well the problem could be your headunit (they're not the cleanest--THD). you might be turning it up causing enough distortion to make the amp clip. you may be better served getting an aftermarket headunit.

try setting your volume on the headunit to 1/3 max and turn up the gain on the amp to a setting that's loud enough for you to listen to your music without distortion. it may take a couple of tries to get this right.

if anyone else can chime in about properly tuning an amp, feel free.

 

with this line of thought. Turn off your loudness button on the HU and set treble and bass to flat (or 0). Listen to it at a low volume and see if you get normal bass...

oh wait, you said you had the factory HU... since I'm not sure of the differences between my 00 and 02, I would say that you're basically getting a crappy signal; like ricosuave said "causing enough distortion to make the amp clip". Are you running line levels (basically speaker wires) to the amp or are you using a line driver (basically turns speaker wires into RCAs)? Either way, you might want to look into a good quality line driver, like a Phoenix Gold (~$70)

 

looks to me like your hpf is set somewhere between 120 and 750hz -- maybe around 550? still, that probably isn't your problem, but it is filtering out a LOT of signal when you turn the hpf on. you can safely and reasonably run it at 120hz, and get a much better sound.

are you using a line level converter to get your RCA input signal?

go back and make sure that there are no exposed wires crossing.

finally - if you are using a line level converter, i would definately consider re-setting your amp gain level. what is the volume level like w/ the amp gain set to it's lowest and the headunit set to around 1/2? in a perfect world, you'd like to find the point where the headunit just begins to send an audible distorted output, and then dial it back slightly and dial up the amp's input gain until you start to hear distortion - then dial the amp's gain back slightly. that should attain the best volume w/o distortion for the system.

 

i have this set up for about 1 month. it never has any problems, utill yesterday the amp went overheated.
is the amp old?

 

has the temperature in your area increased dramatically recently? ie, has summer like weather started?

did you make sure no exposed wiring is contacting other wiring or the car body?

are you using a line level converter?

 

Answer that question. If the answer is no - you are not hitting the thermals and the amp has a problem. If the answer is yes - what load are you running?

I highly doubt input levels, that would just make it sound like crap but not cut out.

PJK3 brings up a good point regarding the wiring not touching the chassis.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3
[B]has the temperature in your area increased dramatically recently?

 

alright -- so, there is a reasonable chance that the amp was never solid or stable, but w/ rising temps (ambient) a previous thermal problem that was masked, is now rearing its ugly head...

i would definately check to see if it is too hot to do the 2 second touch... (if you can't comfortably keep your finger on it for 2 seconds, it's too hot - probably on the order of 130+F - it's a general rule of thumb we use at work - highly inaccurate, but still good enough here.)

also, i would again ask - is there anyway that the speaker wires are exposed and touching each other or the chassis?

 

pjk3
i don't think the speaker wires are exposed and touching each other (cross my finger) but i will double check
wut did u mean when u said the amp was never solid or stable??

 

well,

what i mean is this - if you had some sort of issue like a unusually low impedence (from say a short in your speaker wiring or improper wiring), the lower ambient temperatures would allow for more effective heat transfer - thus, your amp doesn't overheat b/c everything around it is cooler. w/ ambient temps going up, the amp can't cool itself as efficiently anymore, so it starts to overheat, and suddenly you experience unexplained shutdowns.

but that is all based on the assumption that it is thermally shutting down... i won't know if that's the case for sure w/o knowing if it is overly hot to the touch.