How To Fix Car Amp Keeps Turning Off and On

If your car amplifier keeps turning on and off when you are listening to music, if you dont sort out the problem now, it can damage your car amp and other electricals inside your car. Your car amp might be turning off and on because of a loose connections or voltage drop. If your car amplifier only turns off and on during high volumes levels, chances are the voltage is going below 12 volts. So the car amp doesn't have the sufficient amount of power to operate, so it places itself into protection mode. If this is the case you must consider electrical upgrades such as adding a second-deep cycle battery, big 3 upgrade or a bigger alternator. Since most car's electrical systems are only designed for the basics such as providing power to the windows and heater, not for an extra high powered car audio system.

If the car amp is not shutting down at high volumes and does it randomly on and off, then its most likely a problem with the connection. This guide will help you diagnose connection problems.

1) Check the power and ground wires. These are the most important to providing constant power to your car amp. The power cable needs to be firmly connected on the positive terminal on the car amp and the ground needs to be placed on a clean part of metal on your car. Make sure you sand down the area with a file to remove any extra paint as this can cause connection problems.

2) If power and ground are fine, then check the remote wire. This is what controls the car amp to turn on and off inline with the command sent from the headunit. This way the car amp doesn't stay on all day and drain your car battery. Check the remote wire is connected firmly onto the blue remote wire on the back of the wiring harness on your car stereo. Also, check if its firmly inserted into the 'Remote wire' terminal on the car amp. Make sure it is not making contact with any other wires.

3) Make sure the speaker wire is not shorting out. What i mean by this is, if the speaker wire touches another wire on the car amp it can cause the car amp to turn off and on. This can be temporary and all happen when movements occur such as driving fast or going over bumps on the road. So make sure the speaker wires are nicely connected and taped off. 

4) The ohm impedance of the speakers could be too low. Amps are designed to handle a certain final load placed on the channels. For example, 2 ohm 4 ohm etc. The lower the ohm the car amp is going to provide more power to your speakers. Sometimes the final impedance of your speakers can be too low for the car amp to handle. So it will turn itself off and on. Check your wiring configuration of your speakers and check in the user manual what ohm your car amp supports.

5) Gain maybe turned up too high. Turning the gain all way up will not make your system play louder, all it will do is create distortion. This can cause your car amplifier to overheat because its trying to make power it can't produce. Try turning down the gain with a flat head screwdriver to see if your car amp becomes more stabilised.

Hope this guide helps you fix your car amp that keeps turning off and on. If its not a bad connection it is usually an electrical upgrade that is required. But in some cases the protection circuit on the car amp can be faulty. Try switching to a different car amp and see what happens after that.

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