Argh Wtf!!!

[toycar]

i was coming home from class today and all of a sudden my sub amp(rf 401s) cuts out and my engine starts whining(even though i have the signal cables running on the opposite side of the car). when i stopped at the red light the amp turns back on and plays like it normally would, but as soon as i start driving it shuts off again. if i put the car in park it doesn't turn on. i checked the ground cable, the power cable, the fuse, the remote turn on, the rca's, the speaker wires....nothing wrong with my wiring. i was thinking it may be my ground cable but the amp has been running fine for the past 4 months so i ruled that out. so im thinking my amp is just f*cked up isnt it?

[Dustin from Huntsville]

Check the ground again... sand down the mounting point. Some corrosion may have built up over time and it's affecting the ground point. Other than that I'd go back and check all my wiring again.

[toycar]

ok this is getting stupid now. i checked EVERYTHING that could be checked(the ENTIRE powercable from battery to amp, remote turn on, rca, re-did the ground, the speaker wire) and its still acting up!!! i dont understand it, its lyk its connected to the tranny or sumthing. if the car is in any gear other than drive, the amp wont turn on. if the car is in drive, it wont turn on UNTIL i press the brake pedal. what the h3ll is wrong with it???

[Chris from Washington]

You don't have any wires ran back to where the brake pedal could be interferring with them do you?

I've seen that happen before, where the brake pedal was either pinching or cutting into the wire everytime they steped on the brake.

[toycar]

nope i ran the remote turn on above the brake pedal(under the dash). and it doesnt seem to be the brake pedal itself, just the brake lights. wat i mean is, i can turn on the headlights/tailights and the amp will turn back on(but only in the drive gear). tonight while i was driving i noticed that my dash was considerably brighter than ever before. and then wenever i stopped it would dim down and the amp would turn back on. i checked all the lines with a voltmeter and everything checked out, but the amp still didnt turn on. its lyk it has a mind of its own!!

[William from NOLA]

What head unit do you have and you connected the remote wire from the amp to it right?

Are you sure that the power wires/remote wire are/is not touching any other metal, even behind the head unit (for the remote wire).

[daykareboards]

Hey, i had the same problem i think a couple months ago. pretty much everything you said was goin on and when i hit my breaks my headlights got really dim. What i did was... I quit using the remote wire from the cd player and ran a wire right to the battery, fused it, and hooked it up to a toggle swith(one that lit up when it was on so i didnt forget to turn it off)and then to my amp. That fixed the turning off and on for no reason problem i had and also i changed my ground location and the ring connector that was on my ground wire. i dont know, but hopefully that will help ya...to try it, just run the wire from your batt to the toggle to the amp and dont even try hiding the wire until you know thats gunna fix it cause otherwise thats alot of unnecessary work.

[GlassWolf]

sounds like a failing battery or alternator.
get both checked.

[toycar]

its not the battery. i dropped in an optima today to test it, but still had problems. i let the system sit for a minute and then turned it on and the subs hit one note before shutting off. and then i tried disconnecting the sub amp to see if my lighting problems were still happenening and sure enough they were. While I was driving around my 4 channel amp stopped working. The power light on it is on but no sound at all. i spent an hour today pulling out and checking all my wires from the front to the back and all were fine(again). Is my charging system bad?

[Dustin from Huntsville]

Does the system operate normally with the ignition off? Do all the amps work?