I finally installed a subwoofer in my car and was very happy with it untill I turned the volume up.
If I raise the volume past 13(out of 30) while the sub is on, the head unit totally cuts out like it has lost all power for 1-2 seconds and keeps doing so unless I turn the 240 watt amp off or the volume down. I was thinking it was my battery, but I have used a pretty new battery and the same thing still happens-I wouldn't think a draw of ~200 watts would be enough to suckdown a cars battery when the car is running.
I doubt its a grounding issue, as the ground wire is attatched to a bolt that rubns into the cars metal body.

I have read a few others having the same problem wiht a sony and kenwood decks, but with no replys to others questions
Any thoughts on why it would just lose power like that and work fine when the sub is off?
The specs are
Pioneer DEH-2300 head unit
MTX Thunder sub
240 watt amp.

Thank you for any help you can offer, as this is driving me nucking futz

Well... I've had this problem too, but with an Alpine head unit. From my experience and from what people have told me, you could always try running the power wire behind the deck, straight to the battery. I never tried that, I ended up selling the car before I could test that in the car that the deck was in. I would try that first, if it doesn't help, call Big Apple Music in New Hartford, NY... that's where I used to work, they will be able to help you out. 315-732-4162.

I dunno much but i have heard that you can get a capacitor for your sound system which will keep charge.
So when the power is required, it will be there for the sub.
It may be that the sub is drawing too much current for the battery to supply at one time.

A Cap would definitely help too, but it doesn't seem like that big of a system anyway. One good way to decide if you need a cap, is if when the bass hits, and your lights dim. If it does that, then a Cap would prevent that and will prolong the life of your alternator.

Thats a good suggestion with hooking the stereo directly to the battery- and if my volume could be raised high enough to make the bass hit hard I am sure the bass wouldnt dim because when I had a different deck with a 800 watt Rockford fosgate amp and dual 10" Rockford punch subs I didnt have that problem, before it was stolen. If I do decide I need a cap I will just use a sealed motorcycle battery with a isolator- would work better then a cap would, but I don't want to spend any money on this...So far all I have into the sub/amp is under $12. $8 for heatshrink and $3 and some change for fabric for the box I made from an old crate amp [img
I set up quick disconnects to the amp/car so that it takes me 2 second to plug/unplug the amp so it dosen't get left in the car 24/7 to be stolen like the RF setup i had.]

If anyone has other ideas don't be afraid to tell me

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I used to sell MTX woofers... they aren't bad (not quite as hard-hitting as RFs or Kickers, but mucho cheaper). You should be able to push it hard enough to blow the damn thing if you want to. I had enough of 'em come back in when a kid decided to push an 8" like a 15" sub...

I'd suggest a beefier amp... If you wanna check for electrical problems, an old trick my old man showed me is do this:

1. Turn on the car's headlights.

2. Turn on the car, and crank up the stereo... see if your headlights dim. If they dim just a little, I wouldn't worry about it... if they go to almost off, you've got a power consumption issue.

3. Check the deck's settings. Sometimes they have all kinds of crap you can configure.

4. Make sure you've cabled it right.

Good luck with it!

Sounds to me like you have some sort of grounding or shorting issue...maybe something is arcing? Bare speaker wires close to each other on the amp terminals or something?

Is it possible the deck is being overloaded? Try turning the sub control down on the deck, and turning the gain up on the amp.

You should have the same overall volume, but with less output from the head unit.

IT IS DEFINATLEY YOUR DECK THAT IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM. What is happening is that your deck has overload protection (which most decks have, and most uptodate stereosystems have) and cuts the power until returned to a stable volume. Be thankful you have it, otherwise you would have either the following:

1. Toasted Amp
2. Fried Subwoofer
3. Going through fuses every 5 seconds

My 18 year old Pioneer audio system at home doesn't have overload protection, I've toasted my share of speakers and fuses throughout its lifetime. My friend has a 180watt JVC deck in his car and when he cranked it to 40 out of 50 with his 300watt sony amp, the fuses all popped. So be thankful you have it. What I suggest is that you get an amp with a seperate volume control on it, and turn your deck wayyyyyyy down, and the volume on the amp wayyyyyyy up. Thats how I counteract it in my car with my crappy tapedeck , running a 12" Alpine on a Lightning Audio amp.

Hey Ben...

What kind of amp do you have, (pls include model number too) and how have you wired the subwoofer? It is running stereo off of one channel or bridged? Also, is the subwoofer dual-voicecoil? Do you have the model number of the sub?

SOrta sounds like what my old JBL amp did, if ya turned it up, it would overheat, and shut off, then turn back on. I also had a power LED on it that would flash when overheating. CHeck yer amp out and see if the power LED on it changes color, or goes off etc.

The problem was found and fixed.
I was going to wire the HU to the battery per kornmarts suggestion, and had just clipped the existing power wire when I had to go somewhere unexpectedly, so i just twisted the already exisitng power wirs back together so I could have some tunes while driving, and low and behold it worked fine. Turns out the problem was a faulty butt connector all along. Now thanks to your help my car is bumpin much harder then I ever expected- Thank you fellow pimps.

What kind of music u pump?

Did he really say 'faulty butt connector" ?

I'm tellin DuckWarrior about your filthy mouth Mister!

-MF

Was wondering who would be the first to say something. I tell ya some people...

As for tunes if I want to rattle the car I like to use anything by Bass Mekanik such as the woofer excursion test, but if Im crusin I will play almost anything such as Meshuggah, Sevendust, Black Sabbath, Dry kill logic, always some Lollipop Lust kill, some Iced earth, Rolling stones and Aerosmith...the List goes on

Hey... don't forget about MOUSE TITS!!

Quote: Originally posted by Ben ...but if Im crusin I will play almost anything such as Meshuggah...

is this the Meshuggah from Iowa that you are referring to?
I don't keep up with too much modern music as much as I used to but I know a REALLY good DJ in Iowa that goes by that name.

Meshuggah is a norwegian death metal band that Is very aggressive and intense- A little over the top for my taste but good to help wake me up or if I am just in a chaotic mood. I just threw that name out as an example, as I am into so many differnt music types, from Pink Floyd to heavy metal to really anything that isnt rap or country. Speaking of which I love your sig godfoot-Pink Floyd owns.

Why thank you, and yes.... yes they do!
You should thank Hawklen for the sig though since he made it.
I am considering making a new one myself that would be a small animation kinda like the one Kage has made in AntiM's contest thread.

Quote: Originally posted by Ben The problem was found and fixed. I was going to wire the HU to the battery per kornmarts suggestion, and had just clipped the existing power wire when I had to go somewhere unexpectedly, so i just twisted the already exisitng power wirs back together so I could have some tunes while driving, and low and behold it worked fine. Turns out the problem was a faulty butt connector all along. Now thanks to your help my car is bumpin much harder then I ever expected- Thank you fellow pimps.

Glad I could help man! I had the same problem with an Alpine deck I had in my Eagle Talon... they even suggested in the instructions for the deck to wire it directly to the battery... so I did.. and it stopped! Some decks just have an amazing amount of draw.