2000 TL

Ok, so I've hooked up plenty of systems with no issues, and I can't figure out what is wrong with the simple setup in my car. Heres everything I have, and have done.

12" kicker cvr
kicker 100w x 2 amp
Pioneer h/u
monster cables including rca's

So I have plenty of power to the amp (14.2 KOER) tested at amp's power and ground terminals (.8v at remote wire) Green LED on, life is good.

Hook it all up, nothing from the sub. (yes i checked gain and bass levels both on amp and HU) No a/c voltage at rca plugs into amp. So I figure my rca outs on my HU are junk.

Wired it up to the rear speaker input (forget what its called, but if you dont have rca's you use this instead... for the sake of not typing this over and over, i will call this set of wires... jimmy.) Still nothing.

for the hell of it, I pull the wires off the back of the cvr and touch them to the factoy sub under the deck, get nothing.

again, no a/c voltage at my speaker wires after the amp. but i do have some at the jimmy wires before the amp (jimmy wires are tapped into LR door speaker only)

I figure its a bad amp, and swap it out for another one... same problem.

I even went as far as hooking up an external audio source with rca outputs into the amp, still nothing.

Im really stuck here. I mean, setting up an amp/ sub setup is pretty straight forward and working as a tech both for acura and a mom and pop shop the past 7 years, I know my way around electrical wiring.

Basically, Ive isolated out the HU (external rca input into amp) Amplifier (swapped with another) and sub (tried hooking up to factory woofer) and none of them net any results.

Any ideas on anything??

Im sure this post is confusing, if you need any clarification, let me know.

 

if you are hooking up a sub and amp, there should be no need to tap into any of the door speakers, maybe this is your problem

 

I only tapped into the rear door speakers to see if I had bad rca outputs on my head unit.

 

not sure if your head unit is the same, but on mine, it has a feature where you can turn on and off the sub out put and you can also turn on and off all of the rca outputs.
also, are you sure your remote wire is connected to the actual remote output wire from the headunit. some people make the mistake of connecting it to the power antenna output which will only turn the amp on when you have your headunit on the radio, not the cd player.

 

I checked all the setting on the radio, all are where they should be. Remote wire is hooked up fine, its a blue wire with the tag that says remote right on it. Amp powers up and shuts off with the head unit as its supposed to.

 

How are you testing the voltage on the rca? Positive on the middle pin and negative on the outer ring? You're playing music when you're testing it too right?

What are your settings on the amp?

 

sorry for the dumb question, but have you tried another set of rca wires

 

ive tested for ac voltage both ways on the rca's, nothing from either, and yes im playing music while testing.

I havent tried another set of rca's, but I dont think they are the problem because Im getting nothing for ac output at the sub wires even when I hooked up the amp through the line level inputs (previously refered to in my posts as jimmy connector) however I do have ac signal before the amp....

Im borrowing a friends amp and sub tomorrow and im going to swap them out to at least eliminate the chance i have 2 bad amps or subs. If it still doesnt work, it has to be the HU

 

the same way your testing the rca wires while theyre plugged in, unplug them and test the rca outputs directly on the back of the hu (without the rca wires plugged in)

 

my sub in the box is wired in series, wonder if it needs to be parallel....

as far as the whole rca output not being there, there is something else wrong because ive tried every configuration using both the rca's and the line level inputs, so it should have worked at some point when i had line level inputs hooked up.

 

maybe i missed this and you already looked at it, but the RCA's on your HU, usually are front/rear/sub. make sure theyre plugged into the right one that your HU is setup for, obviously the sub, not front/rear.

 

Re-checked them last night, they are in the SW out plugs. I even checked the manual

 

well, after testing the crap out of every component one at a time, I found the problem... Sub is completely blown. I thought I had eliminated this possibility by hooking up the two wires that connect to the back of the box to my stock decklid sub. Apparently, it doesnt work if you do that...

Either way, while messing around behind the HU, I managed to get my stock sub working again and it sounds pretty good. Ill probably replace it with a better quality 8" woofer and just sell off the 2 amps, sub enclosure and wiring kit I now have.