I just got my new car and i was wiring everything up and turned everything on all the door speakers work and everything but the subs dont work at all. I checked the RCA cables and tried to 2 different cables. the amp powers on. so i dont know what it could be i had it hooked up in my old truck and they worked fine in there so i must have a wire wrong or something

 

is it a new radio ? are you pluged into a bus plug it looks like rca on the rear of the radio
some radios need you to turn on your sub rca's

Maybe the rca's on the back of the radio crapped out

sounds stupid but check the wired going to subs from the amp (speaker wires) are they connected? did they come lose inside the box ?


good luck

 

its a new radio was in my truck for a week and all the outputs work fine then it might be in demo mode and idk if that shuts the RCAs off but i finished the wiring at night so i have to wait till morning to look at it more everytime i turn my radio on it says standby until i hit the source button. I have the Kenwood KDC-MP242 head unit

 

Speaker wires!!! look small before looking big.

 

try pluging you rca's in to a diffrent set on the rear of the radio

outputs: 4-channel preamp outputs (front, rear/sub)

 

i tried both of the outputs on the radio so its either the radio a blown fuse in the amp or the speaker wiring when it gets lighter outside ill take a look at everything again and let you know if i find anything

 

You said, "i tried both of the outputs on the radio" the Kenwood KDC-MP242 has two outputs, one set is a panel mount on the back of the HU between the CD changer port and the radio ant. plug, it is the rear or subwoofer pre-out the other one is on a 3-5 inch pigtail, it is the front pre-out

The rear output must be programed for subwoofer output in programing menu.

Also, once programed for sub output can be turned on and off...
Pressing the AM- button for more the 2sec. will turn sub output on and off, Display = "SW ON" "SW OFF".

Here is the owners guide if you do not have it... http://www.kenwoodusa.com/UserFiles/...s/kdcmp242.pdf 94

 

alright thanks i thought it would be something simple like that im gonna try that now and let you know what happens

 

k so i tried that and the sub output was turned off but its still not working there is power to the amp still and i checked the wires and everything is pluged in

 

i have more to add now my friend came over and and we pluged the outputs of his amp into the inputs of mine to see if that would work and nothing happened then i noticed that my amp was getting really hot so i think it may have something to do with the power wires i checked the ground and it is fine and the power wire is fine to so the only thing i could think of is the remain would a bad remain wire cause the amp to get real hot? my subs hooked up to 2 ohms like this.

 

sounds like bad subs. Hook up differnt subs?

 

subs are brand new out of the box they are 2 Kicker L5s the amp gets really hot to i unpluged it now cause i touched it and it burnt my hand

 

Maybe the resistance on the subs are to low for the amp which is causing it to heat up. Because the amp reads the resistance from the subs which determines the power output, right? Meter the ohms at the wire ends where you connected to the amp and see what you have.

 

well the amp was hot without even turning the car on so im starting to think the amp is blown or something its a JL Audio 500/1

 

I have had that amp don't get rid of it is good its prolly the ground what gauage of wire do you have running from the battery and what size for ground that amp slams

 

i think its 4 for the power 8 for the ground and 10 for the remain

 

you shold always run a the equal size wire.
4 guage power= 4 guage ground.
and 10 for the remain???

 

its what came in the car idk if its 4 ga wire thats a guess it might be 6 its batery wire so what ever size that is normaly but if the amp turns on and everything how would a smaller ground stop it from working?

 

The amps output is being shorted out, [that's why amp is getting hot] hopefully the amps protection circuit is why there is no sound and not because of a blown output stage.

The wiring you show is correct for a 2 ohm final load, [amp is stable between 1.5 and 4 ohms] so either the subs are not wired that way, [you need to check the wiring] or one of the subs/voice coils is shorted out, [DOA] [also need to check for that].

You can connect any working speaker to the amps output to check the amp, BE CAREFUL with the volume when testing. 94

 

i disconnected the outputs when and thats when i went inside and came out to it being really hot then after i tried to plug the sub in by itself without it being in the box and still nothing so it might be something inside the amp

 

So sad, output stage is blown.

Your also way underpowered for 2 Kicker L5s, even if they are S8L5s you would need 600W RMS to drive them properly...
S10L5s = 900W RMS
S12L5s = 1200W RMS
S15L5s = 1500W RMS
The above continuous power handling is for two subs in optimum box for power handling.

Have you checked the subs VCs to make sure they are good? 94

 

i dont see why they wouldnt be good they are brand new subs and they worked when i had the amp in my truck i know the subs are being way under powered thats why im buyin a new 1200 or 1600 watt hifonics brutus amp when i get the money

 

Unless you test the VCs you can't know for sure, be a real bitch if you connected a new amp to a shorted VC, you could end up with two amps with blown outputs, that truly would be sad.

BTW an underpowered amp driven into constant clipping can destroy a sub in a few min., brand new sub or not, better safe then sorry. 94

 

yeah i only had them hooked up the the amp for like 10 minutes they didnt clip at all i didnt wanna turn it up to loud anways cause they are new subs and i didnt want to blow them right off the bat but ill see if i can get my friend over here with his amp or something to test them

 

is there any way to test the amp to see if the outputs are shorted out? like with a different sub or something cause i have some 750 watt $35 sub that just sits in my room