Adding an Aftermarket Amp(s)

[robmoz]

Wondering if anyone has experienced this before.

Back in July, I basically followed StingNC's guide step by step (thank you by the way) & installed the following: JL 3.5's inches in the dash, JL 4 inches in the soundbar being powered by a JL RD400 4 channel. I have a 7 inch non alpine system radio with resistors tied into the speaker wire going to a JL audio Fix 86 and RCA's out to amp.

Everything worked fine and did so for months. I am in NJ and these past few mornings, it has been colder. When I turn the car on first thing in the morning, only 1 speaker works.When this happened, I assumed for whatever reason the radio is not seeing the resistors and is only turning 1 channel open.

However, after 15 minutes of the car running, turning the unit completely off and letting it reset. I turn the car back on and all speakers work again.

Happened the past two mornings and works fine in the afternoons. Has anyone come across this before or have an idea of a solution?

I haven't tested it yet but I thought about turning the radio completely off at night. Remote starting the vehicle in the morning, let it run for 10 minutes and then power the radio on but I am all ears and open to suggestions to not have to do that.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

Here's a link to my experience: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/adding-an-aftermarket-amp-s.6568/page-11#post-635072

I suspect you are having a similar issue where the resistance is changing with temperature and you are just a bit over the threshold for the radio to be happy. I believe carbon resistors increase their resistance when temperature decreases. You may have to do what I did and lower your resistor values to make it work consistently.

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[Firediver]

Wondering if anyone has experienced this before.

Back in July, I basically followed StingNC's guide step by step (thank you by the way) & installed the following: JL 3.5's inches in the dash, JL 4 inches in the soundbar being powered by a JL RD400 4 channel. I have a 7 inch non alpine system radio with resistors tied into the speaker wire going to a JL audio Fix 86 and RCA's out to amp.

Everything worked fine and did so for months. I am in NJ and these past few mornings, it has been colder. When I turn the car on first thing in the morning, only 1 speaker works.When this happened, I assumed for whatever reason the radio is not seeing the resistors and is only turning 1 channel open.

However, after 15 minutes of the car running, turning the unit completely off and letting it reset. I turn the car back on and all speakers work again.

Happened the past two mornings and works fine in the afternoons. Has anyone come across this before or have an idea of a solution?

I haven't tested it yet but I thought about turning the radio completely off at night. Remote starting the vehicle in the morning, let it run for 10 minutes and then power the radio on but I am all ears and open to suggestions to not have to do that.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

I had the same problem. I would not get any sound until it was warmed up. Only would work in the mornings. As soon as I changed to the PAC it stopped. I’m thinking it had something to do with the resistors. That’s the only thing that makes sense

 

[jadriano24]

Thanks for this, def narrowed it down to a resistor issue.

 

[RubenZ]

Exactly.

Jeff, did you run 3 sets of RCA? One for fonts, rears and sub channel?

 

[Jeffmiller32]

Jeff, did you run 3 sets of RCA? One for fonts, rears and sub channel?

yeah. Ran them under the front seat carpet to the rear.

 

[RubenZ]

Guys, I installed everything and my Kicker IQ1000.5 has the “Under Voltage” Light on and I get no sound. I’m using the PAC R2 adapter for non amplified systems. I only did RCA’s for the Front and Sub. Would that be it?

 

[Jeffmiller32]

Guys, I installed everything and my Kicker IQ1000.5 has the “Under Voltage” Light on and I get no sound. I’m using the PAC R2 adapter for non amplified systems. I only did RCA’s for the Front and Sub. Would that be it?

With the Pac did you flip the 4th dip switch? You have to do two sleep cycles. Roll up the windows and lock the car. Leave it for 5 minutes. Turn it on and then repeat.

 

[RubenZ]

With the Pac did you flip the 4th dip switch? You have to do two sleep cycles. Roll up the windows and lock the car. Leave it for 5 minutes. Turn it on and then repeat.

Dip switches are correct.I have manual windows. I turned everything off. Came inside and went back to turn on and did again. I wonder if it’s because I didn't connect the rears speaker wires on that harness with 4 sets of speaker wires.

 

[Jeffmiller32]

Dip switches are correct.I have manual windows. I turned everything off. Came inside and went back to turn on and did again. I wonder if it’s because I didn't connect the rears speaker wires on that harness with 4 sets of speaker wires.

Since it is a 5 channel amp I would probably run the rear speakers and rear RCAs even if you are using the stick speakers.

could also be a bad ground. Not exactly sure. Haven’t done a whole lot of installs.

