Hey,
I need some urgent help! I have the following setup in my car 6 1/2" speakers in the front, 6x9" speakers in the back, 12" sub in boot, 4 channel amp under passenger seat. The front speakers and sub are amped up, the rear speakers are running off the head deck.

This is the problem, when i turn the volume on anything above 8 the amp turns the red light on for overcurrent and everything stops working except the head deck is still playing... ?, someone suggested it wasnt earthing properly.. so i took the seat out... after some mucking around i finally got everything out of the way and i checked the earthing cable.. it appeared fine to me... i have no idea why it isnt working.
It has also been suggested that it is the head unit, as even the rear speakers stop working.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I have only had this system since early december... :cry:

What brand of amp is it?

Like your mate, my best bet would be the earth. When people earth amps and drill through metal to attach a cable, did you sand back the paint / tar so you get a good connection. Often people bolt earth cables to painted metal, and paint won't conduct.... just an idea.

Other than that its hard to say why it would be doing that, is the remote cable to the amp wired up properly?

It is an Xplod 800w 4-ch amp. I tried sanding back the paint where i am earthing it, and it had no effect... i am starting to think the amp is rooted. With the remote cable why would it be causing an overload, if it is the remote cable?

Check ground wiring for the headunit itself... If you've got an old head unit, connect that up and see if the same problem occurs.. if that doesn't help, assume that your amp and headunit earth are fine, check the speakers themselves, perhaps they're shorting out somewhere or have become loose? if still nothing, check the RCA's on the amp haven't shorted anywhere... Disconnect the amp from the head unit and see if the rears still work..

Since everything basically shuts off, I'd say it'd most likely be your head unit, but it doesn't really explain why the rear speakers aren't working... Is the entire system totally un-usable, or is the problem intermittent? if it's all the time, check the speakers by other means to see if any of them blew at any stage..

Hope it helps

I turned the gain down on my sub, and i can listen to some music now. But i cant have the voluem very loud. I am sure all speakers are fine, i sussed out the wiring. The problem always happens it i have my system loud, so it is pretty persistant. My system has been fine since i had it installed. It has been not working since saturday... I am taking it back to where i got it installed tomorrow, they should fix it, they gave the installation a lifetime warranty plus the components are still under warranty.

Thats lucky, touch wood nothing goes wrong with mine as im not going through at nightmare again! bugger it! it can stay broken!

Hmm.. are you using the correct gauge wire for your system? Some headunits require a dedicated power supply since the ~12ga factory wire is insufficient... If the headunit isn't getting enough juice a variety of things could happen (mostly they just refuse to turn on or they shut off under high loads)... I'm guessing it's a current draw problem since things start going nuts when you crank it up...

It turned out my sub was shot to pieces.. i had left the amp settings exactly the way they were installed on. They checked the sub and it is running 1 ohm .. I guess that is why people dish out a fair bit on decent subs, doesnt matter i guess.. i will send away for warranty.. if i get a replacement i am selling it. I am getting two pioneers installed soon... on that topic does anyone live in Sydney and do cheap sub enclosures?

Why not build your own? Its not hard if your familiar with basic wood work. this gives you the opporunity to build an enclosure that is best suited to your subs and your boot.

Yeah man build your own one :) that's the fun part about car audio...you can say "I did that myself"

I built my own box...I can post pics if you want