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Thread: Power problem with my Stereo Setup...Capacitors?

  1. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by 2manytrucks
    SD...I think we had a mis communication...I thought you meant you ran 16 and 8 guage for your power wires.... sorry for the confusion. 16 and lower is fine for speakers.
    Ah... then yes we did...no harm done. All I know is that the speaker wires are 16 gauge and the sub speaker is 4 gauge ( i believe). I really have no idea what the power wire is, but I know it is a lot thicker than the speaker wire.

    I hope you dont think i was bashing your advice. I was just thinking about it and wondering how that could be a fire hazard or how you could possibly run that thick of wire to the speakers...lol.

  2. #47
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    No prob man, 16 guage for power wires to 900 watts would probably make for a heating element situation at full power.... if your power wires are thicker than the 4 guage for your sub, then you should be fine. As previously stated you might want to look into a bad/loose connection. Look for tin wiskers as well (frays of wires that might be touching something they shouldn't be.

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    Yeah I think that may be the culprit. Everything felt really tight when i was wiggling around the wires on the distribution blocks near the battery, but the music stayed on and stayed loud today so it must be something there.

    Im just glad I didnt jump to any quick conclusions and buy an alternator...I would have been a little upset if I found a loose wire after all of that.

    Thanks again for the help.

  4. #49
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    Well after 3 months of dealing with my music periodically shutting off, it is finally over. Since the place I had my stuff installed went out of business, i had to find a shop that would help me out without charging me again for everything.

    There were 2 loose connections in the most important part of the wiring, the battery to the distribution blocks. The old shop decided to cut some corners and shove (2) 4 gauge wires into one 4 gauge connector and attach it to the battery. They put electrical tape over it followed by the rubber connector cover so I never saw it until last week. I cut that part off and got 2 different connectors for each wire from each distribution block to the battery. It fixed it for about a week and then it started happening again. The wire at the distribution block still seemed to turn the music on after wiggling it around so I figured the problem was there (JL amp kit). The guy at the new shop gave me all new connections, crimped them down good (which wasnt done before) and had me try the music again. Same thing happened.

    He then took the cover off of the distribution block and felt the screws that hold the fuse down and they were completely loose. Something the old shop never checked. Those arent the screws that hold down the wires so I never thought the problem would be there. He tightened them up and now it works perfectly with no shutting off. I almost bought a cap or a new alternator because this store cut corners and didnt check the stuff they should have. The guy said it was the 2nd time in the last month that somebody came in with the exact same problem. No wonder they went out of business. Thank God I finally have consistent music now. It was driving me insane.
    Last edited by sdharley03; 07-21-2007 at 07:43 PM.

  5. #50
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    Rock and roll SD!!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by sdharley03 View Post
    Well after 3 months of dealing with my music periodically shutting off, it is finally over. Since the place I had my stuff installed went out of business, i had to find a shop that would help me out without charging me again for everything.

    There were 2 loose connections in the most important part of the wiring, the battery to the distribution blocks. The old shop decided to cut some corners and shove (2) 4 gauge wires into one 4 gauge connector and attach it to the battery. They put electrical tape over it followed by the rubber connector cover so I never saw it until last week. I cut that part off and got 2 different connectors for each wire from each distribution block to the battery. It fixed it for about a week and then it started happening again. The wire at the distribution block still seemed to turn the music on after wiggling it around so I figured the problem was there (JL amp kit). The guy at the new shop gave me all new connections, crimped them down good (which wasnt done before) and had me try the music again. Same thing happened.

    He then took the cover off of the distribution block and felt the screws that hold the fuse down and they were completely loose. Something the old shop TWEETER never checked. Those arent the screws that hold down the wires so I never thought the problem would be there. He tightened them up and now it works perfectly with no shutting off. I almost bought a cap or a new alternator because Tweeter cut corners and didnt check the stuff they should have. The guy said it was the 2nd time in the last month that somebody came in with the exact same problem. No wonder they went out of business. Thank God I finally have consistent music now. It was driving me insane.
    I understand your issues, and believe me I agree 100% with your complaint, but don't blast the whole company because of your bad experience. If we did held vendors here at NHTOC to that same standard, several would be in trouble. How many times has Ford overlooked something simple on our trucks? I drove away from my 70K service at the dealership without looking under the hood only to find my oil fill cap was missing.

