Just had professional installation of the Kenwood Excelon XR-5S amp in my DD. Worked great for two days then on my way home Monday, sudden loss of sound to ALL speakers including sub. CD kept playing as you could see the timer and radio would switch to FM but agains no sound. Checked both fuses on back of amp and they were fine. Checked radio fuse on car and its fine. No sound at all all day Tuesday. This morning, I get in the car, start it, and the radio fires right up. CD player works and all speakers are playing.

What gives? Anyone have any suggestions on what the problem might be? Called the installer and need to bring it in when not playing. They do a great job by the way but this problem is a little perplexing.

 

where is amp mounted? is amp actually turning off? is it overheating?

 

Amp is mounted under the rear dash between the two rear speakers. Good air flow and ventilation. Don't think it is overheating as it seems it wouldn't take twodays for the amp to cool down. Amp never turned off during operation in the two days after install. When all sound was loss to the speakers, I assume that the amp turned off because there was nothing coming out of the speakers but don't know for sure.

 

Do you have a multi-meter? If it happens again, with meter on ohms, check from ground wire/screw on amp to metal ground on car, should be single digit ohms or your ground is bad. With meter on volts DC, check with leads on power and ground screws, should be 12-14 VDC. Also check from trigger wire/screw to ground (while radio is on), should also be 12-14VDC.

They should have run a power wire from the battery to the amp. Look for that wire and a fuse within a foot or so of the battery. Check to see if the fuse holder is falling apart in any way.

 

Great advice. Thanks. I will do some checking when I get home tonight and see if I come up with anything. Seems to me that it must be a connection of some sort as an amp would not just quit for a while and then start powering again unless there was a bad connection somewhere. However I am far from an expert on these matters.

 

i plan on installing an xr5s in my c6 coupe. by "rear dash" do you mean behind the rear panel? how was your amp affixed? if not, did your installer build a sled that mounts in the rear hatch between the rear rear speakers? pictures appreciated. also, please post whether markcz's recommendations solved your problem.

 

real simple 2 things to check for do you have 12 volts between positive and ground at amp and with radio on do you have 12 volts between ground and remote wire

 

Kedar, I mounted this amp in my 2010 Civic. Yes, it is mounted in the rear dash between the two rear speakers. Sound shop installed a carpeted "sled" that is mounted underneath the rear dash. The amp is mounted to the sled. Thinking that this setup will not work on the C6 but just wanted to clarify.

Thanks. I will have to check this out as well. If there isn't 12 volts in these areas, any idea what the cure is?

 

well first check to make sure you have a solid ground. then the 12 volt to ground if you dont have that its a blown fuse under the hood or a bad connection at the battery. the 12 volts between remote terminal and ground will only show when the radio is turned on, if you dont have 12 volts there check for a good connection at remote terminal behind radio

 

Update: I took my car back to the sound shop to have them check all the connections, ohms, volts, etc. It read 4 ohms at each of the four 6.5 Alpines and 2 ohms at the IDQ subwoofer. Amp is rated and specifically states it is 2 ohm capable. What the tech found was that after the sound shuts down, the amp is still getting power, but is going into protection mode. All connections were solid and the ohms and volts were fine. It seems the amp was remaining in protection mode for extended periods, as long as almost two days. For whatever reason, the amp would come out of protection mode and power for a while then go back into protection mode for no apparent reason. One thing I may not have mentioned is that the whole system was installed by the same sound shop that put the Kenwood in as it replaced a JL Audio 6450 6-channel amp. There was never any problem with the previous setup. The only thing that was changed was the Kenwood amp and I swapped a 10" JL Audio sub for the 12" IDQ sub. JL Audio sub was a 4 ohm sub and the IDQ sub is a 4 ohm sub as well wired in parallel dropping the resistence to 2 ohms. Anyway, pulled the amp out and am shipping it back to the vendor with request for another new identical Kenwood. I love the way the Kenwood powered my system and am determined to keep this setup.

Will post up when the new Kenwood is received and installed.

Thanks, everyone for all the comments and suggestions. This forum is great!

Don

 

FOLLOW-UP: I just wanted to post this so no one would think I am nuts. As some may know, I sold the IDQ sub and replaced it with a JL 12W3V3 in the same ported box. Got the vendero to exchange the Kenwood XR-5S amp that was turning off for another one, exact same amp just an exchange. Installed it last week and immediately thought that something was wrong. The brand new amp did not seem to be putting out the rated power to any of the speakers, including the sub. Played with the amp settings and used multiple configurations of gain and filter frequencies but could not get much better results. Even the installer thought that the amp sounded "weak" in terms of output. After a week of adjusting settings, I called the vendor (not a CF vendor) and requested a refund as this was my second amp. They gave me a RMA and it was shipped off yesterday. Hoping to get my refund sometime late next week.

Yesterday afternoon, I installed a brand new Alpine PDX-5. I must say that I had some doubts as to whether the Kenwood was defective or was I just imagining things. Well, after installing the Alpine I can say that I am not going insane and not imagining things. The Alpine sounds great and the system sounds just as I wanted and expected. Granted, it has only been less than twenty-four hours but this Alpine is performing very well.

So, after all this, apparently I got 2 defective Kenwood amps that were sold as "brand new" by the vendor. I must say that I now have my doubts as to the "new" claims. As someone mentioned, maybe these were refurbished or B stock amps, cannot tell for sure. But, what are the odds that one customer would get two bad amps of the same brand and model from the same vendor ? I guess we will never know for sure. I can say this: I now think the problems I experienced were not with the IDQ subwoofer. Rather, I think all problems stemmed from the amp. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Kenwood and the first one performed beautifully. I would definitely have gotten another one from the local vendor that sold me the Alpine but they don't yet carry this particular Kenwood amp (some are on order and due in soon). I couldn't wait and opted for the Alpine and not at all disappointed. Lastly, I always give credit where it is due and I can say that between the JL sub and the IDQ sub, the IDQ sub sounds much better IMO. I like the JL sound but the IDQ sound was simply more pleasant to my ears. At some point, I will get another.

Thanks again to everyone that gave their input and suggestions for solving my problems.

Cheers!

 

I'm confused. Why would you go from an IDQ sub to a JL?

 

Well, at the time all this was taking place, I couldn't determine if the problems stemmed from the amp or the IDQ sub. Although the Kenwood was rated for either 2 or 4 ohms, the IDQ sub was reading less than 2 ohms. So, the suspicion was that the IDQ sub may have been causing the Kenwood amp to protect due to the sub's lower ohm reading. The JL sub is not a dual voice coil sub and has a 4 ohm rating which is what the Kenwood amp was rated. I replaced the IDQ sub with the JL sub for this reason. I realize that there is no way to know for sure whether the Kenwood amp or the IDQ sub was causing the problem. However, given the fact that 2 Kenwood amps had problems, rightly or wrongly I concluded that the problems were probably caused by the Kenwood amp. Speculation, yes, but after the problems were explained to experienced car audio installers, this was the conclusion. In any event, changing subs and amps seems to have cured all problems. Hope this helps explain the situation.