4ch Amp Cutting In and Out

**2dee11** · 01-10-2013

Alrigh guys so I bought a kenwood 4 ch amp on cyber Monday... The one some of you guy suggested to me and I feel like the cold might be affecting it... Because I installed it shortly after getting it and it worked beautifully and then more recently it's gotten colder outside and it started cutting in and out and then now it's not playing at all most of the time leaving me music less ..

I also have started hearing more engine noise through my rcas and I tried differentent rcas and that's not the problem

**Peirce1970** · 01-10-2013

If your hearing engine noise you could have a bad ground.

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**2dee11** · 01-10-2013

Like engine noise through the speakers? It's a high pitch noise and gets louder as I accelerate

It's still not all that loud though I never noticed it when the amp was working properly...

Could it also be bad rcas or no?

**2000GTGP** · 01-10-2013

alt. whine.

try grounding your amp to a different spot.

**2dee11** · 01-10-2013

Is "bad ground" also the reason it cuts completely out and doesn't even work sometimes? Sometimes it even works but when I turn up the volume like one click it goes off again

**mofford12** · 01-10-2013

Ground loop is the factor hear!

**2000GTGP** · 01-10-2013

yeah its a ground problem. Well im assuming your running proper sized power/ground wire.

**2dee11** · 01-10-2013

It should be big enough I mean it's a cheap 4 gauge so more like 6-8gauge but the amps only like 400 watts... The thing is that it was working perfectly earlier

**2dee11** · 01-11-2013

It wouldn't be by chance a blown pico fuse would it? How can you check if you're pico fuse is blown?

**Fatboy501** · 01-18-2013

Might be the pico, but I've never heard of it causing intermittent functioning... just whine. Dunno how to check it, but the fix is easy enough... ground the rcas to the radio chassis. I'm assuming you know this since you mentioned the Pico fuse in the first place. I'd redo the ground and do the Pico fix to start personally.

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**Confusingboat** · 01-19-2013

Where did you ground it to?

**LowRidinCrew** · 01-19-2013

Ground, and noise can come from power wire and your RCA's being to close. Do you have matching Ground and Power wire gauge?

**2dee11** · 01-19-2013

well i finally got the chance to investigate the problem with it being basketball season...
what i found was that the screw i used to ground it had come loose some how causing the intermitent problem so i used a different screw and its a lot tighter now and fixed the intermitent problem but i am still hearing the engine whine (i have it grounded basically the same place i grounded my sub amp which is to the chasis under the back seat but the engine whine still occurs... i have not tried to fix it by grounding the rca's yet i might try that today but the rcas and power wire are ran on opposite sides of the car

**2dee11** · 01-19-2013

this isnt the amp i am having problems with (anymore) but at about the 3 minute mark you can see how i grounded my other one as well... i didnt use the same screw i just drilled another one but its like a foot from the other ground on that same frame

**simbah** · 01-19-2013

Do yourself a huge favor and ground your amps to a strut mount mounting bolt anduse a star washer under the lug and a flat wasner under the nut and make sure that they are tight and you should eliminate a lot of your problems. Yes I would put spacers under the amp so you get some air flow all around the amp, should help with cooling.
The following was taken directly from Hifonics Website
It is highly recommended that the amplifier be mounted to a board of MDF or other solid
structure using the 4 mounting screws provided. Avoid mounting the
amplifier to metal as this can introduce noise and other unwanted issues. When mounting
the amplifier, ensure that it is mounted HORIZONTALLY, as shown in the diagram above, for
optimal heat dissipation. Mounting amplifiers to speaker enclosures is not recommended as
this can cause damage to the amplifier components.

**2dee11** · 01-19-2013

that video is old... i dont really remember what i did to fix that problem but i fixed it a while back... and i havent had a problem with wiring it under the seat.. but i honestly dont know what or where a strut mount is...

and i tried grounding out my rcas (as if i had a blown pico fuse) and it seems to have eliminated my alternator/engine whine so hopefully that will fix the problem for good

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