them hooked up in parallel. so if i bought a 2ohm sub and run in parallel i get a 1ohm load? i want a 2ohm load....thats why i bought a 2ohm sub and a 225x2 @ 2 ohm amp....i have another 12 im going to put in this weekend and i was planning on running 2x 12" cvr 2ohms @ 225x2 @ 2 ohms...
     
  5. ericj

    ericj Full Member

    I think maybe you're misunderstanding how the wiring works. I'm not sure since the way you're describing it is somewhat confusing to me.

    If you wire TWO 2 ohm DVC subs with the voice coils wired in series and the subs wired in parallel, you'll net a 2 ohm load. You can connect this to your bridged amp and your amp will see a 2 ohm load. A single DVC 2ohm sub is only capable of a mono load of 1 ohm or 4 ohms. If you wired each coil by itself, you could wire it to your amp at 2 x 2 ohm.
     
  6. randy

    randy Full Member

    i understand you on the TWO sub ordeal but lost on the single sub hook up. im pulling the sub from the box and will post a pic of my wiring in just a sec.
     
  7. randy

    randy Full Member

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    lmk if i need to post more.

    remember i only have ONE sub hooked up right now. going to build another box for my 2nd cvr this weekend, so keep that irrelevant for now :)
     
  8. Fbmowner

    Fbmowner Full Member

    If your wiring isnt the problem then make sure you have a good ground, and theres no corrosion on your battery terminals.. Bad battery terminal corrosion caused my amp to go into protect on deep bass hits at high volume, eventually leading to non stop protect when the corrosion got very bad.
     
  9. randy

    randy Full Member

    truck is brand spanking new, only has 600 miles on it. ground is prefect. used a wire brush drill attatchment and grinded all the paint from the driver side seat bolt that goes directly to the trucks frame.
     
  10. TheViking

    TheViking Well-Known Member

    looking at the pic, from what I can see, it is wired wrong. Hey ericj, or whoever else it was, dont one of you guys have alink to proper sub wiring? a pic is worth a thousand words.

    One more note randy......read up the section on the big 3 in the automotive electrical of this site....VERY IMPORTANT....do it
     
  11. ericj

    ericj Full Member

    It looks like you have Positive to Positive and Negative to Negative, which is netting you a 1ohm load on that sub. Your amp isn't one ohm stable. When you wire voice coils in parallel, you cut the ohm load in half.

    Here, this should help you make sense of it. You could wire that sub to 4 ohms and run it bridged to your amp.

    http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer_configurations.asp?Q=1&I=22#results
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2010
  12. randy

    randy Full Member

    yes thats exactly how i have it. ive ALWAYS done this..lol never has been an issue from the 8 years ive been installing my own stereos.

    positive x positive and neg x neg

    what is the BEST way to run 2x 2ohm subs? and im guessing theres no way to net a 2ohm load from these?
     
  13. Fbmowner

    Fbmowner Full Member

    You should have Voice coil one's Positive to the positive channel of channel 1 of your amp, and the Negative from voice coil 1 to the negative on channel 1 of your amp. Now the same with Voicecoil 2 to channel 2 on your amp.. Ive never wired a dvc sub like this before so i may be wrong, but if you want a 2 ohm load on each channel im 99% sure thats the way to go.
     
  14. randy

    randy Full Member

    i kind of was getting the same thing....but does that mean i have to run TWO separate sets of lines from one sub to each channel on the amp? i have already mounted a nice speaker terminal plate....
     
  15. Fbmowner

    Fbmowner Full Member

    If the way i explained is correct, then yes you do sir

    But just like ericj said you could wire like he posted and run it at 4ohms bridged
     
  16. randy

    randy Full Member

    thats what i just did and viola! amp did not shut off. sadly, it isnt as loud as i had hoped. i can turn the amp gain all the way up along with the bass remote and the speaker is still asking for more. im afraid if i put 2 12"s on a bridged 450x1 @ 4 ohms it will sound very weak. the amp is brand new ( less than 3 days old ) i might have to look at selling this one and buying another amp that fits my needs better. what you guys think?
     
  17. Fbmowner

    Fbmowner Full Member

    When you have some extra time just throw another set of terminals on your box for the other voice coil and gogo 2ohms. Wouldnt you rather do that then have to sell your amp and look for another one?
     
  18. randy

    randy Full Member

    well what about when i put both subs in? running 4 sets of speaker wire to 2 channels on 1 amp, do you think it will be powerful enough?

    and ive actually always ran autotek mean machine amps with zero failures for the past 8 years. just thought i would try a higher end brand of amps. i can get a pretty nice autotek 2000x1 @ 1 ohm for 100-150. and my amp is selling for 210 bucks on ebay right now. prolly get 175 for it since its "slightly" used.

    but if the amp i have will do good then i wont consider selling it. i like having matching kicker.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2010
  19. ericj

    ericj Full Member

  20. randy

    randy Full Member

    that looks like it would be complicated since im using 2 subs in 2 seperate boxes.
    also, where do you see that my amp is stable at 2 ohms bridged? kickers site says 4ohm stable bridged.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2010