I have a pioneer-p5800mp deck connected with rca's running to the amp and amp is grounded properly to the frame. Power is connected nice and snug. Remote wire is connected to my windshield wipers instead of the deck. (It powers and turns off just fine)

This is my third system ive installed and my problem is everything is working properly. Subs get a slight vibration and I can feel something working behind it but no actual BOOM/bass and no cone vibration going in and out the subs. (Im running 2 rockford fosgate 12" p3's btw.) ( Rockford Fosgate t3002 amp, 2 40A fuses) (Im running all 4awg wires)

The 6-1/2 door speakers work fine and has nice sound coming from all 4.
Power wire from the + battery terminal is solid
The 12 gauge speaker wires for the subs are all black a little odd but the one with the writing on it is usually the positive wire. Everything seems to be connected properly. + to + and - to - on both the amp and the subs. Im stuck, I must have checked everything 3 times over.


FCM where are you!!!!


Any help is appreciated.


Modified by ChrisTApher05 at 2:44 PM 2/21/2008

 

Bump, anyone?

 

p3 are dvc correct? you dont have the voice coils on each woofer out of phase do you? as in vc1 is out of phase with vc2? this will cause the woofers to just sit there and have this weird slight hum at times. you can unhook 1 voice coil to check to see if the cone starts to move. do this at a low volume.

 

Sounds like the high pass filter is on.

 

Correct my p3's are dvc. I know the hum your talking about, but this is like vibration I guess going thru since i can feel something. I'll check on that later on though.

My high pass filter is off on my deck and on my amp is set to low pass.

Any more suggestions?


Modified by ChrisTApher05 at 2:55 PM 2/21/2008

 

late afternoon bump

 

I'm going to go with a sub being wired incorrectly.

 

I was wondering when you were going to show up ej8 lol

 

I'm just going to agree with B18C_EJ8 and JSPECSIR probably wiring, subs, [or VCs] are wired out of phase.

If you have 2 sets of speaker leads running from the subs to the amp, [one set for each sub] disconnect one set.

It would not be unusual for it you look/sound, even feel, like the subs are working a little, even if they were compleatly disconnected, they will resonate with the music coming from the other speakers, [ four 6.5" speakers].

If you are using an AGU fuse, [big glass fuse] as the main amp power lead fuse, replace it with a new one, they can look good and still be bad. 94

 

theres fcm lol

That makes it 3 then. Yeah even though the wiring kit i bought was brand new like 2 days ago I might as well try replacing it.

 

Update: Im now thinking it could be the amp. I haven't tried putting another amp in place of mine as of yet. If all else fails im gonna stop by a audio shop to further troubleshoot. (Prays its not amp failure)


Im pretty sure its not my wiring inside my subs anymore since I took my amp and hooked it up to my friends subs and nothing came out as well, even though the light powers on and no protection light comes on either so I dunno. Re-hooked his amp and works fine.



Modified by ChrisTApher05 at 2:34 AM 2/22/2008

 

Ok so it turns out my amp is fine. I took out ALL the door speakers so there is nothing BUT the subs playing and this time there is no interior speakers playing so I know it is the sub thats doing the vibration.

Im had the audio guys test the voltage going to the sub and amp and it defitnely works.
Could it be that the Rca cables signal is weak?.....
someone has to have had this problem before! Help a bro out.

 

Have you checked the wiring for the subs, [VCs] are you sure they are wired in phase, use a 9V batt. to "pulse" the subs to see if they are wired in phase.

Disconnect the the subs speaker lead(s) from the amp, touch the terminals of the batt. to the speaker lead, [one set at a time if there are two speaker leads].

The sub(s) will "pop" when you touch the leads, the cone(s) will move out when the pos.(+) batt. terminal is touching the speakers (+) lead and the batt. neg.(-) terminal touching the speakers (-) lead, if the batt. is reversed the cone will move in.

Make sure the cones both move in the same direction if there is only one lead, and if there are two leads, that they are wired to the amp the same way, the two (+) and the two (-) together, or on the proper terminals if there is more then one set.
If the VCs of a DVC sub are wired out of phase and you pulse the speaker with the batt. you will get a very small pop and no cone movement.

You could also be right about the RCAs, or more likely the preamp output on the HU that the sub amps RCAs are connected to, to test, plug them into another set of the RCA outputs, or you can wire a speaker directly to the RCA, hold it to your ear and turn up the volume, if it's working you will hear music, just not very loud 94

 

yup that was one of the first things i did.
I did it to both subs and they work fine, slight pop to see if cone was moving outwards and then released it right away from battery.

Thats the second thing I thought of. My headunit has 3 preouts. Ive tried it on all three and nothing. The unit powers up and down just fine and powers my interior like i mentioned before. Oel display works great. Hmmmm.....

 

I never thought this could be so confusing since ive done it quite a few times.

Went to three audio places and had each one check the voltage with multimeters and such with each terminal reading voltage. Some say the subs are shot but it works with the 9/12v battery tests. All of them said the amp is fine.

Im going insane figuring out whats wrong. I had them check the headunit as well and its fine at the outputs. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH stupid system.

 

Have you tried connecting a known working speaker to the amp?

Disconnect the subs from the amp and connect a speaker, [any working speaker] to the amp and see if it works.

You said you connected your subs to a friends amp and still no sound, that would indicate, blown subs or miswiring of the subs.

Do you have or can you borrow a multimeter? 94

 

Oh no =p, I said I took my amp and put it to his subs and no sound and rehooked his original amp back onto his subs and it works. If anything it is the amp.

3 guys from diffrent audio shops, free of charge, checked my entire cars electrical system with multimeters and said everything was fine.

 

I bet Heath is behind this!

 

Then it's a pretty good bet it's the amp.
Have you connected your subs to an amp that you know works? 94

 

Every one of my friends amps, the terminal is like an 8-12gauge and mines a hearty 4awg rf wire and I tried but it was too small of a port

 

It's just a test, take some 18ga-16ga speaker wire wrap one end around your subs speaker wires throw on some electrical tape, [you don't want to blow a buddies amp] connect the other end to your buddies amp.

Use a 20' length of speaker wire and you won't even have to remove the subs from your car.

If it does not work, turn the system off immediately. 94

 

Hmm why didnt I think of that lol. Instead of taking it out yeah I had him back up as close as possible and used 15 feet of speaker wire and it works. Then turned it off. His amp is only rated at 250rms lol mine requires 500rms min per sub.

Thanks for your contributions/help FCM As well as the other HT members as well.


Hey FCM do you got the schematics to the rockford fosgate t3002 amp by any chance or know what one looks like inside? I'll take a picture of the amp when I open it up. It should be fairly cheap to fix. It looks like its missing 2 capacitors inside if im not mistaken.


These are the internal amp pictures.












Modified by ChrisTApher05 at 6:47 AM 2/29/2008

 

bump. Edited things in above ^ post..

 

No caps are missing, the same board is used in a number of amps, the T3002 does not have caps there... http://ampguts.realmofexcursio...T3002/

There is no reason your subs should have quit working when it was connected to your friends amp unless there is a problem with the subs or their wiring, just because they are 500W does not mean you need a 500W amp to drive them. 94


Modified by fcm at 3:33 PM 2/29/2008

 

Yeah I know I dont need the rms to necessarily run them, but I dont want an underpowered system too.

What are those two black things in the first picture? It seems there are 2 missing since there are spots for them but I guess not since you provided the link, most amps that are my size, inside has 4. Oh well.

Great site that you provided.