System seems to be malfunctioning

Hello everyone, this is my first post here. Anyway, When I got my new car I figured I would indulge myself and get a quality sound system so the first thing I did was order from a major, reputable supplier who helped me pick out equipment that was supposed to work very well together. Now, I'm a pretty smart individual but computers are my thing, car audio is not so much my forte, so just to get that out of the way, I'm pretty much a slightly above average person when it comes to audio.

The system I built was this:

Head Unit - Pioneer DEH-P80MP
Door Speakers - Pioneer TS-A1780R
Amp for Door Speakers - Kenwood KAC-8402
Subs - Rockford Fosgate Punch Stage 3 P312D2
Amp for Subs - Alpine MRD-M605
Capacitor - Lightning Audio LSD10-03 Capacitor


Now, for the most part this system has worked pretty well for about 2 years. Now all of the sudden, it seems to be cutting out a bit. While driving for a lengthy period of time, typically my drive to work is about an hour and a half for a one way drive, I listen to my stereo at volume level 55 which is pretty high. For me to just get by I need to not even hear the engine. So as I was saying, after a while, it seems like the door speakers will sort of cut out for a few seconds and then come back on, but I still here the bass coming from the subs at that time.

Today, I pulled over on the side of the road to check it out and I noticed that when it cuts out, the red indicator on the Kenwood KAC-8402 seems to be going off. After further investigation on the web it appears that this may be the auto protection feature. The only thing that I can guess that might be causing that is possibly overheating. It does seem to run pretty hot and the installer had installed this on a custom rack that he built which is almost at a 90 degree angle with the floor.

So first, what is everyone's thought on this system? Did I for the most part end up getting a decent system or is that complete trash really and I guess secondly, what is everyone's thought on the problem, does it seem to be an overheating issue? Again, I'm no expert on car stereo so I'm at a loss. If it is indeed overheating, what would I do to fix this? It never used to do this before.

I know the first year or so that I had it, the in-line fuse that I had also gotten seemed to have fried. After consulting with the installer, the installer stated that it was not drawing too much power but had simply fried due to excessive use at high volumes and afterwards, installed a circuit breaker instead of an in-line fuse. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

I believe that the voltage reading on the capacitor was about 13.4 volts or so. I'll definitely need to make a mental note to check for sure next time I get in the car.

 

If the door speakers were slowly about to die, wouldnt only one or maybe two go? I wouldnt think that all of them would but then again I'm not going to claim that I know very much about audio anymore.

I've also noticed the following:

• During my commute to work in the morning hours, when its generally cool out, I do not seem to experience any problems.
• During the evening hours after extended use, it seems like this is when I start to experience the problem.
• Lowering the volume seems to help correct it for the time being, but who wants to do that, right?

So for now I have these things to check to see if I can isolate the problem, does anyone else have anything extra to add?

1. Monitor the voltage reading on the capacitor with a DMM. Will reply back here with my findings.
2. Monitor temperature to ensure the system is not overheating.

I'm not quite sure how to check if my speakers are dying, I would hope that they arent since they really are not that old and I was told that they were high quality speakers, as far as brand, etc go. More towards the "affordable" end however.

I may see if I can either buy or rig up a clip on fan and plug it into the auxiliary port in my trunk. I have a Hyundai Santa Fe LX and both subs are in a bandpass box. The reason that I think the amp may be overheating is because the custom rack that was built for them was built in the trunk as well on a hinge so that I can swing them up and still access the jack, etc. This leaves maybe 12 inches give or take between the box and the amp, so I can imagine that heat could be getting trapped in that small space with no where to dissipate.

By the way, thanks everyone for taking the time to read and respond to my post, I very much so appreciate the feedback.