stereo cut out

[jordano]

I had this problem a while and never really sorted it properly, my stereo cuts out, as in turns itself off, when i turn it up loud and then turns itself back on. Today i rewired the permanent live straight to the battery and did the same thing with the ground but this made no difference. Iam running 4 speakers off the head unit and a sub, through an amp, off the sub output. It still cuts out with the amp disconnect so this isnt the problem. I think it is something to do with bass as it will turn up higher when i turn the bass on the stereo down. Im now thinkin it maybe a fault with the stereo. Please help coz im going crazy with it turning off all the bloody time and im at a loss as what to do

[sheldo]

sounds like a faulty stereo to me!

[jordano]

this is what im thinking too mate,i'll get it into the shop tommorrow and get it bench tested

[amit325i]

You haven't mentioned the power of your headunit, and also what type of speakers your running inside the car.

It sounds to me that you may have clipping going on, this happens where speakers of lower sensitivity are driven by an underpower amp which results in more power out than in, hence headunit switches off. try it with the speakers disconnected (leave the sub) and see what happens.
This problem is not going to be caused by the sub as it has an amp of its own.

[jordano]

im running nfinitys up front which i think are around 150w and alpines in the back which i think are about 12w, the head unit is an alpine cda 7893 and its v-drive 60wx4. Been into stereo shop this morning and he said to disconnect a speaker at a time and see if one of them is on its way out
i'll keep you posted

[jordano]

just thought i'd let u know that i can now have my stereo as loud as i like without it cutting out. I didnt actually find and solve the problem but just bypassed it by running a 5-channel amp off my front, rear and sub pre-outs and using it too power all my speakers and sub
thanks for the help guys
j

[cheesebox]

Funnily enough I've been having the same problem. Have tried two stereos - one is a known good one which worked fine in my other e30 - and had the exact same problem with both stereos. I think it may be something to do with the power wiring in this car - there's red green and yellow power cables which I don't think are standard (maybe belonged to a rasta at some point?) maybe a bad earth, or something shorting to earth? Or maybe just incorrectly re-wired at some point. It resets when you turn it up loud enough to hear it on the motorway - ie not really that loud.

Other anomalies: stereo switches off when indicating left, and when side or headlights are switched on. With one stereo it worked fine if the stereo was part pulled out and angled just right, (maybe fixing the earth problem?). The other weird thing is when I inserted a stereo removal tool in the right side, the left indicator light comes on. Can't see any signs of damaged/exposed wiring behinf the stereo to cause this... I don't think I'll ever solve this one without a workaround such as yours jordano - not sure I'm up for such an upgrade just yet!

[JAFF]

if you have upgraded to cable your running to the amp try putin a power cap in use this will let the amp dram the power it needs to power the speackers and stop it kicking out mite b because yor speakers r drawing to much current im running four gauge cable on my system which runs 2x 12" vibes ,door speakers and to amps and mine dosent turn off any more ,also check your alternator and see how many volts its puting out hope that helps