Got a new Stock HU, now my suns wont bump

[SANDSURFER'98]

Got a new Stock HU, now my subs wont bump

First of all I am very uneducated about electrical stuff, so my wording might be incorrect for certain things. I will try my best to explain my problem in an understanding way. thanks for the help.

So heres the situation,
I was having a problem with my stock cd/cassette player( turned on/off when it wanted to, chose its owne volume) get the idea, it was going down hill fast. So I droped the truck off at carmax to have them put a new HU in. Befor I took it to carmax I disconected the fuse that is inbetween the battery and the amp, and disconected the remote wire from my fuse box. I figured that carmax would not do this for me and i didnt want them frying anything. Just to note, my amp and my subs were working fine before i took the truck in. I got the truck back a few days ago and it had a brand new HU in it and it was the same model. I reinstalled the fuse for the power and reconected the remote to the fuse box. I cranked it up and no bass was coming out of the subs, just highs. Last night I made sure all wires were good and tightly secure. rechecked the settings on the amp. nothing helped. I also tried to to crossover/bridge the amp. no help either. If any one has had this problem and can explain to me what the problem is and what to do. I would be extremely thankfull.

I did remove the radio and all conectors are secure in the back of the radio.

Here is how my system is set up.
1. power wire from battery to amp with fuse inbetween.
2. remote wire conected to radio on/off fuse in the fuse box next to the front door. and runs to the amp.
3. From the back speakers i have ran a + and - from each speaker to a RCA converter. the RCA wires then go into the amp. the converter is also grounded.
4.i have a ground sent to the amp.
5. the +/- wires going from the amp to the subs.

there are two lights on the amp that I remember always being on when the system was working before. they were the "power" light and the "protect" light, the power light is on but now the protect light is off. what does this all mean? is my system set up correctly? sorry for this being so long.

 

[97Sportrac]

You said that there is no bass coming from the subs, only the highs... so I'm assuming you have higher freqs coming through the subs. Could it be that you have a high pass frequency enabled on the amp and it's set to like 100Hz.

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

I guess that could be a possabilitie, Im gonna check it when I get off of work in 3 hours. I geuss I should turn that freq down if that is whats cuaseing it. I was trying to tweek it last night by playing with the gain and the other 2 nobs. but I couldnt get it to bump. The subs make a minimal low bass sound but Im sure that is just from the echo of the highs. Thanks for the help 97Sportrac

 

[izackary]

Is it a Mach head unit? the speaker outputs (full-rnage speakers) are EQ'ed so there's no bass coming out. only mids and highs. it's possible that the shop wired the signal going to your amp to these instead of the specific sub out if in fact it's a mach.

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

Hmmmmm, Would the radio actually say MACH on the face plate? because it dosent. Carmax just replaced the stock HU with the same model that was there to begin with. On the back of the radio there are only 2 conectors(groupings of wires) that conect to the radio. I dont see why they would of needed to mess with anything else, would you? I had this setup running this way for about a year and I had bass so I know for sure that bass was sent to the back speakers before. I guess it is possible that the new radio is setup different with the EQ but the funny thing is, the radio is the same model. I realy dont know what to say but thanks for the help, i'll keep your statement in mind.

Any one else have 2 cents to throw my way. it would be apprieciated.

 

[jimbo74]

if the protect light isnt on, i would concentrate on that, normally, that means there is an internal fuse that possibly got blown? an old amp i had had a blade fuse in hte side of it.....

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

realy, a fuse inside. I guess I will be ripping it apart tonight. The fuse on the outside is ok, but never thought about a fuse inside. thanks jim.

 

[izackary]

A mach HU doesn't say "MACH" on it as far as I know...but it does have a more intricate display (as well as an "RDS" button) and probably has more than just 2 connectors on it. I think they have a 3rd for the subwoofer amp.

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

I agree with it having a spot for a third connector but my truck didnt come with the sub in the back, I have the storage space in the back right, im talking about my two 10's that I put in myself.

Do you know what RDS stands for? I think it does have that button om my radio.

PLans for tonight: rip apart amp to look for extra fuse. Take out radio to make sure everthing is connected.

