Car Stereos: Clarion internal amp error code, speaker terminals, speaker wires

Question
Hi, please help this is driving me a bit crazy. I hooked up my clarion DXZ385USB and as I was turning up the base the "amp grnd" message appeared in the display and the sound shut down and I havent been able to resolve the problem. I tried the reset button, unplugging the speakers over again, and ran a new ground and STILL nothing. I cant seem to get the message to dissapear and I get no sound from any speakers.
thanks so much :)

Answer
Hi Donna,

This error will happen in one of two scenarios.

If there's too little resistance across the speaker terminals causing the amp to think that the speaker wires are 'grounded'.  To eliminate this as a possibility, just disconnect all speakers from the amplifier entirely.  If it continues, then it's issue #2.  If it doesn't, then you might have fried speakers or the impedance being provided by them is lower than the amplifier can handle.

Issue #2 would be the ground to the amplifier is either not adequate or grounded correctly.

The ground wire should be shorter than 18", at least as heavy a gauge as the power wire going into the amplifier, and it should be shorted to a part of the car's chassis (preferably unwelded), and that part of the chassis should be sanded to bare metal.  If it's finding too much resistance to ground, it will shut itself down to prevent damage to itself.

If rectifying these issues doesn't make the amp stop doing this, you could also have a fried amp.

Justin