Hi, just need some help. I have wired my amp and subwoofer in my mk1 octavia and the amp is always powered. When I switch the engine off and take key out it thuds after 10 seconds.

When I had the factory stereo in you could always switch the stereo on with no key in and turn it off I don't know if that has something to do with it as well.

Thanks in advance

Phil

Your amp should have a remote signal wire (little blue wire) going to it from the headunit that is used to signal the amp to turn on or off when the headunit is switched on or off.

 

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply. I've got a feeling it's that wire but I have wired it how I have always wired it in past cars and I can't seem to understand why its powered. I'm going to just put another switch on the remote wire so I can just flick it of when I get out but it's going to bug me the fact I don't know why

What headunit (HU) have you got? The correct way would be to connect the remote wire that comes from the HU to your amps remote terminal, that way your amp is shut off when the engine is off - assuming your HU is correctly wired. Adding an extra switch is not very convinient and in the worst case you might end up with a drained battery next morning if you forget to turn the switch off when leaving the car and your amp happens to be one of the kind that still uses some power even when there's no audio input signal present - may be a problem with (really) old amps.

 

Tõnu

From memory, that switched wire needs putting to a switched live, even if say the amp is in the boot, it could be tapped into a switched live running to a rear light - there's a few in there.

 

In the head unit wiring, it's usually a red wire which is a switched live, and the yellow wire is a permanent live.

Right and because it's VW I read you switch the red and yellow so the head unit remembers settings etc as it wasn't before I switched them..... so that could be the reason then

I'll find one in the back like you said

Forget about switches chap the head unit and your amp is designed to switch itself on or off when you request it too that is the whole point of the remote wire, the fact that it isn't means something is not wired up correctly or is faulty.

 

Just to add I had a flat battery last night and I'm pretty sure it was my amp that drained the battery, now if I just switch the head unit off it seems one of or both of my amps is still switched on but if I take the fascia panel completely off it switches both amps off.

 

This also maybe of help to you lots of information about car audio. http://www.bcae1.com/headunit.htm