i dunno why but for some reason, my 4-channel amp blew both it’s fuses today. i noticed that my driver seat was wet and i asked my brother and sister what happened and they said that while washing my car, they didn’t see that my window was still open some and water ended up getting inside. i had my amp under my driver seat and there are wires that run from it and i’m guessing that my ground connection got wet as well. i replaced both fuses, but when i reconected the power wire, i heard a fizzing sound so i immediately took off the wire but by that time, smoke started coming from the vents and now i’m not sure what to do. i dunno for sure it’s my amp is blown or not but for the time being, i’m gonna use my deck to pwer my 3-ways and hopefully they’ll still be loud enough not to get drowned out by my subs (which has it’s own amp)
the things i would like to know is why would my fuses get blown out while my car was off??? why are the amps still on eventhough the car is off??? if i open up my amp, what should i look for to see if anything is wrong??? i need help and will appreciate any input that is given.
check all wiring, make sure the ground is not touching the postive power at all. i used to have the same problem with my rockford until i found out the wiring was wrong… by the way what kind of amp do you have?
Originally posted by SimonSez the things i would like to know is why would my fuses get blown out while my car was off??? why are the amps still on eventhough the car is off??? if i open up my amp, what should i look for to see if anything is wrong??? i need help and will appreciate any input that is given.
the 12v power is directly connected to your battery, therefore it is always live. the line that doesnt have power consistently is the remote wire, which is what switches the amp on via relay.
the amp is indeed off until your deck sends the on signal via the remote wire to turn it on. however if your 12v terminal on the amp is exposed, it can easily be shorted. also dont forget that depending on how the manufacturer designed it, there can be live components inside as well- like your tv, pc, vcr etc.
crack her open. the most obvious thing to look for are scorched components. it is most likely dead, sorry.
If you had the magic white smoke come from the amp, it’s likely one of the major internal components (capacitors, FET’s, etc…) or more than one, which are toast. The usual repair bill for replacing anything inside is $35 to look at it, $50/hr in labour, plus parts which usually have to be ordered as they are not the most common of things (especially FET’s).
Open it up, and like mentioned earlier, if you see any scorched components inside, or scorched tracings (the lines that go all over the board from one component to another)… if you see any of these dead, you’re likely looking at more to repair the amp than to buy a new one w/ warranty.
well, i cracked open the amp and everything looks the same as it did when i first got it. ( i looked inside it the first time so i have an idea of what everything looks like in case somethign goes wrong) it’s already dark so i won’t be able to check where the water got to until tommorrow but i’m guessing that the ground connection is still wet. hopefully it’s not dead. the amp is from Mobile Authority and it’s a 4-channel 1000 watt amp and it has it’s own little cooling fan on the top cover.
