Well, I guess I'm back to the empeg BBS to try to figure out my problems (was thinking it was my car for a while so was posting to that messageboard...). Anyway, I sent in the unit, but the guys over at empeg told me it ran through the tests just fine. They were also nice enough to replace my cracked fascia for me. Thanks guys :) Anyway, here's what's going on:

-- When I turn the unit on, occasionally it doesn't boot, the screen just hangs with a solid white color. Pressing and holding 'up' to turn it off doesn't help, the unit just has to be pulled out and plugged back in, which causes...

-- A loud pop/squeal when I disconnect the unit with the power on. Normally I try not to do this but sometimes I need to, in the case above. However,

-- When I shut the unit off normally (pressing and holding up or turning off the car) I get a different kind of pop, a little.. "beefier" if you will. More of the kind of pop you think of when you like, drop the needle onto a record. I don't know if I explained it well, but it annoys me, and passengers ("What was that? Is it supposed to do that?"). :(

-- after playing the unit for a few hours in my car (on long car trips), mp3s start to skip and chirp loudly.. sometimes even it'll break out into the following problem, which is

-- by far the worst one, meaning I could live with all of the above easily if this was fixed: a HORRIBLE screeching noise occasionally where I have to just shut off the unit as soon as possible. It might be the amp, I'm not sure. I've played a little bit with it when it happens: stepping on the gas hard sometimes can cause it, stepping on the brake while it's happening changes the tone of the screeching, playing with the volume during the screeching has no affect (on the volume - trust me, it's loud). This all leads me to believe that it has something to do with the amp and power levels, but I'll leave it to the geniuses on the board to suggest solutions, I'll just present the facts. :)

Anyone had anything like this happen? I'm extremely discouraged.

Everything you've listed sounds like wiring/amp problems, or possibly a defective sled. Except the all-white screen, but that might be a voltage problem, I don't know.

Would you mind re-capping the installation details for us? And have you had a third-party check the installation for you?

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Tony Fabris

Friends of mine did the installation, so I can't elaborate too much. I helped out where I could. I'm pretty sure they generally know thier stuff, they do this type of thing often. The only thing that I could think of regarding the installation is perhaps an improperly grounded amp; currently it's bolted to the chassis via the rear strut bar, which is painted. The bolt itself isn't painted, but I have a feeling this might not be grounding the amp properly, so I'm going to file it down a bit today and see if that helps. Otherwise I don't really know what details I could offer you.. What kind of things are you looking for? Basically we replaced the speakers, replaced the head unit, added the amp.. I might actually even be able to get my friends to sign on to this board. Gimme a few minutes. :)

cd

The only thing that I could think of regarding the installation is perhaps an improperly grounded amp; currently it's bolted to the chassis via the rear strut bar, which is painted.

Well, if the amp doesn't have a ground wire connected properly, that'd be a start. It should have a specific ground screw that's wired to a ground point (such as an unpainted bolt to the chassis). Amps shouldn't ground through their casings.

You're not trying to DRIVE the amp from the remote-control wire, are you? The amp should have a direct wire (preferably heavy gauge) going straight to the car battery, via a weatherproof fuse connection. That, plus the ground wire, plus the amp remote control wire, are the three electrical connections the amp should be making.

If you find that this isn't wired correctly, I highly recommend you take the car to a professional installer and have them re-do the wiring from the ground up, since who knows what else is wrong at that point...

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Tony Fabris

http://active.vaporspace.net/~diablos/images/incoming/empeg/image022.jpg


You can see where it's grounded, the gold colored wire, grounded near the upper right of that photo. I'm looking back through these to see if there's anything else interesting.... Nope, not much else from my install pics. And I'm pretty sure we're not driving the amp with the relay line (remote-control wire?), I've had it for 6-8 months and it works well most of the time. That tiny wire would probably melt or not even turn the amp on if we had accidentally done that. :)

If filing the ground down real well doesn't work, I'll try grounding it on something else, and worst comes to worst, have a professional installer take a look at it, maybe giving me a good excuse to install a sub at the same time.

Oh, the one other thing that someone suggested if it indeed was a voltage problem to the amp, is buying a cap? I had always assumed that a cap was just to prevent spiking bass or whatever from draining your cars OTHER electricals, but perhaps it would work well when/if my car wasn't providing enough juice for a second or two.. I dunno, just an idea.

I've had it for 6-8 months and it works well most of the time.

Hmm. I didn't realize you were talking about an intermittent problem. That could simply be a loose wire on the sled connector (or anywhere else in the system). Or perhaps a wire that's rubbing against a sharp metal edge somewhere under the upholstery. Or one of the pins on the connector not making good contact. Something like that.

Is this a Mark1 or a Mark2? If it's a Mark1, I'd say definitely clean the contacts on the sled connector, it could be that simple. My Mark1 occasionally had noise problems induced by bad connectivity on the connector pins, cleaning the pins usually helped.

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Tony Fabris

after looking at the other pictures, I was soooo ready to see an empeg installed in that VW.. damn.. just a honda install.. ;)

12gig red mk2 -- 080000125

JUST a honda! *gasp*

it's okay, he didn't mean it, he didn't know, there there...


JK :P I don't really talk to my car... much.

Anyway, I spent a good hour or so filing the paint offa that strut bar (even detached the strut bar and filed the paint underneath and on the body of the car). I took a couple pictures, I'll get them up shortly. So far so good, but it was real nice and warm out, and the car was already warmed up (I usually get the problems in the cold). Treated myself to a little spin around the block with the top down, blaring some linkin park. :) Hopefully this'll remedy the sound problems... now about the sled connections.. I'll see if I can do that soon, that's a bit more involved, need some mental planning for it. :)

Any advice on the locking up on boot thing? I doesn't even get to the boot screen - you know when you first turn it on how it shows a solid white screen (or maybe the logo, I forget the exact sequence)? Mine just freezes there, doesn't get to the status boot screen. I may also just need to upgrade the software, but I don't know why this would have been happening recently. Thanks btw for the help guys.

Oh, it's a mark 2.

I went out for an enormous meal with people from work today. I think it's affected my sleep pattern, so I keep popping around and managed to end up surfing through really old articles.

This thread is a PERFECT example of how NOT to install car audio. Right from the first couple of messages Chris was pointed to the problems (some of them) but didn't do the rest of the required leg work to fix it/them.

He's got power and ground issues to both his amplifier and empeg. Grounds are not made to struts or other vertical spot-welded or bolted parts of the car. Grounds are not made through screws or bolts. You ground direct to bare metal on the pan (that's the bottom) of the car. The bolt only serves to hold the ground connection.

Never use a ground wire that is thinner than your power wire. Always use power wire that is of sufficient gauge for the current being drawn. Do keep the ground wire short from the amp (wherever the amp is mounted). If possible, ground all head units (including the empeg) to a good ground spot near the mounting location and not the lead on the factory radio harness (most factory grounds are crap).

DO *always* go through the basics of car audio: http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm

And if installing something like the empeg, always DO try it at home with the included AC adapter before starting to freak out about the sky falling with your car installation.

Anyone ever hear from this guy Chris after his last post calling it quits?

Anyone ever hear from this guy Chris after his last post calling it quits?

No, his last BBS post said that he was going to swap his empeg for a fresh unit, and that was the last of it.

It's a shame when people moan, get plenty of offers for help, including from official channels, and then disappear. Probably embarrassment after realizing it was the installation all along. :)