    I still work for Tweeter, and the company didn't go out of business they closed under-performing stores. Obviously the store you went to was part of the problem, and I can see why. I can understand justifiable rant.

    It's not like that everywhere. My installer has less than 1 be-back a month yearly average for his credit, and I can honestly say that after the local Big Boys Toy Car Show he has received so much business he's booked out in excess of a month now for custom work. There are PLENTY of custom shops in the neighborhood too, so it's a justifiable boast. I was part of the management team that just fired an installer because he wasn't installing to our standards, so holding someone accountable for their issues isn't dead...and this guy didn't have much in the way of re-installations or troubleshooting either..and has in fact been hired by a competitor already.

    Not flaming your post, because I agree with your anger. Just don't bash the entity for a single slacker.

  7. #52
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    I agree and sorry to group all of them together.

    THE TWEETER HERE IN ESCONDIDO, CA SCREWED UP AND I CAN SEE WHY THAT STORE SHUT DOWN.

    I have heard of some good stories with Tweeters in other parts of the country so it is definitely dependant on who's working where. As you can imagine spending that much money on a system and having it cut out for over 4 months can be extremely frustrating especially when the problem is something that simple and overlooked by the installer.

    2TonHog,
    You have been extremely helpful with tons of audio questions I have had so I would definitely expect your store to be different.

    edit: I actually swore against Al & Ed's for stereo work from past experiences and they are the ones that finally helped me fix the problem (different store). They didnt even want me to pay anything but I gave them some money for fixing such a big problem for me.
    Last edited by sdharley03; 07-21-2007 at 07:44 PM.

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    No big deal. I even forwarded your post to the VP Mobile. He's already emailed me a blip back on that too.

    Every installer has their own style and pace. Believe it or not the company is working on a standards book, similar to the one our home installation teams use, that would ensure things like this won't happen. I expect that to be a process, because there are some big ego's out there.

    It's just that we're getting enough of a bad rap from competitors as-is. Most don't know the difference between a restructuring bankruptcy and liquidation. We had a customer today come in ask if we were still open (with no less than 15 customers inside the building) because good ole Best Buy decided to tell him we were closing. I proceeded to close him on $8K worth of audio/video goodies because they were so worried about bad-mouthing us that they forgot to actually provide him with a semblance of customer service. Apparently many of the stores in California must have been the same way.

    Ironically enough I had a friend who worked at the Escondido store, what must have been better than a year ago now. He consistently wrote $100K every month when I worked with him out here, and out there he had trouble making ends meet. He ended up going to a CEDIA dealer after 3 months, and is now driving a Porsche 911 with the difference in income. When I emailed him about this a few minutes ago he told me that things had changed for the worse out there. I'm thinking I ought to move if he's pulling in that kind of money.

  9. #54
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    LOL...yeah seems as if the West coast didnt get the memo on customer service and doing a thorough job. I dont know what it is with car audio shops out here. I have been to 5 different ones and have had bad experiences with 4 of them. The only reason I had stuff done at this store in Escondido was because the installer SEEMED to know what he was doing and had been doing it for a long time. The rest of the truck installation was great, but it doesnt matter if you have no power to your amp. He even told me if I ever had a problem after the store closed to call him on his cell and he would be glad to help me out. He never returned my calls.

    Whenever I went inside of that store there would be about 8 workers and at the most 2 customers. I even went there once when i was the only one there with 8 workers or so inside and not one of them came up to me and asked if I had any questions or anything (which I told you about 2Ton a while ago). Im really not suprised at all that this store closed down and I wish I would have seen it coming and gone somewhere else.

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    This is what the installer tried to hide under the electrical tape. Instead of just using 2 connectors, he shoved both 4 gauge wires going from the dist. blocks to the battery into this one connection.

  11. #56
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    Glad to hear you got the problem fixed!

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    Quote Originally Posted by sdharley03 View Post
    This is what the installer tried to hide under the electrical tape. Instead of just using 2 connectors, he shoved both 4 gauge wires going from the dist. blocks to the battery into this one connection.
    Thats a whole lot of tin wiskers right there....glad you got it fixed. The question is, would they have paid for your gear if it had gone south on you??

  13. #58
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    Very doubtful I'm sure. I never noticed it was done this way since the stray wire was all wrapped up with electrical tape around that area. Once that problem was fixed they still had to tighten the screws on the dist block to get the music to play since that was never done. Two very easy, very small jobs that gave me big problems for over 4 months but that could have been a lot worse.

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