i recently put a stereo sytem in my car consisting of 2 12" subs and a 600 watt amp. whenever i turn the head unit up very loud, it shuts off (the head unit) and then comes on a second later. it will keep shutting off until i turn the volume down. i have noticed that i do not have to turn the volume up much at all if i have the headlights and/or the windshield wipers on. i am thinking that there might possible be some sort of circuit breaker or resettable fuse that limits the amount of power coming out of the alternater. has anyone else had or heard of this problem?? please reply with any suggestion.

THANX!!!!

 

that problem sounds a lot like the problem I was having with my home stereo system I installed (10 speaker dual amp dual sub Surround Dolby sound...mmmmm *drools*)..

The main problem I was having was that if I turned up the volume to high the thing would make a CLICK and then shut off...

I checked the wires running into the amp and some of them were touching, so I had to completely re-wire the system, apparently even if there is any bare wire, if they are within about little less than a half inch away from eachother there will be enough power with the volume turned up to make a spark jump and cause the safety to switch it off....

Sounds like you are having the same problems, check the wiring to your amp and on your deck...

 

... hmmm...

makes sense i guess except for one thing... it turns off at a MUCH lower volume when the lights are on. that would not make sense with your theory. i will definately check all my wires, but i doubt thats it.

thanx for the input tho!

 

I recently installed a head unit in my car. Using the stock power wires the head unit would not turn on. I checked the voltage and it was fairly low (don't remember how low). I ran a wire directly from the battery and it worked great.

Anyway.. heres a guess: I don't think your deck is getting enough power. With the amp working hard, I think its stealing the power your head unit needs, and when it doesn't have enough it shuts off, then when the amp isn't doing anything, it turns back on.
This would also make sense of why when your head lights are on the head unit it will shut off sooner, the amp doesn't need to take as much power for the head unit to shut off because there are other power draws on the charging system already.

 

Are the stereo lights turning off when this happens?

There is not a re-settable CB on the stereo wires... Where is you amp getting its power from and where is it grounded?

Sounds more like an wiring issue than anything else