lemaylexus

So it was a nice day yesterday - figured I'd take the car and give it a wash. After I finished, I noticed only the sub was putting out any volume. So I started digging around in the trunk, removed the lining on the side where the amp is, and voila - there was a bit of water in there. Apparently the runoff tube from the gas cap had came loose at some point, and water leaked in when I was spraying that side of the car.

Now, my questions are these:

1) Is there anyway I can know for sure that my amp is dead? I've tried disconnecting and re-seating the two plugs on the back of the amp with no luck.

2) Does the subwoofer have a separate amplifier, which would explain why it continues to operate?

3) Could some water have just blown a fuse somewhere that I could check out, either on the amp itself or in the fuse box?

One final thing I noticed was that if I turn the volume up fairly loud (while the sub is playing) and turn it back down, I hear an audible click from the front left channel speaker - but nothing more.

So, moral of the story: my amp is toast, right?

Edit: I forgot to mention, it's the stock Pioneer system.

mkorsu

First, the factory amps in that location all suffer from this issue. You do have a separate sub amp with the Pioneer system. It is located underneath the rear deck lid. It is possible that just a fuse blew but I am much more inclined to say that the amp is fried. You may want to remove the amp form the car and lay it in a container of rice for a day or two to remove any moisture and then try reinstalling it.

lemaylexus

Thanks for the reply, mkorsu. If I were to check for a blown fuse, do I check in the kick panel by the drivers door, or would the fuse be on/in the amp itself?

Also, as long as I replace the amp with an identical part numbered amp, it should be just plug and play, right? Do I need to worry about theft detection or any of that crap?

Edit: I was going to try the above suggestion for placing the amp in with some rice to remove moisture. I got the amp out of the car, cleaned the female connectors on the amp, and gently blew dry the entire unit on low heat, along with the cables coming from the head unit. After doing these steps, I popped it back in and I now have full sound again. I guess it just needed a thorough drying out.

mkorsu

Awesome!!! Glad it worked after being dried out!. As far as replacing with OEM.........Nothing wrong with that at all. I did that too..........3 TIMES! That location will always get water so if you decide to upgrade, relocating is strongly advised. Personally I have an old Orion SX300 running my sub and a newer Pioneer GM4300f running my separates. I replaced my factory amp 3 times and got tired of that. All my amps now lay on a custom floor in my trunk. You will definitely want to reposition that amp.