m0ist

First let me say, I'm sorry my first post is a help me post lol. I am a lurker and usually find answers from searching...or figure them out on my own. However, electrical stuff blows my mind sometimes.

So a little background, I bought an LS400 a few weeks ago with an after market stereo. The system consisted of a head unit, and a capacitor and amplifier in the trunk. The head unit turns on but there is no sound coming out of the speakers. The capacitor in the back reads 14.2 volts when the car is running, which seems right. I couldn't see any lights on the amp, so i figured--hey must be a dead amp right?

Bought a new amplifier, and plugged everything in. No light turns on the amp. Took my multi to the power cables and was reading ~14.2V. Seems right?

I figured hey maybe the capacitor is messing things up in here, so i ripped that thing out. Now the amp is hooked up directly to the battery and what I assume to be a good ground connection.

Still reading 14.2 with the car running, but the amp wont turn on.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot this before I start ripping up carpet and stuff trying to find a bad wire? Thank you for reading and again, sorry that this is my introduction

djamps

Check the remote power-on wire going to the amp (usually a small gauge blue wire), make sure it's got 12+V when the stereo is on.

m0ist

Thank you.

So i just went out to check the remote wire, and after following it back for a couple feet I found that the wire was so brittle that it disintegrated from my touch.

So a quick question if you have any experience with this.. Instead of running a new wire all the way back to the head unit, would I be able to tap into say the antenna wiring?

m0ist

I tried just that, and am not having any luck still. So I guess this is not an option

djamps

I'd replace the whole wire, might as well see what else is going on while you're at it. Check all the speaker connections too...