I just installed a brand new amp and sub system into my truck. I followed all the instruction in the user manuals. However my sub will not work. My amp turns on when I start the truck and when I turn my head unit off manually the amp also powers off. Unfortunately my sub will not move at all. Apparently some amps have protection modes that they go into; I’m just wondering if this might be the case.

The outer shell of my amp was resting against the back seat bolt (not the same as the ground). Would this completely wreck the amp or sub?

What are some steps I could do to trouble shoot this? (I have a volt meter but I’m not sure how it works completely, like what section to turn it to and where to put the prongs, and what reading I should be looking for.)

I hooked the sub up through the box then completely pulled it out and made new connection wires just to see maybe if the terminals were wrecked in the box but still nothing.

I have my turn on lead wired to the turn on lead on the back of the head unit (blue/white). And I have my head unit ground to the chassis behind it. I turned all the settings that I’m aware of on my head unit and plugged the RCA cables into the back of the head unit that says EXT SUB. My wires are 8 gauge (what was called for).

I haven’t checked the fuses on the amp, but if a fuse blows wouldn’t the whole amp die?

Everything is brand new out of the box hasn’t been shaken or anything. I looked at all the terminals on the amp, there are no signs of burning and no smells of burning plastic, I’m completely frustrated. I’m trying to stay away from the shops as much as I can because I’m short on cash, end of the month. No speaker wires touched each other and I made dam sure I didn’t cross wire anything. My Fuse block is 4inches from the postitive terminal and my ground is like maybe 8 inches long to a bolt under my seat, which i sandpaperd for like 15 mins.Is their anyways to check if it might be the subwoofer not working?

Amp: Alpine MRP-M500
Sub: Alpine SWE-1043
Head Unit: Alpine CDE-103
Wires: Schosche 8 Gauge Wire kit

 

my last alpine headunit not only had a subwoofer volume control, but in a whole other menu it had a subwoofer on/off option. it could be something as simple as that hopefully.

 

Maybe the gain **** on the amp is completely turned down, (not sure if it would mute the volume on the amp if it was turned all the way down). Is the deck muted?

Can you just try a speaker runnign directly off the deck power? Is there a Cap installed in the system? (Not charging the Cap correctly could send a surge through the system when attaching the Cap - could kill the RCA signals.

 

about the amp going into protection, there's usually a red light that comes on. If you know the amp powers up then you're probably seeing a green light.

Like the others said, there could be a setting on your deck that you missed. My old eclipse deck had one and so does my current Pioneer Premier. Also check the amp gains.

 

Appreciate all the tips. Started from scratch with the volt meter every step of the way. It seems the problem was at the battery. I purchased a Schosche terminal adaptor for it, which seemed to be the problem. It would keep pulling the positive wire off batttery and when i measured with the volt meter is read that I was only getting like .5. Took it off and directly wired the power cable to the terminal clamp and re-attached. Everything is working great and the subs working fine. Woof though I ****ed the amp up or something..and i got everyting from the states. Now its time for some moby dick and a nice fat one.

 

nice when it's something simple, the alpine 500m will look like it's on two even with a low voltage the middle blue led comes on low then when the voltage is correct it gets brighter ha ha ha.

 

+1 on the fatty