Any reason for an amp to overheat sitting in the parking lot?

[eXistence 10+ year member]

I park my car out in the sun for about 10 hours minus 3 or so when its early in morning. Ill get into my car and notice the speakers aren't working but the sub amp is working. I have a Pioneer GM-D8604 and a D8601. They both are mounted vertically in the back of my C6Z in the open on my partition subbox. When the amp is cool from sitting over night/shade or something. It can run hard and long and never cuts out, but when its been sitting in sun it puts it into protect for some odd reason. Yet the sub amp still runs good. Could this be a faulty heating element/sink or something causing it to kick itself into protect like that? I mean I have seen amps sit out in direct sunlight and still go with no problems. I also live in Houston so its not that hot yet, but it has been doing this just about everyday after work if its above 80* outside.

I have re-wired my whole system to make sure i didn't have anything touching/grounding and everything is good. I also can't get rid of the alternator whine its causing from my 4 channel amp. I have the power and ground separate from the RCAs and speaker wires. Its driving me insane. I even have ground loop isolators on them and nothing. My ground is bolted to the seat bolt and is shorter than the power wire. My battery is located in the rear as well. I have both powers on a distribution block and the grounds on separate grounds. Both passenger and driver side seat bolt.

I went ahead and ordered another amp hoping this one is faulty, but we shall see. If it isn't I dont know what the hell the problem could be. I have checked all speaker ohms/voltage/etc. Everything checks out good. Any possibility it could be a bad headunit?

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[garretttt4 10+ year member]

Don't have it grounded to the frame. That could be it. Reground to frame and that might fix it.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

And try parking in the shade maybe,and or crack a window as well, to let some heat out.I usually open some windows and try to blow all the heat out,and get it cooled down/seats down before I begin cranking on it/some fresh air so to speak,,A fan wouldnt hurt by any means

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I'd like to see pics of the grounds. Engine noise is typically a ground issue, either on the amp, or a ground fault in the HU (pico-fuse in some HUs)

 

[eXistence 10+ year member]

headunit is a Kenwood ddx 719. Should I ground the headunit? there is another groundon the side of the car I can use that has the battery wire grounded to. my main concern is why can the mono amp handle the heat but not the 4 channel?

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

what is ohm load on the amp? I had a sundown 100.2 running 2ohm per ch that would overheat/go into protect on very hot days.

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

grounding is very important, i have learned the hard way... go to the chassis

 

[eXistence 10+ year member]

amp is running 4ohm for speakers. have mids with crossovers and then rears. ill try different grounding spot but if the mono amp can handle the heat why not the 4 channel?

 

[eXistence 10+ year member]

grounding is very important, i have learned the hard way... go to the chassis

my car is an all aluminum chassis. its a corvette z06. so grounding is not so easy.

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

In that case use a dim and test the areas ,you plan to use as grounds to check for the lowest possible resistance that or just run dedicated grounds.

 

---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:27 PM ----------

 

Oh and btw nice car!

 

[eXistence 10+ year member]

In that case use a dim and test the areas ,you plan to use as grounds to check for the lowest possible resistance that or just run dedicated grounds. 

---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:27 PM ----------

 

Oh and btw nice car!

Thank you.

Well tried 2 different grounding places and found one that has the negative battery cable bolted to it. I used that and there is still alternator whine. The whine can def be heard when the volume is down very low. Once I turn it up its somewhat not noticeable. Should I be running something on my power wire like a capacitor or something? My ground wire is prob about 18 inches max too.