E30 Zone

Today my new amplifier arrived, it is only a little 2channel thing for my front components.

I have run a the Live from the battery with an inline fuse

remote and phono's from the head unit

I have earthed the amp

Plugged it all in and the amp will not power on, none of the fuses are blown and I get sparks when touching the earth with something metal so I assume there is power there.

Anything I have missed out?

Thanks

What have you 'earthed' it to?

Better to test connections with a test lamp or a bulb with wires attached.

The earth wire should be mounted to the bodywork via a screw and make sure to sandback the paint to bare metal on the contact point.

Is the remote power lead connected to the correct wire from the headunit? Sometimes there could be a difference between the remote aerial lead and the remote amp lead.

its earthed to the back of the rear seat, it is bare metal. the remote wire is connected to 'amp turn on' on the back of the headunit

Check for +12V from the amp remote wire coming from the headunit.
If there's no power in the remote line then it won't come on.
Also check power and earth.

If the amp is definately getting power and earth,the fuse(s) are OK and 12v from the remote line and it's still not switching on,the amp is fooked

Will try that, thanks BadDave

Check the fuse in the amp too (if it has one).

Hi guys, Ive changed both fuses, the inline fuse from the battery and the amplifier fuse, still no luck. Also made a better earth connection but still nothing. Ive renewed the whole length of the remote wire from the head unit and still nothing! I can't check the voltage as I do not own an multimeter!

Only thing I can think of is a dead amp?

So you've got the headunit on?
The blue/white wire connected to the amp?
Which headunit?


You could run another remote turn on lead, with a small fuse - 0.5 amp (which you're unlikely to have to be fair), direct to the battery just to rule out the switching on from the headunit.

Testing the remote switching wire with a test light might not be good as far as I can understand (in my limited knowledge of this) as too much current flow in that circuit might damage it.

good idea, but one way I have tried to test the amp is looping the remote on the amp straight to the live using a small length of wire so the amp would be powered on all the time (just to test) but this didn't even power the amp up so I'm ruling out the remote wire as it would of powered the amp up by bridging it across to the live.

The only thing I can think of is the earth, is the back of the rear seat suitable for an earthing point?

Or the amp is dead.

As I mentioned, too much currently flow in the remote switch on the amp may cook it. I'm no expert so don't take what I say as gospel but unless you you had a 0.5 amp fuse in-line it may have blown the remote circuit. Bridging it to a 30amp live feed to the amp might not have done it any good.

Or the amp is dead anyway

ohhh shite

i've bridged the remote from the live on an amp loadsa times its never damaged my amp

It's good to know it doesn't definitely kill all amps. I'd read on a headunit tech site somewhere that it was easy to blow but can't find the link at the moment.

oh well are you sure the back of the seat is a good earth? or shall i try the floor pan

buy a multi-meter on ebay, theyre really cheap!

toby wrote:As I mentioned, too much currently flow in the remote switch on the amp may cook it. I'm no expert so don't take what I say as gospel but unless you you had a 0.5 amp fuse in-line it may have blown the remote circuit. Bridging it to a 30amp live feed to the amp might not have done it any good.

Or the amp is dead anyway

The amp remote +12v side of things would only draw the amps it needs, you could connect it staright to the battery if you wanted.

Although like you said I woudl not use a test lamp to check for power in the wire itself from the HU as it may draw too much from the HU. Use a multimeter for that.

baught a new amp and works no problem, amp was dead! It works earthed off the rear seat and off a light bolt. Thanks for your help