sub keeps blowing the fuse

[318d4n]

I have my amp wired into the fuse for the wipers (30amp) but it works for a while then blows It, I can't find anywhere that it could be shorting out, the main power wire is going to the battery and the earth wire is connected underneath. Anybody have any idea why? Doing my head in. In my old car it was connected to the back of the head unit and was fine...

[ash240970]

Your amp should have its main power supply from the battery and it's remote turn on should be off the blue wire on the back of the head unit - this operates a low voltage switch in the amp that turns it on and off with the head unit. Connect it up to the blue wire on the head unit and you should be fine.

[318d4n]

Someone's messed with the wires behind my head unit and it doesn't turn on/off with the head unit, the power wires behind are constantly on, thats why I put it to the fuse box. Electrics isnt my strong point

[ash240970]

What wires have you got behind your stereo? You should have a permanent live(memory to store radio presets)a switched live(off the ignition) and another switched live off your lights(illumination) these are usually red orange and yellow. What make is your stereo and I'll have a look and see which should be which according to manufacturer as they sometimes have the permanent and ignition lives the wrong way round but you can come off the ignition live as long as you fit an in-line fuse. The best option may be to get another harness for your stereo - you should be able to pick one up cheap enough on eBay.

[Niall]

It's blowing fuses because it's drawing far too much power! A amp, no matter how small should have its own power line straight from the battery with a inline fuse withing 30cm of the battery. What size wire are you using?

[318d4n]

What wires have you got behind your stereo? You should have a permanent live(memory to store radio presets)a switched live(off the ignition) and another switched live off your lights(illumination) these are usually red orange and yellow. What make is your stereo and I'll have a look and see which should be which according to manufacturer as they sometimes have the permanent and ignition lives the wrong way round but you can come off the ignition live as long as you fit an in-line fuse. The best option may be to get another harness for your stereo - you should be able to pick one up cheap enough on eBay.

Im not sure about the colours but i check the wires coming off the loom and i have 2 permenant lives?.... which is why i decided to put the remote wire into the fuse box. ive had a look and the wires from the stereo and going through to the fuse box dont seem to of been messed with:S

Niall-The main power soource is coming from the battery and has a fuse about 10 cm away from it. im talking about the remote wire, very thin one which normally goes to the back of the head unit, but for soem reason i have 2 permenant lives going into my head unit and dont fancy a flat battery every morning. hope this has made it a bit clearer

[ash240970]

2 permanent lives?? Is that with the key in the ign and turned to position 2 when the dash lights up? Or is that without the ign on? What phase car is it? and can you find the number codes on the wires?

[318d4n]

That's with the key out of ignition lol, ill check the codes at the weekend, its a ph2 dude

[Niall]

You scared me for a minute. I thought you was taking the power from the HU! Lol

Have a look on your fuse box and there's a white fuse out of line from the rest called the shunt fuse. There is 3 holes for it so two different positions. Try moving it and this should sort your live issue.

[ash240970]

You still haven't told me what make/model your stereo is as I have a few harnesses from old stereos here and they all have the blue wire which is switched by turning the head unit on - if we can get your 2 lives sorted then we can have a look at sorting your harness properly - do things right - no bodges and no electrical fires

[Matt]

Mine also can be turned on without the key. Where is thi shunt fuse and which one should it be in?

[Choppin]

If u having problems with the remote wire (blue 1) just run a wire from a permanent live and put a switch and a fuse init, had 2 do it 4 my mate as he kept blowing the main fuse on the amp, the other way is 2 put a massive main fuse in the main power supply, not the safest way but will do the job, check your earth, if it's not got a good earth that will keep blowing fuses, hope u sort it soon mate

[ash240970]

Matt your shunt fuse is the one in your main fuse board that is out of line with all the others - cant miss it

[318d4n]

Niall- nah mate, even I'm not that stupid lol, I hope:/ cheers mate ill try that tonight

Ash- I can't remember right now, will look later

Choppin- that's what I considered doing at the time, couldn't be bothered tho

[Popeye_6]

have you checked for a short circuit?

the shunt fuse is on the right hand side of the fuse box iirc, been a while since ive looked tbh

[Danny2009]

my cd player does the same dosent turn off with the ignition it will stay on all day, but if i pop the front off the cd player turns off and so does the amp have you tried wiring the remote (blue wire) to the cd player and removing the front off the cd player and check if the amp turns off ?

Id try that mate wiring into the car fuse box dosen't sound good!

[ash240970]

Danny - I think from what he's said already the blue wire from the head unit is AWOL - if he has a removable harness from the head unit he should be able to replace that or solder a new blue wire onto the little spade connector in the harness plug where it goes into the stereo. Personally I'd opt for a new harness once I'd sorted out the live issues from the loom and fuse box.

[Danny2009]

Anyone know where he is from?

[318d4n]

Blacksix-Battery is fine and the earth is good, the fuse box inside the car has a fuse with sh on the top, that the right one?

Danny- the blue wire is on constantly mate that's why I didnt use it and tapped into a wire in the fuse that comes on and off with the ignition. My amp isn't plugged in atm, need to get some more fuses first.

Ash- spot on mate, I've got some more in the garage off old units, didn't get chanve last night but hopefully ill get time to have a look later.

