Sounds like you are running it at 1ohm and that is your problem.

None of this crap about too small a wires. 8ga is plenty for that amp. The speaker wires are not ideal but they will burn in half before they do what you are describing.

 

Alright, i'll fix it tommorow and wire it right and see if thats the problem.

 

You need to know if your speakers are dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm or if they are single voice coil or what. Then you can find wiring diagrams if you are not comfortable with wiring.

That amp is only stable at 2ohms mono.

Also, if your power wire is over 8 feet long you do need 4 guage wire according to Kicker.

 

My subs are dual 4 ohm, and im sure 4 gauge would be best but im not planning on entering it in a competition nor can i afford buying a whole new set of wire on top of the $40 8 gauge ones i bought today.lol Just want it to stop shutting off when i turn it up.

 

Damn. Well your choices are 4 or 1 ohm for the amp to see. 4 will not be as loud, amp will probably never get hot and the sound will be clean.

1 ohm will be loud and cut off when you turn it up lol. Eventually the amp will cook.

Keep your power wire short as possible and you may not need new wire.

 

Ok u don't need a cap u don't need a high out put alternator u don't need to upgrade power or ground 8 gauge is plenty for a 400 watt amp. There's only two possible things it could be the amp is over heating and going into protect so if it's under a seat or put in a closed area it will over or the impedence it to low on it u need to check how the sub is wired and is it dual voice coil or single if it's single it prob a 4 ohm voice coil and if it's dual it's either a dual 4 ohm or dual 2 ohm u have to no what it is before u go wiring it up to the amp. If u need a picture diagram www.the12volt.com has the them to show how to wire it correctly. On that amp u don't want to go below a 2 ohm load that's what prob happening. I do this stuff for a living a deal with those kinda problems all the time. And by the way caps r a big waste off money they do nothing to help nothing noticeable and ur not running near enough power to even consider one. If u ever decide to run a higher power system and u thing u need more juice and a second battery with a isiolator so each battery is getting a equal charge and the alternator isn't straining it's self but no need to worry bout that now

 

well the difference between 1 ohm power out put and 4 ohm is only 6db but it is 1/4 of the power

 

Alright thanks, and im near postive my amp isn't overheating because its not under the seat and nothing is covering it and it still does it even if the amp hasn't ran that long. But anyway im gonna rewire it and see how it goes.

 

too much of a power draw, caused by too low impedance can cause it even if it is in an ice chest

 

O ok.lol

 

Sound energy DOUBLES every 3dB.

 

Ok i changed around my sub wires and it did the trick, sounds AMAZING thanks for all the help guys.

 

you got that kinda backward... in truth what you should have said is this, "Given identical variables, it would take twice as much wattage to produce only a small increase of 3 db

(keep in mind this numbers are just random, but the math is correct)

if 10 watts = 80db

then 20 watts = 83db

BUT, a 3db power increase IS NOT twice as loud... it actually takes 10 times as much power to double the loudness...

so in the case above you would see this...

100 watts = 160db

also when you add a second speaker you do not get twice as much sound output either...

I could break it down further but this is a pretty simple understnding

 

yeah you might have had a small short in the speak wires good deal

 

Break this down:
http://rs.nationalsafetyinc.com/comp...hermometer.pdf