Fuse and Amp Help

[aaronspriggs]

So here's my problem. I just recently wired 4 brand new speakers, and a sub with an enclosure I made myself. Brand new everything except for the amp which is an Eclipse EA3532 5/4 650W that I got an excellent deal on. I wired up everything and it all worked perfectly... until I started driving. On the road the audio would cut in and out, and once I thought I smelled the blue smoke of death. Then it went away and I wasn't sure what was up. It wasn't until I stopped at a gas station and went to turn back on my car when the amp behind my seat started smoking profusely. I cut the engine and pulled the cables from the amp. I opened up the amp to see if their was any damage and there was a minuscule amount of blackness around one of the capacitors near the power intake.

Why did this happen?

Here's my setup - (Running at 4 ohms in a 1994 Ford Ranger Regular Cab)

Amp - Eclipse EA3532

105W x 4 channel Max. Power Output at 2 ohms plus 230W x 2 Max. Sub-Out

40W x 4 channel (4 ohms), 120W x 1 channel(4 ohms)

Maximum Amperage: 50amp

Door Speakers - Pioneer TS-A6872R x4

6-Inch X 8-Inch 3-Way 240-Watt Speakers

40W RMS, 240W Max

Sub - Pioneer TS-SW841D x1

Shallow Mount 8" (all the space I have in my regular cab)

120W RMS, 500W Max

All of my RMS levels exactly match that of the amp, so nothing should be drawing too much power... The only thing that I can think of would be the amp kit that I installed...

Stinger SHK241 4 Gauge Kit

4 Gauge Copper Wire

150 Amp Fuse

Does having a 150amp fuse feeding into a 50amp amplifier cause a problem? It worked fine when I wired it and it was running. Even when I was driving for most of the time it worked great...

Until it started smoking... obviously...

I read elsewhere that you could put another fuse inline close to the amp to bring the power down. Would that help or cause more problems? The amp itself has two 25 amp fuses, therefore 50 amps. Shouldn't those protect that from happening? Or do those protect from something else?

I'm new at the whole car stereo installation thing so bare with me. The system sounded great when everything was running, and had a decent amount of bump to it to! Please help!

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[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

I read elsewhere that you could put another fuse inline close to the amp to bring the power down. Would that help or cause more problems? The amp itself has two 25 amp fuses, therefore 50 amps. Shouldn't those protect that from happening? Or do those protect from something else?

I'm new at the whole car stereo installation thing so bare with me. The system sounded great when everything was running, and had a decent amount of bump to it to! Please help!

Not sure where you read that, but its completely wrong. Electricity is drawn from the source by each component (your amps). Electricity is not "pushed" by the battery.

As to what happened, most likely a loose connection, bad ground, or a bad amp.

 

[aaronspriggs]

Would you recommend trying to ground it somewhere else and try hooking it up again? Or with smoke before should I even try to hook it up again and risk further damage?

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

Would you recommend trying to ground it somewhere else and try hooking it up again? Or with smoke before should I even try to hook it up again and risk further damage?

If there was as much smoke as you described above, the amp is probably toast. Even though the top of the board looks OK, the bottom could be fried worse. Can you post up pictures of the damage?

 

[aaronspriggs]

Here's the damage.

Almost no damage at all to the underbody. Worth trying to hook up again?

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I dont recommend hooking that amp directly back up?? Sounds like its history/needs repair.Take it out and go to the car battery and take the poss and remote wire tie together and touch the +post and the neg/black wire to neg see,if it lights up?? It prob will not.Recommend replacing with another 4ch/3ch or 2-2ch, amplifiers/Repair. Prob get cheaper than getting repaired or get better quality amp at the repaired price even.?????Something to consider as well.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

Transistor Q805 is definitely burned. No idea what its use is on the board though. Amp probably won't work in its current state.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

If you know how to solder?? You may try replacing those that have been subjected to burning? Radio shack may have the equilv. to what you need? or even a computer repair shop?Solder back in place,and try it again??May run you 20 bucks for solder/ parts???What do you have to loose ???

 

[aaronspriggs]

I'll do that. As a side note, the power light was still on after it smoked a bit and I pulled the power. It slowly faded out. Was that just residual power left over? Would a completely fried system have residual power or not? Just grasping at hope that it still works //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[aaronspriggs]

I'm looking at new amps just in case, how does this look? eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Well i know that if you had an issue with the amp,the fuse should have worked for you immediately!Electricity?? Who really knows all..you know?I run in my Integra 93 2dr. stock alt,1 redtop battery for the entire car w the system,w 150anlfuse at the battery w 4g to the rear to a glass fused dist block from there to my amps,if i have an issue with that amp the fuse goes close to the ampand i can easily replace rather than the expensive anl.Im not a big fan of the new amps that are out there.I use old school amps,I seem to get more power and db ratings,and rms power from them and easier on the wallet too at times.LOL.Yet that amp looks great and all,and will work without question for your system set up.If you are in the market for a good clean multi ch amp,the old school jbl gtq 400 is a great great amp,and around 100 cheaper that is a true power house and can even be ran in 6chmode???I have 1,and approx 30 other amps that i am usually on e-bay audiobaun 170*.I dont have any up on auction of this nature,but there is a 400 on there right now that is very nice,they have built in fans also that will out perform the amp you are looking at with authority!! you may be able to repair the one you have and be happy from here on out???Your choice.Id try the repair to save some money as these hard times are whaling upon us.

 

[aaronspriggs]

Thanks for the advice. I'll definately check them out. Also, I plugged in the amp just power, ground, and turn on lead and I got a power light! Now I haven't put any audio through it or anything, but that seems like a good sign. I'm going to try it and see what happens.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Man.. that sounds like you may be in good shape!!! I was on the bay and found 3 new amps that have pretty decent specs for less than 200$ that may be of interest also-New Alphasonik pmz12005a 150.00 free shipping-75x4+200x1 100db/Sound Stream PX5.580-165.15 free shipping 55x4+160x1 100db/this ones nice PPI S580.5 SEDONA 179.85 free shipping 55x4+160x1.The alpha has 1day left but may repost,and the others have 10 days.Something to check out???Sounds really good man,hope you can get it repaired and save some money as well.Like to hear how it turns out.Best of luck

 

[aaronspriggs]

Well, good news! It works! I ran it for 10 minutes with no problems. I haven't run it while driving yet, but I'll try that tomorrow morning. With the previous damage should I worry about running it? Now one other thing...

So now the amp is always on. As long as the power is hooked up to the amp the amp power light is on. Even after I disconnect the power on lead cable it is still on and runs and everything. How do I fix this? Is their a switch that will work for a 150 amp 4 gauge power cable so I can power it off when the car isn't on?

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I wouldnt run it till you repair it you know?? Thats kind of weird??? Well the burning onthe board may be the issue of that?? you can remove the remote wire or power wire till you get the amp repaired you know? Keep your battery from running down over night??I recommend removing the power till its fixed though