All cockpit speakers stopped working

brandonmayberry

On my 02 rinker 342 ive been having some stereo issues. All the cockpit speakers started cutting out the other day. They would be fine then just cut out then come back on. It was pretty consistent. If i turned everything off for awhile they would work for awhile then start messing up again. The two speakers on the inside are working fine. I thought maybe my head unit was overheating, so i replaced it with a new one. It seemed to work fine for about a day and ahalf then it started it again. Most recently all the speakers stopped completely and wouldnt turn back on. I pulled all the cockpit speakers and unplugged the wires on them all and it did nothing different.

I dont know if it could possibly be a bad amp. That was my next place to look but was hoping someone had some better advice.

J3ff

Yup it's the amp, same thing happened to me

Michael T

Check fuse(s) ground wires, fuses and amp. IMO in that order.

brandonmayberry

I wiggled all the wires around the amp. it's working fine right now. It seems that when it's hot out it's worse. Right now my AC is running in the cabin so it may not be overheating. Any way to test it? And do they have direct replacement or will I have to find a decent aftermarket?  Thanks for the input so far. 

aero3113

Is there a fan on or in the amp? The fan could have failed and it's not cooling.

brandonmayberry

I'll have to check. Would it overheating only affect one channel thou?

aero3113

I guess it's possible. What you said about having your AC on sounds like it needs to be cooled.

brandonmayberry

It seems to be getting worse. I looked and I have a JL audio m600/1 powering my sub and a jl audio m600/6 for the speakers. When the amps are working there is a green light on them. Once they shut down the light goes off. I turn the breaker off and back on for the stereo and it'll flash then turn off. What's weird is it's both amps. I assume maybe one is bad causing the other to shut off as well. 

brandonmayberry

After some research it appears low battery could cause this. It may explain why it seems to work when the ac is running because I'm on shore power so it's getting enough juice. I'll have to have my batteries checked out to see. 

Michael T

@brandonmayberry, that is a pretty common problem. Didn't your voltage meters show a significant drop? If you have series 31 AGM or TPPL batteries they may support some big amp action while on the hook. If not there are extensive posts on this forum regarding small/powerful/quiet mini genertator hook-ups for at anchor powering of amps/fridges/icemakers and even AC units. @frenchship posted an awesome mod that others have copied. Look at the forum search engine!

brandonmayberry

It has always worked fine before. I don't need the loudest system in the world, just want it to work when out. I think the batteries have maybe just gone past their life span. My Dc battery gauge doesn't seem to have dropped but I have 6 batters. Someone added a set so they may not be hooked into the gauge. Everything else appears to be working fine. 

brandonmayberry

well my co alarm just started beeping too like when the batteries are getting low so I believe that's probably the issue. 

brandonmayberry

Well I fired up the generator and turned the battery charger on. Amps kicked on after a few minutes and are fine. Batteries are draining super quickly I guess. Just replaced them in September of last year so we will get them tested to see what the issue i

brandonmayberry

Figured out it appears the batteries that have the stereo amps wired to them have gone bad. The PO has some weird things wired differently that i will need to check out now but its good to know that the issue is just batteries and nothing more.

Cableguy Greg

Check the voltage on the house batteries. The gauge on the dash is for your engine starting batteries. I just had a charger breaker go bad and I wasn't getting the house batteries charged. I changed the breaker and I am getting 13.2 on my house bank. The connections were also loose on the breaker.