Amp goes into protect mode when volume is turned up

[KansasZj09]

I have 2/12 inch Pioneer Champion Series in a sealed box. They are 400 RMS each, and I have a 2000 watt amp, the subs are each 2 ohms. I have both subs wired down to 2 ohms. The amp is a 2000 watt peak SPL Gorilla amp, it has a bass knob to it, one ohm stable, Class D Mono Block. Heres the catch now, Im really stumped, I spent about 8 hrs trying to mess with this darn amp, It goes into protect mode when i turn the volume up, and the subs make a weird ass noise then the amp goes in protect, I know for a fact it cant be the ground or power wire. As I REDID my wiring, my buddy let me use his and we straight ran it without hiding or running it. Still NOTHING, did the same stuff. We hooked his Pioneer Champions up to it, and did the same thing, I wanna believe the subs are not blown since his didnt work either and when they did it went into protect like mine. Now the catch to this whole thing is he hooked it up in my other friends car and that stuff hit hard in his car they said, but sometimes the amp will work and the subs will work for awhile like 2 or 3 mins then make a loud ass noise then caput goes the amp, and it only works when the bass knob is hooked up, sometimes if i have the bass knob unhooked it wont go into protect until a few seconds have passed, i unhooked the speaker wires, and the amp STILL does it, but takes longer, now I have one RCA wire hooked up to the amp and they still work, but do the same thing, Im hella confused. Any help would not be appreciated but LOVED. Lol Thanks in advance.

[PaulD]

Amps go into protect mode because 1) short in ther speaker wires 2) DC offset in the output 3) overheating. I can assume it's not overheating since it does immediately. Try taking just the box and connecting that to a friends system and let it rip for a while. If your subs work fine, try his speaker box in your car and see what happens. One of those scenarios should work fine and the other should cut out.

P.S. sorry, you posted this after I had checked it yesterday.

[KansasZj09]

Hrmm, alrighty thanks for your help, and its fine, im just glad that someone can give their advice and help, im just stumped, its upsetting to have a system that dont work. I just dont get it though, his subs wont work when its hooked up to my amp in my Jeep either, but when we hooked my amp and my subs up to my buddies car they both bumped and worked good, I think if anything itd be 2) DC offset in the output if anything, if it isnt the amp or subs bad, but i just dont see that since they worked in his car, what would i be able to do to test the DC offset in the output? What does that exactly mean? How would i be able to fix that if its even fixable? Also I was reading that a bad battery can cause voltage drops in the amp since it cant pull enough power that it needs, thus throwing that in protect mode? Have you ever heard of something like that? Thanks again

[KansasZj09]

Oh FYI I just hooked a little 400 watt Lightning audio amp up and its working fine, I have my subs wired to that at the moment, did that last night and the subs are working, had the subs playing on a 5 mile drive and nothing happened with that amp.

[PaulD]

DC offset in the amp means the amp is bad .... that may actually be the problem but not if it works in another vehicle. I agree, it can be frustrating when the answer is not obvious and you just want some tunes. This is very strange and might be difficult to troubleshoot over the internet. There is something I am just missing and not really sure what it is.

Do you have a volt meter in the car, like on the dash instrumentation anywhere ? It could be that the bigger amp is drawing a lot more power than the smaller one. Have you tried the gorilla amp with the gain setting all the way down and no bass boost ?

[KansasZj09]

Oh yeah my apologies for the language earlier also, but yeah, i tried messing with the bass boost knob all the way down, the gain and everything else down too. Didnt work. Im going to buy a battery from my friend who i bought the amp from, he had the amp hooked up to it, the reason why he sold it to me was that he wrecked his car, he took the audio out and i bought it all except the subs, so i might try his battery see if it works tomorrow.

[KansasZj09]

And how would I be doing that? If my subs are wired to 2 ohms and the amp is 1 ohm stable, and it working in other peoples cars?

[KansasZj09]

Alright i think im kinda understanding that, but ill have to look it up online, he didnt have a manuel for it

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by nitbolta

Two ohm is almost like having short circuit so the current increases. That is why is entering in protecting mode. If you connect a resistor on parallel with you subs the real value send to the amp is equal to (sub-impedance*resistor-value)/(sub-impedance+resistor-value) so the real impedance is diminished. Check the manual of your amp to verify what is the minimum output impedance allowed.

He says the amp/sub setup works in another vehicle .. I don't think that's the issue here but the lowered impedance of the subs will cause it to draw more power from the amp.

To the OP .. in real terms, if you halve the impedance (say from 4 ohms to 2 ohms) the sub will attempt to draw twice the power. Lowered impedance is a BIGGER load. Also the bass boost and gain stuff can be demanding. Sound is logarithmic not linear, so 3 dB requires twice the power - 10 dB (a doubling of volume) requires 10X the power.

here is the contact link for them http://www.splusa.net/CONTACT.htm
email tech support and see if they can send you a manual

You might want to swing by autozone and have them check your alty and battery to make sure they are still up to par. If you replace the b att and the alt is bad it will wear down the new batt too.

[KansasZj09]

Still dont see how my battery is dead already, I bought a 2000 watt peak, not true off brand amp called American Legacy two weeks ago last Friday, and Thats the ONLY major source of power I was pulling, And Its not like I was bumping for 3 months off it. I had it only one week. Wired it down to .5 ohms the amp was 1 ohm stable. Sold it, bought that SPL and HAD IT WORKING for a few days, subs were wired at .5 ohms then i learned the amp was only 1 ohm stable, so thats when i wired it to two ohms, and it WAS WORKING when I had it at 2 ohms, for a few hours, that SAME DAY is when i switched out the cable for the bass knob to the one that came with the amp.

[KansasZj09]

Battery is 1 Month old. 900 cranking amps, 770 CCA. Alternator is about 6 months old.

[KansasZj09]

I just dont see how one week of bumping would drain my battery THAT fast, and also my ALT seems to be okay.

[PaulD]

if you're alty is going bad, it can drain a battery pretty quickly. Remember that it is only designed to run the car electrical stuffv worst case +10% or so. If you are driving at night with light and A/C on there is probably very little left for bumping, especially if the alty is already week. Check your battery to see if the water levels are good.

This thing with the bass boost knob is odd, are you saying that you had a different knob/wire than what came with it attached at first ? Remember that the bass knob boost is a bass cut device, it doen't cut anything when you have it turned all the way up. If you had a different knob or wire connected to it than what came with it, it may be wired differently and might have damaged the amp.

[KansasZj09]

Yeah, i used the wire from my old one, thinking it wouldnt hurt anything cause all it was is a phone jack cable, but I keep telling my friend that I think its toast, but everytime i do he keeps saying it still worked in the other car, im almost certain it is done with, but thing is if it isnt fried, then i dont see how my charging system can already be a problem, I really havent been bumping since the new alt, Im waiting on someone else to hook my amp up and If it works, Im going to sit there and listen to it for a good time, making sure it works, but i agree with you about it possibly being dead.

[KansasZj09]

Amp is done for I believe, hooked it up in another buds car, did same thing. THANKS EVERYONE for you help