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99XLTon20s
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Vehicle: 1999 Ford F-150 XLT
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From: LaSalle Michigan
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 Posted - September 2 2007 : 3:58p
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OK guys....let me start this off by saying that I don't know squat about amps, subs, or anything to do with a sound system.
The previous owner of my truck had a small system put in the truck, and left it in there when I bought it. It consists of an Orion 5002 amp, and two 10" Orion subs.
It has always worked fine and sounded pretty descent (Im not into bumping, the subs just make it sound better) up until a few days back, I noticed the subs weren't working.
I checked the main fuse off of the battery, and its fine. The amp has two small 20amp fuses on the back of it, and neither of them were blown.
The strange thing is that I took my fluke and measured the voltage across the two terminals of the connector that plugs into the back of the amp, and it was reading 12 volts...so the amp has power coming to it, but the power light still isnt on.
When I plugged the connector back into the amp, I stuck the fluke terminals into the back of the plug, and now its only reading 1.8 volts...If I leave the fluke connected to the same spot and unplug the power connector, it goes bake up to 12 volts as soon as it breaks contact with the amp. So do you guys think there is a short or something inside of the amp? Is this a common problem, or is there something else going on?
Like I said, I don't know a damn thing about amps, so any help would be greatly appreciated,
thanks,
Kyle
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Sawblade
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Posted
- September 2 2007 : 5:18p
| | So the voltage going to the amp is actually dropping at the amp end of the power wire? It sounds like the power wire has high resistance somewhere so the voltage drops when it gets a load on it. Try changing out the fuse first, it may just be bad. | |
99XLTon20s
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Posted
- September 2 2007 : 6:04p
| Its showing 12 volts on both sides of the connector while unplugged, but when I plug it in, the voltage drops about 10.2 volts.
I need to pick up a few more fuses tomorrow, I just popped the two on the amp accidentally by plugging the power wire in backwards. I pulled the face plate off to see if there was an obvious short somewhere, and when I plugged the power wire back in to test the voltage on the load side of the fuses, it was reversed. the faceplate had the guide thing on it so you can only plug it in the right way, and I guess I got it wrong..lol. | |
WhtNing
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Posted
- September 2 2007 : 6:11p
| Amp could be internally shorted, but it should blow a main fuse on the power feed if that’s the case.
A dirty connection makes more sence, where it can't get the power it needs, check where it hooks up to the battery and make sure that the connection is clean. Also check the cable, sometime corrosion can get inside the cable.
If all that’s good, I would disconnect the speakers and check the power, possible the speakers are shorted, but again, a fuse on the amp should blow.
Last thing I can think of at the moment, there is a remote amp turn on, usually a blue wire from your head unit; it should have 12v+ on it when your radio is on, this turns on the amp. It hook up is usually by the power connection to a terminal labeled REM.
I was checking out their web site, they have manuals listed for their amps:
http://www.orioncaraudio.com/Support/Guides.aspx |
Edited by - WhtNing on September 2 2007 6:14p |
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99XLTon20s
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Posted
- September 2 2007 : 6:59p
| Thanks for the tips whtning. Im getting good voltage from the battery all the way back to the power connection to the amp, that is until I plug it in. When its plugged in, if I take the fluke leads and push them into the back of the power connection to the amp (and make good connection), Im only reading 1.8 volts, but as soon as I unplug the power connection, Im reading 12 volts like normal....that's what I don't understand.
I tried unplugging the speakers, and that didn't do anything. I checked the blue wire, and its reading about 12 volts on that when the radio is on.
I don't know what else to do. I looked up the manual on their website (thanks for the link), but it was all pretty generic, no good info on trouble shooting. I guess I will pick up some more fuses tomorrow morning and go from there. | |
WhtNing
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Posted
- September 2 2007 : 7:48p
| What gauge wire is run from the battery to your amp? Also is that wire fused at the battery? Seems that if your amp was putting that kind of load (voltage drop from 12 to 1.8) on your battery, it would kill your battery or short it out or blow a fuse.
Check your ground, what size wire is it and where is it grounded? How long is the wire?
Were missing something here.....
What is the exact model number of your amp, I want to look at the manual | |
99XLTon20s
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Posted
- September 2 2007 : 9:14p
| I couldn't tell you what gauge it is....its fairly large, maybe 1/4" diameter, and the wire is fused right off the battery, there are also two 20 amp fuses right on the amp itself, which were fine until I blew them this afternoon by reversing the power source accidentally. The ground is the same gauge as the power wire, and the blue wire is maybe a 12 or 14 gauge.
I didn't pull the ground wire out of the trim pieces to trace it down and see how long it is, or what its connected to, but I compared the voltage from the positive wire to the ground wire, so Im assuming its a solid ground since I was reading 12volts.
The amp is an Orion Extreme 5002, I think its called the xtr series 5002 on their website.
This one really has me stumped....I do a fair bit of battery ground chasing at work on our 132 volt system, but this one just doesn't make sense.
I power washed my engine off last week, and I don't know one way or the other if the subs have worked after that...but that really shouldn't matter since I am getting 12 volts on the power wire all the way back to the amp itself.
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Edited by - 99XLTon20s on September 2 2007 9:17p |
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devnull
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WhtNing
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Posted
- September 2 2007 : 9:48p
| Got to be a bad connection.....
Even tho your showing 12volts with no connection to the amp its a false reading with no load or current(Volt Meter are real sensitive), when you hook up the amp and the volts drops that much, there's a bad connection, no current can get threw.
Now when you replace the fuse's and hook back up the amp, if you read 1.8 volts at your battery, you got some real problems. My bet is the battery going to read 12 volts.
Check your ground on your amp, check under the hood for a ground strap from the engine to the body or frame, usually around the back of the motor to the firewall. Sounds like when you were washing you made a bad connection somewhere to me. I've seen the factory use a conductive grease in connection, like bulbs sockets and stuff, maybe you washed away some grease and now there's a bad ground. Got to be the 12+ or the ground connection.
Just trying to give you some ideas where to look after you get the fuses changed out. Like Sawblade suggested, change out the fuse on your power wire at the battery. | |
99XLTon20s
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Posted
- September 4 2007 : 8:49p
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If there was an obvious ground somewhere in the amp, then I wouldn't be so stumped. I took it all apart that night and looked at every connection, and couldn't find one part that would cause it to ground out. I know they can be tricky to spot, so I will go over it again and do some resistance testing, but other than that....Im stumped.
I had it out of the truck when I was looking at it, and doing the voltage testing, so it wasn't grounding out to the truck, the positive DC must have been going to the amp casing somewhere, and getting back on the ground wire, that's why I was only showing 1.8 volts difference between them.
I will be working 12-14 hour days for the next few weeks at the local nuke plant, so I don't know when I will get some more time to mess with this. | |
Sawblade
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Posted
- September 4 2007 : 9:54p
| Now that I think about it, try using a different grounding point when you check the voltage. If it's different than with the ground wire, than the ground is bad.
I forgot about it, but a bad ground is #1 cause of problems with amps. | |
99XLTon20s
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Posted
- September 17 2007 : 8:19p
| | Well it works like a charm now. I don't know what did it either..lol. Last week I put new fuses in it, plugged it in, and it did the same thing. I had some time yesterday, so I put a different set of fuses in it, and it worked like normal. The fuses I pulled out weren't blown or anything, so I don't know what was going on with them. Hopefully that takes care of it, I guess the real test will be when I drive the truck again to see if it cuts out. | |
WhtNing
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Posted
- September 18 2007 : 8:23a
| Awesome, you fixed it, Just hope it stays fixed! | |
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Bad amp?
