QuestionI hope I'm asking the right person... :) sorry if not... anyhow, my husband and i both just put new subs, amps, and head units in our cars. Mine is a 2008 kia spectra with a panasonic head unit, 2 10" MTX audio subs and a virtual reality sound labs 200 watt amp and his is a 1999 Chevy Blazer with sony xplod head unit, 2 10" sony xplod subs and then a 600 watt sony xplod amp too...the problem we are having with both is that the power to the head unit turns on but there is no audio...on either the radio or the cd player. I have all my wiring right as far as i can tell on both vehicles and i am not sure about whether the blazer has a factory amp and even if it does i don't know how to go about bypassing/removing it. I don't think the kia has one. I am just really stuck... i have tried everything I can think of to fix them, and nothing has worked... hopefully u can help me out... Thanks!! :)
AnswerWell, since I have no idea what your installations look like and whether you have used the proper wiring harnesses and check the continuity from the amp to the speakers let me give you some generic ways of proving out your system.
ONE: Check to make sure that power is getting to the head units and amplifiers. The head unit is obvious if all the lights come on and the functions appear to operative. For an amps you really need a vom (volt ohm meter) to measure at the terminals of the amplifiers that they have power. You can purchase a good vom for car work at home depot or walmart for under $10. The power amp should have two 12v lines. One which stays on all the time and the other is the remote turn-on which gets 12v when the head unit is turned on.
TWO: Check the grounds on the power amps carefully to make sure they are good, solid metal to metal grounds.
THREE: Check the power amps by feeding a portable cd player or mp3 or ipod directly into the input of the amp with a known good speaker connected directly to the outputs of the amp. Careful with the volume control; start out at zero and bring it up gradually. You can check one channel at a time. Then once you know the amp is working, connect the subs to make sure you are getting signal to the subs.
FOUR: Then, remove the portable player and connect the amp to the outputs comeing from the head unit. You should be in business.
FIVE: With the VOM set for resistance readings you can check the wiring from the output of the amp or head unit to the speakers. One at a time you can tell if you are getting a speaker reading because the resistance will be just a little less than the rated impedance of the speaker unit. If you are using 4 ohm speakers you should see about 3 to 3.8 ohm area when removing the wire from the back of the amplifier or head unit and connecting the ohmmeter to the speaker leads.
Maybe this will get you started on checking out the whole system on both cars. If the instructions above are too "advanced" for you, let mek now and I can give you more detailed instructions.
The idea is to logically and methodically check each component and section of the system one by one until you are certain what is going on with each interconnection.
My experience with private installations is that the consumer does not realize the wiring of the car and the new head unit or power amp requires a proper connection of the wires and it usually means a conversion or harness adapter should be installed.
Hope this helps. Please come back if you get stumped.
C
