It's not going very well...

well... It's not going at all actually. one of my subs blew this morning and i think the amp is fried. all the wiring is correct, but for some reason the amp just refuses to turn on? it worked fine, then i unplugged everything so i could re-route the wires... plugged everything back in.. and nothing.

it's dead

edit- anyone know how i can test the amp and see if it's working?

Are it's fuses OK?

If you've been spanking it (ie, high gains) then it could well be knackered. Blown sub sounds like it could've been receiving a clipped signal (from the said spanked amp).

Is it a good quality amp?

I'm not entirely sure, i know bugger all about ICE this is the first time i've had anything other than the stock speakers in.

Both fuses are fine. As for high gain... nope, i kept everything fairly low to start with.

I'm gunna have a look for another fuse to go into the amp though, just in case.

Do you think it's fried? when i disconnected everything from the amp, the 12v live and the grounded cables touched and i got sparks, but neither were connected to the amp at the time. the only thing i can think of right now is trying to find a different grounding point?

Test the amp on another persons car if you know someone with a similar setup. If it works on another car then you know that the problem lies elsewhere in the wiring. Either a blown fuse, burnt out wire etc. Check the obvious such as if the red cables come loose off the battery for example and the earth wire. I know that sounds silly but it happened to my mate lol Usually most amps will have an LED which when you have a bad earth will turn RED to signal that the amp is in protection Mode. Which amp you got by the way??

F R O $ T Y

It's a JBL something or another. Beau could probably tell you more as i got the setup from him.

while it was plugged in, there was no power LED on, so i pulled the fuse out, the red LED came on for a second. i put the fuse back in and nothing happened. i've tried all sorts of stuff. looks like it's time to get another amp

I'll talk to my sisters ex and see if he can get me a cheap amp as he owns a car audio place locally.

which JBL amp is it? Check the fuse you havce in the amp is a decent size (30amp blade) is a good starting point imo.
Check the batery terminal is nice and tight. check earth.

There should only be one fuse size in the amp - and that's the size the manufacturer tells you. Using a larger one could pose a serious hazard (e.g. fire) or could cause further damage to the amp. A slightly smaller fuse would probably not blow (the amp doesn't work 100% all the time) but you'll continually blow fuses.

When the power cable got grounded, was anything connected to the amp?

All sorted now. turns out that the ground cable had come loose, but not enough so that it was noticable.

the ground cable is now very much secured. my dad also helped me rig up a switch so i can turn the amp and sub off when needed.

just a case of tidying the boot up now. pictures coming soon.

oh good it was working fine for me

a continuity test with a multimeter would have showed this.
really an essential tool for electrics and saves a lot of guesswork

Yeah... But I hadn't thought of that...

It's given me something to do over the past few days anyway, so it's not all that bad

OK, quick update here... since one sub blew, i decided to cut the box in half and sit the sub next to the amp, so i still had some bootspace.

Then... My dad decided to buy me a new 10" sub to replace the blown one. How nice of him The new one is a JBL GT2 (i think... matches the amp anyway). So in that went on the other side of the boot. Every time I look at it, I can't help but think of an old 80's style boombox

Still needs some tidying up, but that'll come soon. the boxes are fixed to the seat using velcro strips for now, going to sort something a bit more rigid at some point in the future.

You mean the right hand side one? Looks like a GT3 to me Glas you got it sorted