Pull that plastic crap and look at the wires. I cant imagine even a 50K mile example being mint.
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For what it's worth, it will pop back on and off by wiggling the wire cable deal. Noticed wife put stuff in the trunk against left side and amp shut off, so juggle and works most the time. Starting to get annoyed with this. Last few times over the weeks I open the trunk and just hit the thing through the trunk fiber whatever it's called and it will come back on. Thinking it's an internal solder connection to the power connection. Has not pizzed me off to open it up and check that yet but close. Very annoying.
Just setup your soldering station, open the amp up and re-flow every joint that connects to a major component, and any others that aren't shiny. The constant heat cycling causes physical expansion/contraction near transistors and large capacitors, stressing the soldered joints so they get micro-cracks which cause the intermittent troubles you are describing. Alternately 20 years of vibration will crack joints holding heavy components.
A real pro would wash the back of the board with pure alcohol first, lightly scrubbing with a toothbrush (no force on any small/SMD components). Then do the same after you're done soldering. Tip: When you re-flow a joint, add some solder if it looks dull. Iron @380 degrees, and use a magnifying glass if you have to, to be sure you don't leave any solder shorting one pad to another as sometimes they are very close.
All will be good after this, I've little doubt. For a certain fix, you swap the capacitors, but these are all pretty good quality, so I'd only change one that is leaking or showing signs of internal pressure (in extreme situations they can explode like tin cans)
Pretty sure it's just one point on the power wire circuit. Jiggle wires works most times. Seems all I have to do is hit the side of the trunk and it's repaired indefinitely.
You had it correct! I finally took out the trunk amplifier and discovered a coaxial connector had come loose. I reinstalled it and the radio now works perfectly!
There are two connectors on the amplifier. One is a complex plug and the other is this coaxial one, looking much like the type F that is used in video applications. Without a proper schematic diagram, I was worried how to approach the repair but that turned out not to be necessary.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Well took the amp apart as far as possible. Can not in any way besides total destruction get to the connector area to resolder. It is either the power / signal or ground. Absolutely no access to that area.
So I went to the parts car and the amp that was different just so happens to be identical but just not black. Bare aluminum and unpainted, not sure what's up with that. Plugged it in and done. Just too easy of a fix.
4 1/2 years later and hopefully this issue is over.
No coaxial type connector on any of the amps I have seen yet. At least your good, glad to hear it.
I spoke too soon! The radio is internittently dead again, so I still have to fix it. I am fairly certain it's the amplifier, so I will pull it out again and open it. I did think the fix was too easy.
Yes there is a coaxial connector in addition to the multi-pin main connector. But I suspect a cracked circuit board or something similar. It could also be poor mating on the big connector.
Throw it away after grabbing another one. The frustration in 4.5 years lol. I could not get access to any connector, sorry I didn't take pictures but I just couldn't get to that part.
I don't give up so easily. If another amplifier were readily available it would be different but they don't seem to grow on trees. Once found, they are too high in price.
I understand that. I failed to take pictures of the issue I had getting access. I figured after removing the heat sink clips it would come apart but it wouldn't. Funny, I couldn't get it apart and don't want to break it even though it's never going to be used by me again. If I forced it any more it would have broke the circuit board/s.
So send it to me and I will try to repair it.
Send me a message.
Looks easy enough to open. There are screws holding it together.
That one is different from mine. But fixing it should be easy enough; it's just that I don't think it would work in my car.
Yeah I had it apart, just cant get to the part where the plugs connect to the boards.
Well I can't see it so I can't offer any help. Take some good pics and maybe.