Amplifier blew up, now door speakers don't work!

[Goldtaz1 10+ year member]

Hey guys, I just wanted to get some feedback for a friend of mine regarding a situation that we have run into. My friend recently decided to hook a 2 channel up to his door speakers (BTW, they are coaxial) and in doing so we went from good intentions to bad consequences. Apparently when we plugged in the speaker wire into the terminals on the amp, some of the wire from the positive side and some of the wire from the negative side were somehow touching. When the amp was powered on the amp shot some sparks and then billowed smoke. Yes I do realize this was pretty bone headed, but there is a twist in the story. We decided to try our luck again with another amp we had just lying around, but for some reason now the only thing that will play are the tweeter assemblies on the coax's. I guess my question is what happened to the door speakers when the amplifier blew up, I didn't think the speakers would receive damage as well??? Was there a surge of DC current through the cone of the coax or something? Any help you could provide would greatly help.

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[Goldtaz1 10+ year member]

C'mon, somebody knows what happened. Help me out.

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

next time you'll pay closer attention to your wiring, eh?

 

[cosmiccharlie 10+ year member]

next time you'll pay closer attention to your wiring, eh?

At the time we were trying to determine why a brand new set of speakers that we put in the rear deck did not work at all. I wired the fronts into one channel temporarily to assure my self that the amp wasn't the problem. Once we determined the new rear speakers were defective I left the fronts wired into the amp so I would have music. I neglected to permanatly wire the fronts and the wire touched and the above situation occured. It was an oversight on my part.

This is not really a question of why it happend, but COULD given the circumstances this have caused the coaxial's to blow?

BTW, all this happened in my car. We are in the process of revamping my entire system. I think you will all like the results once finished. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Paddywad 10+ year member]

I had the same situation happen to me about ten years ago when I first started to get involved with car audio. I was installing an amp just for my subwoofer and while doing so I accidently bumped my driver's seat metal track and it fried my amp as well as sending a surge throughout the rest of my electronics. Yes, the amp was on when it happened (stupid me), needless to say I had to replace not only the amp but the dash speakers, door speakers, and the head unit. What a learning experience that was! LOL!

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

you probably popped the VC in the mid part of the coax.

 

[cosmiccharlie 10+ year member]

you probably popped the VC in the mid part of the coax.

That is what we were thinking.

 

[Goldtaz1 10+ year member]

next time you'll pay closer attention to your wiring, eh?

I asked for an explanation as to what happened to the coax's. Please provide useful insight or don't post. We realize that this was definitely an oversight, but there is no need for comments like this.

 

[Goldtaz1 10+ year member]

I had the same situation happen to me about ten years ago when I first started to get involved with car audio. I was installing an amp just for my subwoofer and while doing so I accidently bumped my driver's seat metal track and it fried my amp as well as sending a surge throughout the rest of my electronics. Yes, the amp was on when it happened (stupid me), needless to say I had to replace not only the amp but the dash speakers, door speakers, and the head unit. What a learning experience that was! LOL!

Wow, thank you very much for sharing that. I am really thankful that did not happen in our situation, but nonetheless our situation is still not ideal. What kind of surge goes through the door speakers to fry them? Is it DC voltage that did it?

 

[cosmiccharlie 10+ year member]

I asked for an explanation as to what happened to the coax's. Please provide useful insight or don't post. We realize that this was definitely an oversight, but there is no need for comments like this.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif My thoughts exactly.

 

[cosmiccharlie 10+ year member]

I had the same situation happen to me about ten years ago when I first started to get involved with car audio. I was installing an amp just for my subwoofer and while doing so I accidently bumped my driver's seat metal track and it fried my amp as well as sending a surge throughout the rest of my electronics. Yes, the amp was on when it happened (stupid me), needless to say I had to replace not only the amp but the dash speakers, door speakers, and the head unit. What a learning experience that was! LOL!

What exactly bumped the seat rail?

 

[Paddywad 10+ year member]

What exactly bumped the seat rail?

The heatsink bumped the seat rail, but I believe a bad ground caused the surge ironically the sub was fine.

 

[Goldtaz1 10+ year member]

Bump for good explanation.

 

[AJ²06 5,000+ posts]

UNPLUG the negative terminal on batt before wiring anything... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

I guess its too late now.?

 

[Goldtaz1 10+ year member]

UNPLUG the negative terminal on batt before wiring anything... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

I guess its too late now.?

Sorry dude, but you must not have read my original post. The question I asked was what caused the woofer on the coax to blow up when the amplifier went up in smoke? The wire running from the speaker terminal side of the amp is what touched, not the power and ground.

BTW, just for your edification we always disconnect the negative batt wire before working on a system. Basic Car audio knowledge 101.