If a car subwoofer is bottoming out, you can hear popping noises or loud mechanical noises, like a thumpy wumpy sound, like the polarity of the speaker wires is wired backwards on the terminals. These sounds can heard when you increase the volume to the maximum level on the car head unit because when a subwoofer when a bottoming out, the voice coil slams back into the magnet, causing them noises to be heard.
Bottoming out means that when a subwoofer has reached the limit of its excursion mechanically, a subwoofer cone can only move so far, if it moves in and out more than it is designed for, that is called bottoming out. There are two things that cause a subwoofer to bottom out, the first reason is not having a subsonic filter switched on the car amplifier, this only applies to all ported, vented designed enclosures and the second reason is because the amp is giving more power than the sub rms wattage is rated at.
To give you an idea on how to tell if your car subwoofer bottoming out, below is a video showing you a Fusion subwoofer that is overpowered and is bottoming out.
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