Possessed Car, or Bad Sub Amp?

[teqniq]

This is a long read, but I need to describe everything that's going on. Lemme know what you think of this situation...

Yesterday I was driving to work, everything is fine.. but then a couple of times during heavy accel, my stereo powers off and back on again, this happened twice. All else is fine for the day.

This morning, get on the highway and during WOT, the stereo shuts off then turns back on quickly, soon after the dash lights up with 5 or six lights and beeps 2 or three times, then the speedo, tach, gas and temp guages shut off. Car is still driving fine and the stereo is still going.. only the dash shuts down.. gauges come back on, and then shut off again for a few seconds.. "WTF" goes off in my head. and when I pull into work I check all the wires at the battery thinking there is a bad ground or some kind of short, everything is in order.

After work I drive home, and test the WOT thinking that was part of the problem.. no shut downs of any sort, but I did notice a little lack of power. So now I'm thinking a Bad Coil is involved in this. 10 mins later a CEL comes on and I'm noticing that my Voltage gauge is at 11.. then my ABS, Airbag and Anti-Slip warning lights go on with the CEL. 5 more mins go by and I see that my volt is at 8 and going down fast. When I pull into my drive it's at zero and I turn it off. Try to start it back up every single light (24 or so) comes on and nothing else. no noise or anything.

I look in the trunk to check the grounds for my subwoofer. I find the smell of burning electronics, and the amp smoking. (The sub sounded fine this whole time BTW) I unhook the amp from the power source and the gauge slowly builds from 0 volts to 11 volts. Check the ECU and the CEL light was for 4 codes, 1 multiple misfire, and 3 cylinder misfires.

Could the amp be drawing that much power from the car and would that cause all these problems?
Why would it regain voltage after disconnecting the amp? wouldn't the battery stay dead?
I assume a drain like that would cause the misfires?
Could something else be shorting out sending surges to the amp, stereo and dashboard gauges?

I'm guessing it's the amp, but not exactly sure.. The speedo and tach shutting off and turning back on is confusing me.. I've never experienced that before.

(This is a 2001 Jetta with aftermarket Head Unit/Sub)

[groggory]

I'm going to move this to the audio forum.

Sounds like your sound system was wired up improperly.

[teqniq]

I haven't changed the setup for the last 7 years or so, so I'm pretty sure it's not that.

[groggory]

How is your system powered and fused?

[teqniq]

I have two amps running 8 gauge to a Monster power splitter that is directly wired to the battery by a 4 gauge with an inline fuse. One amp is for the panel speakers, the other is for the sub. Only the sub amp was showing any issues. It is all properly wired. As I said, I have been running this setup for quite some time with no issues whatsoever.

The amp is old, well over 10 years old now, and I am assuming that it is failing on me and causing this issue (which would be awesome cause its an easy fix) But I am wondering if I have a larger electrical problem with the car like a failing alternator or some short in the system.

Would a failing amp cause the speedo and tach to turn off though? that's the weird part.

[groggory]

What is your fuse rated at?

[teqniq]

Power Cable-60A
Amps-built in 20As

[groggory]

Hmm...

Well

Easiest way to diagnose is to Pull your main audio fuse by the battery. Then see if your issues persist . That will narrow it down to the audio stuff at least.

Once youve done that we can narrow it down further

[teqniq]

I pulled the fuse yesterday, now I'm just waiting for my battery charger to bring the battery back so I can test out the alternator.