Danny- I'm from the shithole that is lincoln lol

[ash240970]

318d4n - I'm pretty sure that shunt fuse should be bridging the top and middle rows of fuses but I'm sure someone else will be along to confirm that.
Soon as that's sorted you can start to concentrate on your soldering skills to repair the blue wire lol

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Lincoln and I'd give my right arm to live somewhere like Louth or Cherry Willingham or any of the small villages around lincs, though I do love Louth and have spent many weekends there. Lincoln itself has an amazing architecture(cathedral in particular) some good shopping and lots of country lanes for hooning around on.

[318d4n]

The shunt fuse was in the lower position, the fuse was too long to fit anywhere else tho, lokked at the fuse for the audio And saw it was in a1, moved it up and it sorted that problem, the remote wire cooked itself tho so now I need to either buy a new lot or try and get the fitting out of the plug that goes into the amp so I can put a new wire onto it, o remember what I did, I took the harness out and used the original peugeot leads, will put another harness in atvthe weekend then put the wire to the remote connection on the rear of the head unit, will get some pics up later when get on pc..

I actually live outside lincoln in a little villiage, plenty country lanes near me to drive round its not the worst place to live but it just gets boring going round the same shops every time, if I moved away for few years I probably would have a different opinion about it, some nice sights walking through town in the summer though, was the best bit about my old job, most days we walked round admiring the scenery

---

The holes for the shunt fuse, it was too long to fit in the top??


The melted plastic of the fuse box cover


Collection of fuses


Nice black contacts


After had it in bits and clean it as best as could


This is whats left of the wire

[Danny2009]

If you was a bit closer mate id have popped up and had a look for you. Hope ya get to the bottom of it.

[318d4n]

Thanks anyway mate, think once I get the cable replaced it should be fine now, sorted the problem with the lack of a switched live behind the hu, just a shame I didn't move the cable first, think it must of shorted somewhere, maybe I stripped the cable when routing the cable, could of been why it blew the fuse before, will protect it a bit better next time

[ash240970]

Dude - I'm glad you're getting to the bottom of it now as that could of been bye bye to your car - electrical fires under the dash take hold really quickly due to the amount of dust that accumulates and one plastic catches fire ..... Forget it.
When you're on the hunt for the loom at the weekend have a look for another fusebox as well if I was you cos that board has seen better days now with the melted plastic.
The wires from the car loom providing power should be like I said earlier permanent live switched lived and switched illumination live which should be - that should leave your car with 2 other lives and a simple bulb test will tell you which is still on giving you memory for presets and if you don't have your stereo manual anymore or the writing has worn off the wires on its harness a quick look on google will soon sort you out.
Which village do you live in as I've probably been through it.
As for getting bored with the same roads look in the meets section on here and see if there are any other members local to you and have some mini meets - I'm sure there's a few Lincs and surrounding counties members on here

[318d4n]

Yeah, afterwards I realised I had been quite lucky considering, absolutely shat myself tho :/

Will be doing mate, need a trip to the scrappy, need some door stops for the rear doors( lad that I bought it off took them off to get his fishing rods in) want a phase 3 front bumper, new n/s wing, spoiler, amd probably will see other bits

Got a loom in the garage, waiting till I get some cable to replace the wire from tobights incident lol, will use a multimeter to check it more than likely

You ever heard of bardney, I'm about 5 miles from there,

I've looked on the map and the only person on it that's sorta close is someone in derby I think. Will have to post something in the meets section

[ash240970]

Seen baronet on the signs bud but not bin through all the surrounding places like Woodall spa, wragby, scothern, nettleham, bracebridge Heath, waddington, meteringham and horncastle and you're not far from cherry Willingham lol
You'll get there soon bud and give the check straps a good overhaul and regrease before fitting them.
Time for another tip if you're getting check straps though. Take some medium nails and a hammer with you and a plastic sandwich type bag without holes in as the check straps are secured inside the doors by two 10 mm bolts. You will need the nails to knock the 2 split pins out of the check straps to remove them from the doors. Torx driver to remove rear door card as its secured through the inside handle to a bracket. Hope this helps.

Ps - are you sure the straps aren't in the door and he's just took the split pins out and bashed the strap back in as it's quite strongly sprung.

[318d4n]

never heard of baronet mate lol or was that meant to be bardney?

yeah, would be getting the quicker if i had more time and money thought

ill remember that mate, i didnt know that, will have to have a look next time i go out to it, might save me some money thanks

[ash240970]

Yeah it was meant to be Bardney - fecking ifail auto correct sucks shit sometimes lol

Sometimes throwing money at something leaves you with less satisfaction than doing things the hard way on a budget - sense of achievement can't be bought, stick with it and be proud - there's a huge support network for you here when you're stuck or need inspiration.

[318d4n]

Thought it probably was lol

You have a good point there, I don't know if I should spend money getting it how I want it though, i plan on buying a gti6 next year if I can afford one. Yeah everyone on here seems pretty decent and helpful if they can be. a lot of useful info on here too, tho I like to do things that haven't been done before, don't think there's much more that can be done to a 306

[ash240970]

There's always something new to do to the 306 - it's just peoples imagination and ability that limits things.