Connected Negative cable to battery...loud POP!(noob)

[mcarlos95 10+ year member]

Ok so I tried hooking up a subwoofer myself. Bad idea.

I hooked everything up correctly(I believe).

RCA Cable was good.

Power Signal was good.

Ground was good.

Speaker cable was good.

I had everything hooked up perfectly. The power wire was connected to the amp and the other end to the positive battery. The last step was to connect the negative car battery cable to the car battery. As soon as I did, it took a second or two and I heard a loud POP come from the trunk! I checked the fuse on the amp, and it appears to not have blown. It DOESN'T look like the picture below

http://i.imgur.com/TWlmL.jpg

As soon as I heard, I disconnected everything. What could it be?

I used 6 gauge power wire. The amp is rated at 300W @ 4ohms and has a fuse reading 40A. I'm leaning towards just taking it to a car audio shop, but I don't want to get ripped off for something small I'm doing wrong.

Any help is appreciated.

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[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like you could have the positive and the ground wires mixed up, there is a short somewhere, or the amp might be trash. Recheck things.

 

[mcarlos95 10+ year member]

I ordered the amp online through eBay but it was used. I mean, it looks fine...

Is the amp probably fried now?

I'm pretty sure the positive and ground wires weren't mixed up. The cable seems to be fine. Should I give it another go tomorrow?

ALSO, I don't know if this matters or not, but I tried connecting an old 10" Kenwood sub to the amp. Could it have been the sub that popped? The amp is rated at 300W @ 4 ohms while the sub is rated at around 125W. The fuse on the amp is fine, so could it have been the sub?

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

pics of the amp wiring? the more pics the better. the sub won't cause the issue if the sub wiring is fine (a DMM can verify). the amp shouldn't turn on until the HU is on (if you wired the remote turn-on properly). fuses pop when there is too much current through them. mixing up power and ground will cause an instant pop of an amp fuse.

 

[Dtrom 10+ year member]

Sounds like pos/ground switched around. Accidentely did that before. Thankfully only a blown fuse came of it.

 

[mcarlos95 10+ year member]

Ok so I tested the sub. It still works.

That pos/ground switch up you guys are talking about, is that only for the amp and battery? I think I may have accidentally switched up the pos and ground from the amp to sub. Would that have caused the loud pop?

I want to try the hook up again, but I'm afraid of frying the amp if it isn't already...

 

[mahc 10+ year member]

The last step was to connect the negative cable to the car battery.

You must ground it on your car's chassis, The negative wire must be less then 3'.

 

[mcarlos95 10+ year member]

Yes, the ground is connected to the car's chassis and is less than 3'. By the negative cable I meant the one that's under the hood. The cable that comes from the car and to the battery. The thick one.

Also, since hte amp's fuse didn't blow, does that mean the amp is safe?

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

You must ground it on your car's chassis, The negative wire must be less then 3'.

Uh, no. Those are simply options, not musts.

 

[mahc 10+ year member]

Yes, the ground is connected to the car's chassis and is less than 3'. By the negative cable I meant the one that's under the hood. The cable that comes from the car and to the battery. The thick one.
Also, since hte amp's fuse didn't blow, does that mean the amp is safe?

pos/neg on your amp were inverted or not?

 

[mcarlos95 10+ year member]

This is my amp.

http://i.seimg.net/images/163977/big/kac8104d.jpg

For 1 subwoofer, where would the positive and negative go? There are two positives and two negatives.

I thought my connections were fine, but apparently not? Would the pop sound come from a messed up connection of pos+neg between the AMP and BATTERY, AMP and SUB, or either? I guess I flipped the wiring somewhere.

If the fuse didn't blow, then that means the amp is fine right? RIGHT? The sub works and the fuse on the amp is not blown. I thought a flip in connections blow the fuse? Also, normally went you disconnect the car battery and go to reconnect the negative, there is a small spark. When I went to connect the negative this time(with amp hooked up), there was a small bit of smoke and bigger spark coming from the negative knob of the battery. Not sure if this helps diagnose anything.

 

[NitroCL 10+ year member]

I know that this might sound like a stupid question, but working in auto parts (and batteries) I see it often:

Did you mix up the positive and negative wires on the battery? As in the positive wire to the negative post and the ground wire to the positive post.

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

Since he had the load side wired up, this could have simply been the amp capacitors filling up once he completed the circuit. I know my Warhorse sounded like I shot a .45 off in the bed when I wired it up. It had sat for many months and all those caps had fully discharged.

 

[mcarlos95 10+ year member]

Ok, so it all comes down to, should I try it again later today?

If the fuse is still good on the amp, does that mean it still works??

http://i.seimg.net/images/163977/big/kac8104d.jpg

On my amp is has 4 ports for speakers even though it's a mono amp.

(+)(+)(-)(-)

How do I wire it for one speaker? I've looked online for diagrams, but all the mono amp diagrams only have 2 entries, not 4. Should I be looking at the 2-channel diagrams?

 

[mcarlos95 10+ year member]

Since he had the load side wired up, this could have simply been the amp capacitors filling up once he completed the circuit. I know my Warhorse sounded like I shot a .45 off in the bed when I wired it up. It had sat for many months and all those caps had fully discharged.

I'm not sure how long it's been since this amp's been used. Maybe it was due to what you're saying?

If the pop were to happen again...should I just stop trying?

If the fuse is fine, that means the amp is fine too right??