Cleaning things up (wires) and i see smoke...

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Ok,

SOOOO, I'm reallllly baffled and just plain pissed off. Last night i decided to cable tie ALL of my wires, put plastic tuding around all of them, and tie them back. (kinda clean up my wires/install real good before I make my amplifier rack.)

So, that's what i was doing last night. Not installing anything...I only unhooked my subwoofer amp...nothing else, i didn't even take apart my dash or anything.

That's the pre-face, here's what happened. I was hooking my subwoofer amplifier back up, (don't THINK it had anything to do with this...but it happened at the same time i was hooking the sub amp up.) Keep in mind my car key is IN MY POCKET no where near the ignition and my truck is not on. All of a sudden my radar detector goes crazy (turns off and on a few times doing to "beep beep" startup thing) and then smoke POURS out of the dash...from the vents...and shit. I immediately unhook the radar while this is happening.

That's what happened, then I immediately take my dash apart...I decide to turn the CD player on to see if it still works, it turns on but neither of my amps turn on. Then i take my key out, and the CD Player stays on with the key out of the ignition and the car NOT on. I take the wiring harness and all rca's etc off and set the CD player off to the side. I check behind the ground wire on the HU is TOTALLY fried...the plastc melted off...bare wire exposed and shit. (this is for s short section, a splice from the HU wiring harness ground to a splic to where i grounded it...it wasn't long enough so there's a splice b/w the two). So i'm thoroughly baffled at how this all of a sudden happened AND TO THE GND WIRE with the car off.

So, i ****in electrical tape EVERYTHING. Any splices that i thought even remotely could have touched something and shorted something out. I re-do the GND (it's in the rear, so all of my stereo components are grounded at the same point.) Then i turn it back on, speaker amp turns on...components are playing....but the sub amp is in protect. Then all of a sudden the speaker amp shuts off and smoke comes out near the HU ground again by the harness.

I know this is a long story...hopefully some people will read it. Feel free to ask any questions that my help me resolve this. Please no smart *** comments like "that sucks" or any of that shit. I'm just REALLY pissed now b/c i try to clean up my install to make it look good and what happens...potentially $400-600 worth of products fuck up...and it doesn't make for a great b-day present for me.

Any help or suggestions?

NG

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[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

**** dude. I would guess something happend with the main power line to the amp. Touched a ground some where and started stuff on fire. May have travelled back up through the RCAs or the remote to melt stuff there too. It could be a problem with the power wire for the HU too.

Try and check under your hood for more charred wiring/melted parts. Also check the fuse box. Something like this happend to me except not to this degree. I went through a puddle and stuff stopped working. Might have been frost turning into water on some wiring and causing a short. You may want to have a car shop take a look at the wiring after you get done too.

Hope some of that helps. Another thought is to rewire everything. Take it all out and put it all back in. I know its gonna be a pain but why risk a bigger fire.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

**** dude. I would guess something happend with the main power line to the amp. Touched a ground some where and started stuff on fire. May have travelled back up through the RCAs or the remote to melt stuff there too. It could be a problem with the power wire for the HU too.
Try and check under your hood for more charred wiring/melted parts. Also check the fuse box. Something like this happend to me except not to this degree. I went through a puddle and stuff stopped working. Might have been frost turning into water on some wiring and causing a short. You may want to have a car shop take a look at the wiring after you get done too.

Hope some of that helps. Another thought is to rewire everything. Take it all out and put it all back in. I know its gonna be a pain but why risk a bigger fire.

Yeah, thanks for the help! Also, there are NO other melted wires AT ALL. Which is why i was so confused...but i talked to a guy at a shop, and he said the ground may have tried to hitch on to the remote and pull ground through the HU ground all the way up front. Or something of that sort...totally ****ing things up. But i am DEFITELY considering re-wiring EVERYTHING. It'll be easier to clean up then...i won't have to clean up b/c i'll keep it pretty this time. Well, tomorrow I'm going to try to re-wire it all...and i got an e-mail out about warranty service on the Alpine HU. Also, my sub amp goes into protect now...great! Any other ideas...LMK guys. thanx, peace

NG

 

[JoseMCeee 10+ year member]

this is why you always unplugg the battery smart guy //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

this is why you always unplugg the battery smart guy //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif

I have two batteries...i un-plugged the main one in front. But the one in the rear was still in resting state. Still woulda happened...

NG

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

For the sub amp pop it open and check to see if anything fused together and created a jumper that would cause a short. Unless popping it open voids any warranty that you have left on it. Anything that looks dirty or melted you should try to clean up as best as you can. if you want to clean off the actual circuit board, use isoropyl alcohal. Just make sire you don't leave residue on the resistors, because it can make them go bad.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

I popped open the amp immediately afterwards...nothing wrong internall at all. I'll check again tho...

NG

 

[Damaso87 10+ year member]

Make sure you use lab grade alcohol, and not rubbing alcohol, which is BADDD