 

[izackary]

RDS stands for "Radio Data System" (or "Service"...i don't remember). It's provided by a few radio stations. What it does is when it tunes to one of those stations' frequencies, it will show call letters, and sometimes song title and artist. I've even seen one Boston station show the next song title and artist, too. It's probably covered in your owner's manual; look up audio system. Sounds to me like you definately have the Mach head unit. From what I saw in my manual, only the Mach has an RDS button, as well as a larger display. Check this thread before you tear it apart and try comparing model numbers:
Dead Link Removed
Hope I've been of some help

 

[izackary]

PS:

If this is the stereo you have, don't give up on it: I can give you the pinout of that subwoofer jack and you could run wires off that if you want and not use any crossovers on your amp. You'll have sub frequencies going there, and the cutoff frequencies for sub and full-range speakers will be perfectly matched! The trickiest part would be splicing into that connector in the head unit...

 

[izackary]

yeah yeah me again......

If you have any question about which you have, look at this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38640&item=2429323617
There is a good picture of the display, connectors, and model number. Anything but the Mach has a small display big enough for the clock. Let me know how this turns out for ya.

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

yep, thats the radio I have. I just went out to my truck on my lunch break and opened up my amp. It didnt have an extra fuse. I also read the info on the Quick reference page and now understand a little more.

RDS seems pretty cool. I had never turned it on because I didnt know what it was. Ill keep it on now and see what happens.

I got a phone # for Jensen for the tech dept. I'll call them when I get a chance and find what I can do about that protect light that isnt on. thanks for the help.

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

Ive got an update, I looked up on jensen.com and found out that the protection light is not suposed to be on, so now im realy lost, hopefully the amp is not blown and its just something with the new radio. thanks for all the help everyone. my quest continues....

 

[izackary]

They're right; the protection light shouldn't be on. It goes on when the amp is in protect mode, when there's a problem. that's when it shuts itself off due to heat, overload, etc. I wonder why it was on before you had your problems. if the line output converter has gain knobs, maybe you should try turning them down a bit. you can always make up for it by boosting the amp. but remember it's still a jensen. my brother had issues with jensens till he had an alpine MRD-500, the digital sub amp that cranks 500W at 2 ohms. that amp was solid.

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

Ya, I know jensens kinda suck, I got it real cheap from a friend about a year ago.

I'll give your suggestion a try, anything can help at this point.

I was thinking about how my remote wire is connected. maybe I should conect it somewhere else besides conecting it to the radio fuse. what else could I connect the remote wire to to turn on the amp?

 

[izackary]

that's tough for an OEM stereo, especially one without a power antenna. even if it has a power antenna, sometimes it can be down when the tuner is off. (Playing a CD for example doesn't require the antenna.) I'd say you can try splicing into the yellow wire with the black stripe (it's the "radio and antenna switch feed") but i'm afraid your best bet is to just wire it off the radio's switched ignition power (Red wire with a black stripe). If you replace your amp, but not your head unit, you could try and find one with both speaker-level inputs, and the ability to switch itself on when it sees signal on those inputs. That would kill 2 birds with one stone: better signal from removing the line output converters (that you could sell to me ), and you wouldn't have to run a remote wire. (though i'd recommend running one to your head unit anyways, and just leave it unused on either end in case you upgrade to an aftermarket head unit.)

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

Thanks for the feedback, I think I might of found something. Do you have any idea what could be wrong if I put the ballance on full left and the sub makes a little bass, and then I put the ballance on full right and that sub dosent produce any bass. could it be that the right sub is blown and the amp just wont put out enough power to the sub that is still good. when I had a sub blow in the past the other would just get distorted. Does any of that make sense. Im realy pick'n my mind, but I think im getting closer to my problem.

The sound coming out of the subs just sounds like a blunt hit, very muffled. no bump at all.

Have a good Holiday everyone!!!!!!

 

[izackary]

I wonder if all this underpowering (it really isn't getting much) and high frequencies, especially when cranking the volume, may be causing the sub to silently clip. If you can, hook them up to a system that you know works (home system, etc). Make sure those subs are still good!

 

[SANDSURFER'98]

Ok, I had a friend look at the system and he determined that the sub and amp are still in working condition, He believes the convertor (for the AC wires) between the back 2 speakers and the amp has gone bad some how. Im gonna get a new one next week when I get paid and hopefully everything will work like it should. Thanks to all how helped me out with this. K.P.