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Scion xA/xB 1st-Gen ICE & Interior In-car entertainment and electronics...

New (Bigger) Amp, Wire Gauge, Problems...

Old Apr 26, 2007 | 02:05 AM
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Default New (Bigger) Amp, Wire Gauge, Problems...

Ill make this short and to the point...

Hooked up a Kicker zx750.1 Amp (750w rms @ 2ohm) to Kicker S10L7.

Im using 4awg from battery - split into 8awg thru Distro block - 8awg to Amp - 8awg to Ground

I turned the car on, the HU went thru its boot up thing after the battery had been disconnected. As soon as the audio tried to kick in, the front right speaker started popping like crazy. I shut the car off quick.

Checked all the wiring, it was connected good. Tried to turn car on again, the dash lit up then dimmed and everything shut off. I disconnected all the audio wiring, and the car started up fine....

Im clueless as to whats wrong. Ive had 3 different amps hooked up to this wiring in the xB. Never had a problem. Please advise.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 02:28 AM
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i'd see that the amp is hooked up right. i know i know, ive done it my self.

why did you bring it down to an 8g power wire and groung for that large of an amp? ALWAYS go with 1 size larger then you thik you need. its better to have a cool temp wire then a fire. id make it 4g the hole way and make your groung 1 foot or less, who knows that might be part of your paroblem. you get a voltage drop useing 8g wire. check your battery voltage and then check the voltage at the amp and youll see what im talking about.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 03:05 AM
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I dropped it down to 8awg because I was planning on adding another amp to run speaks. Im starting to think that the wire size is the problem. Only the front right speaker was popping and subsequently, the power wire is run on the right side of car.

I had plenty of slack in the 4awg wire, so I cut 1-2ft off and made a ground wire. Im going to wake up early tomorrow and see if that solves the problem...
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 03:14 AM
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are u running the highs off the deck? if so i would make sure that the speaker wires of the right speaker isn't touching ground behind the HU. thats what it sounds like.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 03:22 AM
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Originally Posted by tc-guy
are u running the highs off the deck? if so i would make sure that the speaker wires of the right speaker isn't touching ground behind the HU. thats what it sounds like.
Not really sure what you mean... but my speakers are stock. They are connected to stock wiring. Nothing is spliced in my car except for the remote wire into the ACC wire so i dont see how the speaker wire could be grounded.

But please explain yourself, Im just not understanding what you wrote
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 01:14 PM
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I doubt wire size has anything to do with your issue, unless you have the volume cranked up right from the start.
What HU are you running? How is the amp connected, signal-wise?
If you've used the same wiring for multiple amps, and haven't touched anything behind the dash, it sounds like a defective amp.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 02:21 PM
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I hooked everything up again this morning.

4awg from Battery to Amp - 4awg to Ground on rear seat bolt.

It turned on fine, listened the whole commute to work. But I noticed that when you shut the car off, the same front speaker pops once. It doesnt do it when you start the car, only when you shut it off.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 02:23 PM
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Originally Posted by ajayaitch
I doubt wire size has anything to do with your issue, unless you have the volume cranked up right from the start.
What HU are you running? How is the amp connected, signal-wise?
If you've used the same wiring for multiple amps, and haven't touched anything behind the dash, it sounds like a defective amp.
Eclipse AVN6600, thru RCA output, Remote wire hooked to ACC wire.

The volume was turned all the way down, so was the gain, all the EQ settings were set to flat, no bass boost etc....
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 04:47 PM
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thats not a wire gauge issue, only thing you'd have a problem with wire wauge is hot wires.

it sounds like a couple wires are touching polarities somewhere or the HU has a defective channel which happens every now and then. if you've done some eDeadening and whatnot, i'd just go through and check each mid/high speaker, check thier terminals and see the condition of the wire near it, make sure no bare ends are touching. also on the back of the HU, check the terminals to see if any fine wires are crossing anywhere or if anything is touching between terminals. it could be but the smallest thing and easy to over look and sometimes you could like 10 times before you finaly see it and go "son of a B*tch!".

if still nothing turns up, check your RCA's for a damaged one. most of the time wont be something you can see cause the insulation wont break when the cables inside will. having a rotten cable or one thats cracked could give a pop like result out of the speakers as the wire in the RCA bounces around.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 05:43 PM
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Yeah, what he said! ^ Troubleshooting is one of the best skills to develop when you are first doing this stuff and hard as heck to explain in a forum. Let us know what you find out and good luck!


