dead battery=dead sound system?...help needed
 

I have this problem with my sound system...I had the car sitting for about 2 weeks and I guess the batter died. So the other day I jump started the car using one of those motomaster eliminator power box to start the car.

The car started fine and I let it run for a bit and the batter is ok now, but when I played a cd there was no bass, so i checked my trunk and everything looks fine, but nothing turns on, like the amp light or the cap or anything, basically no response. I played around the settings and the subwoofer is on, the settings hasn't been touched, so I'm kinda lost.

But once in in a while the cap lights up and makes a noise usually when you first start your car/play music and then it just kinda shuts off, but no response from the amp or sub.

I don't know much about audio systems so I need help with this, I'm not sure if the dead battery caused this problem or what...any help will be appreciated!

check your amp fuse,remote wire.
use a tester and see if your getting power to the other end of the power wire under your hood where the fuse is for your system.

change the fuse under the hood, even if it looks fine. is a cylinder style fuse a.k.a AGU fuse? i've had one pop on me but when i pulled it out of the holder it looked fine. also check the fuse holder and bettery terminal.

yo check your ground too, i had a problem like that, it wasn't the fuse, it was actually the ground came loose and when my car jumped it touched n my system came on for a lil bit but than turned off, so i its not the fuse under the hood and not the ground, than check ur fuses for the car and you relay. thats as much help i can give u, other than that i can give u a electrical mans number.

^^^ i checked and it looks like it's still grounded...

i don't know if mine is cylinder style or not, but where do i exactly check to see if the fuse is still working or not...

again i don't know exactly where the fuse is, i know where my wires run to the batter so i'm guessing the fuse is in the blue box in the 3rd picture blew...


the see where the fuse is here in this pic (http://triumph.daveola.com/Album/Stereo/dsc02019.jpg) but don't know for sure where mine is, or at least the amplifire one...

here are some pics that i took which might make it easier for you guys to show me exactly where to look.


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^ open that.. and change the fuse.. see if that works.. it doesnt look like a cylinder fuse to me... but yea.. change the fuse in there.. and see what happens.

^^+1 check that fuse as well as the fuses that are on the outside of the amp. also remote wire could be the problem too.

ya thanks, planning to check all these tomorrow, hope it's the fuse

i can't tell what kinda fuse is in the fuse holder you'll have to open it up.

Oh yea... didnt think about the fuses on the amp... yea.. just chekk those and update us.

the fuse on the amp looks fine, and i tried to open the box with the fuse that was under the hood but couldn't. I opened the 4 screws but the top was sealed shut, couldn't get it apart from the blue part. So i just left it like that for now.

as for the ground cables, the one in the trunk is attached fine, but i don't know exactly where the ground cable is under the hood. i can see the cable coming from behind the battery and going around like it shows in the pic and it just wraps around goes under some wires and then it's attached to the battery terminal so i don't know where it is grounded under the hood :confused:

take an exacto knife.. and just run it around the edge a bit... between the base and the clear cover to see if its sealed or something... then just take a small flat tip screw driver and try to pop it off... I cant seem to think of anything else that might be your problem... but I'll keep checking.

all right thanks for all the help!

I can't see any of the pictures for whatever reason. But instead of unscrewing the housing of the Fuse, the end of it should Twist off...

I had a problem before when istarted the car, i would hear a "thump" sound coming from my subs but nothing else after that, turned out that the screw used to ground needed a bit sanding. I just used a new screw. Check if you have continual power going to the cap from the battery.

I think it is the ground and not the fuse if he's getting some sort of response once in a while..am i right folks?

you are right slvr_dc2, im getting power once in a while to the capacitor but not the sub. The wiring is done using 8 gauge, but there is a really thin wire that looks like it used to be the remote wire which is replace by a high voltage wire now.

So when i take the thin wire and make contact to the amp the amplifier light/logo part turns on, but nothing changes to the music playing, no response to the sub.

I don't know if that was confusing but here is a pic that shows the thin wire.

By the way my amp is grounded with the cap together if that makes a difference.

here is a link hopefully you can see the pic slvr_dc2.

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b2...t=wirethin.jpg

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Yea for whatever reason, i am not able to see the pics, even at the link. Maybe my work won't allow it. I'll check it out tonight when i get home tho. Does your Amp turn on at all? From what you are saying, if you put the power directly to the amp, it does turn on.
Is the thin wire the remote? ( i believe all remotes are blue, but i could be wrong) If thats the case, you have to have the remote connected to the amp. (otherwise you're amp will be on all the time, you don't want that)..The best thing to do is see where the power gets cut off. Your amp seems to be working fine when you connect the power, and your cap sounds like its getting power.
I honestly think its your ground. Unscrew your ground, and make a new fresh ground hole..
Another thing you can try is check behind the deck, make sure the remote is connected properly. Its hard to pin point from this discussion of what you have tried and what you havent.
Which wire do you connect to the amp for it to work? (is this when you discconnect the cap altogether?)

i believe the thin wire used to be the remote wire, which is now replaced with a better cable. That thin wire was loose and not connected when i bought the car and everything worked fine like that.