 

[RubenZ]

Since it is a 5 channel amp I would probably run the rear speakers and rear RCAs even if you are using the stick speakers.

could also be a bad ground. Not exactly sure. Haven’t done a whole lot of installs.

Got it. You know what it was? Rookie electrical mistake. The screw holding fuse was not all the way down so it was t make good contact.


One thing I do notice is my FM channels sound staticky. I know I plugged in antenna right unless I fubar'ed something else.

 

[RubenZ]

Ok. I finally got everything setup. I must say. HUGE Improvement going with a DSP AMP. The difference is night and day. I must say though, the system def. needs some better mid range. I’m thinking of keeping the top dash 3.5” as my Tweets and then AMP2 RCA’s I’m thinking of plugging in some 6” mid ranger speakers in the sound bar. Going to butcher them up and make find a way to make them work. I don’t like having the SUB do a lot of mid range frequency.

One thing I noticed my with KICKER IQ1000.5 is that this sucker gets insanely hot. It actually bothers me a bit and stuffing it under the seat I’m not sure how much of a good idea it is. We’ll see what I decide to do.

Sub Used: JL Audio 10TW1-2: https://amzn.to/2n8nEjy
Amp Used: Kicker IQ1000.5 *disregard pic, its for wrong model: https://amzn.to/2oGPeoA
JL Audio C2-350X: https://amzn.to/2nP3ADj
Probably will add these to the sound bar: JL Audo C2-525x https://amzn.to/2oJJ3zN

 

[RubenZ]

For those of you that setup PAC adapter, do you have audio issues with phone calls? Volume is so low I can’t hear. Even with upping volume.

 

[jeeplaw]

Nice, you went with the same amp I have. Had it in my V, now its waiting for the install in my Jeep.

The biggest benefit you will see with it is adjusting the time delay for the sub so that you can blend it with the front so that the bass is localized.

Yep, you're absolutely correct about the lack of midbass. I'm actually contemplating fabbing up some floor kick panels to house a 6.5 midbass driver so that anything from 100 through 800 is taken care of, and then rely on a 3.5" widebander to cover everything else in the dash.

From everything I've read, going with 6.5s in enlarged speaker pods in the dash doesnt really work out sound wise, for some reason. Could be a combination of wrong speakers for a small ported enclosure or something else.

Ok. I finally got everything setup. I must say. HUGE Improvement going with a DSP AMP. The difference is night and day. I must say though, the system def. needs some better mid range. I’m thinking of keeping the top dash 3.5” as my Tweets and then AMP2 RCA’s I’m thinking of plugging in some 6” mid ranger speakers in the sound bar. Going to butcher them up and make find a way to make them work. I don’t like having the SUB do a lot of mid range frequency.

One thing I noticed my with KICKER IQ1000.5 is that this sucker gets insanely hot. It actually bothers me a bit and stuffing it under the seat I’m not sure how much of a good idea it is. We’ll see what I decide to do.

Sub Used: JL Audio 10TW1-2: https://amzn.to/2n8nEjy
Amp Used: Kicker IQ1000.5 *disregard pic, its for wrong model: https://amzn.to/2oGPeoA
JL Audio C2-350X: https://amzn.to/2nP3ADj
Probably will add these to the sound bar: JL Audo C2-525x https://amzn.to/2oJJ3zN

 

[RubenZ]

Nice, you went with the same amp I have. Had it in my V, now its waiting for the install in my Jeep.

The biggest benefit you will see with it is adjusting the time delay for the sub so that you can blend it with the front so that the bass is localized.

Yep, you're absolutely correct about the lack of midbass. I'm actually contemplating fabbing up some floor kick panels to house a 6.5 midbass driver so that anything from 100 through 800 is taken care of, and then rely on a 3.5" widebander to cover everything else in the dash.

From everything I've read, going with 6.5s in enlarged speaker pods in the dash doesnt really work out sound wise, for some reason. Could be a combination of wrong speakers for a small ported enclosure or something else.

Ya. I think I’m gonna do something with 6.5’s. For some reason though my amp all of a sudden threw a under voltage light. Need to see what happened. Was working fine.

 

[Jeffmiller32]

Ya. I think I’m gonna do something with 6.5’s. For some reason though my amp all of a sudden threw a under voltage light. Need to see what happened. Was working fine.

i did some focal 4” components and audison 4” midbass speakers with JL 3.5s. It sounds pretty good and no cutting or hacking required. Gets plenty loud even with the top off and driving down the freeway.

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