[/quote]
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 05:53 PM
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it sucked workin on live audio amps when the XLR cables were cut and whats left is raw wire. so when i'd go to settup the system, i'd get a pop noise or something, i would look at the amp hundreads of times and see everything is fine until that last look finding one little wire fiber stran off of a 2gauge cable just barely touching the opisite polarity power output channle. just that little fine piece of metal can cost from hundreads to thousands of dollars of wasted money when over looked.

but first thing is first, check all power type cables, from the cables them selfs to the raw wire ends *if any*. if nothing, check all signal type cables for hidden breaks, try replacing them all if need be on either type of cable, if the problem STILL continoues, THEN you have a hardware problem, either defective channels, circuits, fuses and or terminals... you know how it is...
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 06:46 PM
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ve spolen with a few people on AIM. I have alot of wiring in the car, much of it is not being used since I used to have 3 amps in the car with multiple speakers and subs.

Im going pull all the unnecessary wiring, and leave it at Power, Ground, Remote, and RCA and work from there. Hopefully I can narrow down the problem by checking each wire from connection to amp and looking for breaks or loose wires.

It sucks b@lls though because I had to wire up my Oznium Inferno kit tonight for HIN Boston on Saturday, but I prefer to figure this out before I put another electrical thing in my car
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 06:52 PM
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that would be the wisest plan haha. though you may be a little more busy then what you're use to, it would ensure that nothing will go wrong.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 07:09 PM
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So you had a 4awg wire go to a dist block and from the dist block you have one 8awg go to the amp and one go to the ground? The only reason to run a dist block is for another amp, NOT to ground... bad

Also, some amps have an easy/soft turn on. If it doesnt, that can cause it to pop on startup/off
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 07:21 PM
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Originally Posted by stangdude22
So you had a 4awg wire go to a dist block and from the dist block you have one 8awg go to the amp and one go to the ground? The only reason to run a dist block is for another amp, NOT to ground... bad

Also, some amps have an easy/soft turn on. If it doesnt, that can cause it to pop on startup/off
nah bro, I had the distro in there because I had multiple amps before. Im scaling it down now, and was installing only my mono amp and sub because Im pressed for time and HIN Boston is Sat.

As of now, the amp has 4awg power (no distro, straight from battery) and 4awg ground. I get a pop when I shut the car off. Either way, it would prob be smart to remove all the extra wiring since its old and I dont use it.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 07:27 PM
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well he does have a point, some amps actualy have a harsh shutdown, especialy high power ones. happens alot in the live audio world, i wouldn't doubt it happening in the automotive world either... it's generaly a good idea to shutdown all amps first, then sinal processing units because the signal processers send a small discharge when shuting dow to the amps which cause a loud pop. but in this case, this isn't your problem. this is only happening on your mid/high on the right side so it would have to do with the wiring or your HU unless you are powering your mid/high with a seperate amp, then it's the HU or that extra amp.
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 07:28 PM
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Oh, I see. I thought you had one line on the dist block go to the amp , and you grounded the other end. lol

As far as the pop when you turn it off, I had thet prob on my Hyphonics amp I had im my s10, I just got used to it. I have a ZX550.3 in my box and don't have that prob. But I didnt do the install in my box. Sorry
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 07:34 PM
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Is the pop in the sub on that amp, or one of the fronts on a different/no amp?
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 07:37 PM
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front speaker, no amp.

no pop in anything besides that speak
Old Apr 26, 2007 | 07:59 PM
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the front right? is the dash speaker popping too or just the one in the door? wondering if theres a problem with the crossover between the two or something?

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