Which means the amp is connected fine, as far as the ground cables and where it is ground, i can see where it is grounded in the trunk, but im not sure where it's grounded under the hood.

do you have to have it grounded under the hood and somewhere else? or can you just ground the whole thing in one place?

I see the pics now. I haven't seen that type of fuse, like others say, it might be closer to the amp.

You don't need ground under the hood, just power wire.
The big blue wire going into the amp isn't a replacement, it is the NEG going into your amp (power in).
The white one is POS going out of amp. The small wire is still your remote. Put the small blue wire in the far right slot (beside the big blue one).

Let me know if the amp turns on or not. If it does, turn your deck on and off, the amp should turn on when your deck turns on. Let me know if this is happenning!

im gonna try what you said about the small blue wire, the only thing is i know everything worked before with that wire being lose, so i'm a little confused.

anyways you wanted me to put the small blue wire in position #1 in the pics or #2? im guessing #1. Thats where when i put it, the amp light turns on.

I just wanna double check with you before I go ahead and do it.

Thanks for all the help so far...


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Here is a larger pic of the whole thing to give you a better idea in case something isn't wired correctly.

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Don't start touching wires together. you're asking for trouble when you do that. just take it to a stereo shop and have them diagnose it. you can cause some serious damage to the stereo, car and yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

^ werd... and clean up your wires... so its easier to recognize what runs where

you have it backwards. if you look at the terminal block on the amp, the silver wire is coming out of the one labelled "-" while the blue is coming out of the "B+". remember the pic of fuseholder under the hood? there was a silver wire going to the fuseholder from the battery and then a blue wire was used on the other side of the fuseholder to run to the back of the car.

the remote wire is a 12v trigger that sends a low current signal to turn the deck on when the amp turns on. has the fuse under the hood or amp been checked yet? does the amp turn on? if you suspect there's something wrong with the remote turn on lead, you can take a small wire use it as a jumper wire between the positive/12v+/B+ of the amp and the remote turn on terminal.

don't connect the trigger lead to the ones you have labelled "2" in your picture. those are the outputs of the amp going to your subwoofers/speakers.

if you find any of this confusing, cut your losses and take it to a shop, otherwise sparks are going to fly or you'll end up breaking something, if you haven't done so already.

^^You're right...I was looking at what was connected to the battery!

Are you sure that the small wire was not connected when you got the car? Leave all wires as is, just put the small wire on in the hole labelled REMOTE. (the small wire connects all the way to your deck right?)

They are right, don't start touching wires if you don't feel confident, cause youd ont want to mess anything up. I'd leave the Blue and White wires as they seem to be fine. I can't see the pics again since im at work so i don't know what you labelled..but I know most amps are labelled remote!

update: yesterday i checked the ground cable, amp fuse and they both looked fine. I didn't open the fuse box under the hood since i had power going to the amp and cap plus it didn't really come off when it was unscrewed.

i looked at the wires going to the amp and the silver and the blue ones are the -/+ and the 3rd slot is the remote slot. I put the thin wire there, turned the deck on and the amp and cap both turned on but no bass.

So what i did was take out my sub, and i had another one and switched them and this the new sub worked. But a few seconds after my car battery died on me. So it looks like my previous sub blew or something happened to it when i jumped started the car.

The car is garaged and i don't drive it in the winter so, when the times comes i will probably get a new battery or recharge it. I think the battery would be fine if the car was being used daily but it was sitting there for a few weeks.

But with a new/charged battery if things don't worked out i will take it to a stereo shop like most of you suggested.

thanks for all the help again, really appreciated!

and if u checked alll da fuse wiring an stuff like dat an still nothin .... check yur remote wire from yur deck !1!!

Looks like everythings fine then. Your amp and cap turned on, so theres no problem there. It was getting the power to the subs. You probably did blow the subs, and like you said, the new sub worked. When charging the battery make sure you disconnect your stereo..Blowing the subs is one thing, you do not want to blow the amp...

Thats probably why you thought that the thin wire was always loose, it had to have come lose somehow.

Anyways, you'll probably need a new battery (otherwise you're going to abuse your alternator alot) as this battery might not be able to hold a charge! Glad eveythings worked out...