Okay, newbie here. Followed the tutorial on installing an amp. Got the Amp installation kit w/8 or 9 gauge wire for the power and ground. Drilled thru the frame, and fished the power cable up to my +12 volt battery. grinded off the paint and grounded about 12-16inches from the amp. got the remote cable connected to the stereo. So all is said and done, I've got my head unit running to 4 speakers front & back left & right, and the rca sub output from my head unit running into the amp. (This is a new 450 watt jensen from target. The power cable measures 12 volts, the rem cable measures 12 volts, I pop them into the amp and the blue jensen light on the top comes on, the standby light comes on for about 5 seconds then shuts off. And the power cable now drops and reads 6 volts. Obviously not enough power to run it, but I'm not sure why. this is the 2nd jensen unit I've tried, and also tried a working kicker that I pulled from my truck. If I pull the cables off the amp, they all read 12 again. The battery reads 12, cold, and with the amp pluged in and with the van running. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just wanna here some thump, when I listen to will smith...J/K
yeah. try disconnecting everything but the power and remote wires and see if this still occurs. check your power and ground wiring. you should use a through bolt and a nut to attatch the gound ring terminal and not a sheet metal screw.
okay, just checked it without the sub hooked up. the rem still reads 12 volts, but the power drops way down. My ground is super tight and my all my cables read 12 when they're not hooked up to the amp. Could it be a battery or alternator thing? The amp I have hooked up now, was hooked up in my other truck, powering the same sub, that I'm trying to power now.
if your car starts then i doubt that it is a battery thing. your telling me that the voltage on the amp is dropping from 12v to 6v. thats alot of current for that jensen amp to take. my kicker 2500 watt amp wont pull the battery voltage below 12.5. turn the amp on and measure the voltage at the amp and at the car battery. i'll bet that the car battery is still 12v. i would guess that your power wire is loose somewhere. a good way to test it is to pull on the wire near a connection. if the wire pulls out of the terminal then it was a loose connection. be sure to check all connections, where the power wire is connected to the battery, fuse holder, distrobution blocks, and the amp. let me know what you find.
if you turn the amp on and you get 6 volts at the amp AND on the battery then you probably need to take that amp back.
okay, so there is no power switch on the amp. there is a standby led and a power led. like I said before, the power and rem cables both show 12 v prior to plugging them into the amp. after really solid connections, as soon as I plug the rem cable in, the blue jensen light comes on, and the standby comes on for a few seconds then goes off. On my kicker amp, there is also no power switch, but the power led comes on like half way. but both read around 4-6 v on the power after being plugged in. the rem still reads 12v, and the battery still reads 12 v. this is frustrating...
this is a classic example of bad wiring. if you turn your amp on and it reads 6v and you battery still reads 12v then the problem is with the wiring. if you checked all of your positive power connections and they are solid then try another grounding point. if you can also remove the amp and wire it directly to the battery with some short speaker wire and see if the amp comes on. if it does then you have either a bad ground or power wire. be sure to check the connections on the battery and fuse. did you try the pull test?