I installed Modifry's DCI, an Alpine head unit, and an Alpine 4-ch amp. No subs, just amped the mids/highs in the car.

Everything was working as it should've right after I did the install. I was listening to music with nothing unusual occuring. Amp showed 12V and everything was peachy! Because I was listening to music for so long, with the car off, the battery died on me and everything turned off. Jump started the car and let it sit for 15 minutes or so with everything turned off. The car appeared to be back to normal.

I found that my head unit turns on, but not my amp. Checked the fuse on the power wire and the fuses on the amp. All fuses were still good. I didn't notice anything getting particularly hot, no smells of any kind, no melted wires, etc.

So the head unit turns on, but I get no audio. I don't understand it. I've turned the POWER IC function on the head unit off/on, but no luck. Did I blow something when the car was jump started? Does any damage occur because of the battery dying? I know that the amp not turning on is a power issue of some sort, and who knows maybe I did blow it, but I've never had a head unit turn on and not play sound. Again, everything was working prior to the battery dying.

Thoughts on the matter?

 

get a voltmeter out and see where you have power...

When the radio is on you should have 12V+ between the "REM" wire and the ground... and you should always have 12V between the + and - terminals on the amp.

Some (but few) radios have a fuse on the REM wire, so if you don't get the 12V when the radio is on, that might be a good place to start.
-Doug

 

I'll check that today. I'm going to be so pissed if I have to buy new equipment. I did all that work so I could just listen to music fo 30 minutes and then buy the parts again.

 

Well shoot me a PM if you can't get it... I may have some time to look it over with you today since you're in my area (ish).

 

Also a good quick test is jump a wire from the positive input on the amp to the rem input on the amp for a quick power supply to see if it turns on. If so you know for sure you have a rem problem. I have had the problem before where the rem lead seems to stop sending power. Not sure whether its a blown rem fuse or what, but another quick fix to that is run the rem input to a switched power lead on the fuse block under the dash

GL!

 

Voltometer shows 12V with car off and 14.1V with car on, at the amp.

The amp actually turned on today, but when I turned my radio on I heard an electrical pop come out of the speakers. Wasn't getting any audio so I checked the amp and it was off again. I'm thinking the radio is doing something with the remote wire, and so it shuts off the amp. Do I have a short somewhere? I haven't looked behind the head unit yet to see if anything is going on there, but other than that I didn't see any wires touching each other or the metal on the car. I"m leaning on there being a short behind the head unit, but if you guys have any thoughts let me know. Thanks in advance!

Thanks doug for your willingness to help. I have too many errands to run today and most likely won't be able to meet up with you. I'd like to try everything I know of first and if I still can't progress the situation then maybe I can look for onsite help.

 

How many volts are at the REM terminal with the radio off, and how many volts when the radio is on?

Also, try as the other guy suggested, remove the REM wire that comes off the headunit (and make sure it's not touching anything) then try jumping it right off of the + terminal and see if the amp turns on.

 

Ok, the REM has proper voltage as well. I did manage to get sound to play again, so the head unit is still working (thank god). Amp tested good too.

There is problem with the way I wired the speakers, when I disconnected the speaker wires that I ran from the amp and the head unit, the sound restores. So something is wrong.

I want to wire my speakers so that they are running from the amp, but in the event I install my factory radio (which has no preouts so no amp will be used), I don't want to have to reconnect all my speakers to the new head unit again. In short, I want to be able to have an amped system with an aftermarket radio, but if I re-install the factory radio I don't want it to be amped. I also want to accomplish this by only changing harnesses and not having to re-run wires. Aftermarket harness=amped system, factory harness=factory system.

So this is how I wired it, but apparently something is wrong here:

 

that should work fine as long as speaker wires are not also connected to
the Alpine headunit speaker outs. If they are, you should clip the wires
from the headunit (and insulate any loose ends with electrical tape so they
don't short)

 

Oth, I added the image above for clarification. You may have posted before seeing it. Does what you say still stand?