Car Stereos: stereo shuts off, 4 ohms, capasitor

Question
QUESTION: hi i have a kenwood head unit and when i turn it up to 24(of 35 volume levels) the stereo restarts. when i fade it all the way to the back it wont do it as the same for the front. the speakers are aftermarket kaption clx 692 6x9s 300w and the fronts are also kaption 150w.....what would make this happen??? also when the revs are lower it does it more???

ANSWER: Matt, The only thing that I can think of that would cause this, is that the speakers are less than 4 ohms each.  If they fall below the stability level of the headunit, it would cause the headunit to get hot and shutdown at higher volumes.  I would double check the ohm rating of those speakers and what your head unit is stable at.  Beyond that, it would be some kind of short, but that is highly unlikely.  Hope this helps, Scott

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QUESTION: the speakers are 4 ohms.....my thought is, is it possible the stereo is not getting enough power to power all 4 speakers.....i have a 300w 10 in sub and a 250w amp, capasitor aswell. it started a month or 2 after it was installed and one of my buddys mentioned that the power wire had 4 cuts in it. i am stumped lol i have taken it back to the place i had it installed aswell as a friend of mines audio shop numourous times and they cannot figure it out.

Answer
Yeah, that may be an option.  It is definitely a short somewhere.  Possibly a weak or broken power wire may be the weak link.  I would be sure your wires are new and intact.  If you had a load meter (a voltmeter that could put a load on the power wire), you could check if the power was not available.  My thought is that there is a weakened speaker wire in the drivers side door jam.  It is just wore enough, that too much power actually arcs through the insulation and shorts to the metal in the door jam.  This can be checked by isolating the door speaker wires, so you can see they are nowhere near metal or each other.  Then, turn it up and see if the head unit shuts off.  Somewhere, there is a bad wire, you just need to find it.  Good Luck, Scott