amp overheating

[Scott37]

Have an older mtx amp and it is getting so hot it shuts off in the first 20 minutes of powering up.... I been out of this for a while but don't remember my other systems doing that do I maybe just need to put a fan on it. ..

Any insight appreciated

Click to read more...

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

What amp and what is it running?

 

[fatboytyler]

Make sure you're not running it below what it is rated at. Also, do you have it mounted directly to carpet or a box? I'm willing to bet the cooling vents are on the bottom side.

 

[Scott37]

Its a mtx thunder series amp will post which one when I get home but yea it's mounted on the box flush to the carpet. ... its a 4/2 channel amp bridged only running at 4 ohms and the bottom says it can be ran down to 1

 

[tc300 10+ year member]

is it an old school amp?? 90s era/early 2000s

 

[Scott37]

Also it doesn't help that it's all in the trunk and my seats don't go down

 

[Spl4200]

Try to put rubber washes between your box/amp if you can try to get a quarter inch off the box. That should help might not fix it but surely will help

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

If it is clipping it will heat up quickly. Try notching the gain back a little bit and see if that helps. Also if tour power and ground have bad connections it can cause extra heat also

 

[Scott37]

Yea that's it late 90s

 

[JustGotOne]

I have an amp that runs hot normally, Cadence 5000.5, I had a piece of 1"x1" that I cut an inch less than the diameter of the amp, (2 pieces) then used velcro to attach the 1x to the amp and then used some on the bottom of the 1x so it wouldn't slide on the carpet. May sound crude but it works to allow air circulation all the way around. Also I installed a few fans to help.

 

[Scott37]

Turned gain back still no good going to raise amp so it's not directly on the box. ..It's been sitting in the garage for a couple years lol it might just be time for a better one

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

Pull a model number off of it so we know what we are trying to figure out. Too small power wire, bad ground etc can lead to heat

 

[Scott37]

It's mtx thunder6304 amp 8awg power cable and ground. running 4ohms 2 fosgate 10's they are only 250 rms each...

 

[brian84corvette 10+ year member]

most all of my old school amps run hot - but id bet yours is having some internal components start to go bad over time - diode resistor bla bla ext have a usefull life span on car audio parts... me personaly i would swap out for something newer and cheap since you only need 250w