I have a strange problem after installing an Alpine head unit and amp. It works fine with the ignition in accessory position. But, when I have the engine running, the sound cuts out intermittently. 10 seconds of sound, 5 seconds of silence, more sound, more silence.

Power is still present at the amp and the head unit during the silent periods. The disc keeps spinning or at least the time counter still advances.

All the leads were soldered. I'm using the pre-outs and I have all leads connected except for the illumination lead.

Any ideas?

 

Additional info:

I put a DMM on the amp leads and I am getting 14v during the playback but when the sound cuts out, I am at 18v. Would the amp cut out with too high voltage?

Bad alternator?

 

^ that sounds wack... and yea, some amps have overvoltage protection....


Take it to a shop and have the alt looked at...

 

check the battery voltage with the audio system off (I REALLY would not want to run the system with certain amps with a voltage over 16V (US Amps comes to mind). This could also run havoc with your vehicles computers

 

yes, yes, yes... do a load test on the alternator!!! something is wrong with your cars electrical system!

 

Yes, I traced it to a bad voltage regulator in the alternator. I pulled the alt. and had it rebuilt. That should do the trick. Thanks for the advice.