Fuse Problem

[zerohertz 10+ year member]

Part One - I recently took out my amp and subs to sell them but I still have an amp in my car for mids/highs. I also have a cap and crossover that are still hooked up. So everythings fine for a few days until one day I turn on my car and a CD is playing fine. I turn off the head unit for a minute and then turn it back on .. no sound. So I go to check everything out and it turns out the fuse in the mids/highs amp is blown (just a little 20amp fuse). I figure no big deal I'll check all the positive and negatives and pop in another one. Everything looks OK so I pop in another one and it blow the second in put it in. Whats going on?

Part Two - A few days later I'm installing a system in a friends car. I was putting in 2 amps (one for subs, the other for mids/highs, the same amp for mids/highs I also have with the fuse problem), subs, crossover, and cap. This was the exact set up I originally had before I took out my low amp and subs. So I'm done with everything and it's time to check it out .. No mids and highs ... I check everything out and guess what - the fuse in the mids/highs amp is blown. At this time I'm thinking this amp ***** or I completly don't know what I'm doing (which I like to think I do because I've been installing for over a year). So I check everything out and everything is perfect. The only difference between this new amp and mine is that this fuse blew right away while mine was good for a few months. After hours of checking everything I decide to check the spot where the fuse goes with a test light. Turns out, the light lit up meaning that half the fuse area was positive while the other half was negative (its supposed to be a complete positive connection). I'm completly mind boggled. Why would mine do this after a few months and his immediatly. So I put in a different amp and everything goes smooth ... Whats going on?????

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[trungthiendo 10+ year member]

what kind of amp is it...it does sound like a weird problem...

 

[zerohertz 10+ year member]

It's an audio pipe 500 watt 2ch amp

 

[94gmsierra 10+ year member]

I had a similar problem with my 400x4 amp a year ago, it turns out just one of the channels shorted inside so putting in a fuse causes an instant pop. Before it blew it intermittantly pushed the speakers out and held them there for a second, then started blowing fuses till finally it completely shorted. Kind of crappy cause it took 3months for parts.

 

[zerohertz 10+ year member]

Well I figured it was some internal problem. Its a new amp that just came out this year so maybe its got a defect. I already broght both of them back for a full refund.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

After hours of checking everything I decide to check the spot where the fuse goes with a test light. Turns out, the light lit up meaning that half the fuse area was positive while the other half was negative (its supposed to be a complete positive connection).

All you were testing is that there was a path to ground on one side (causing the fuse to blow BTW) The side of the fuse holder away from the battery is effectively negative compared to the side nearest the battery. With no fuse in the holder to complete the circuit, there is no way that the amp side of the holder could have any power to it. Make sense?

 

[zerohertz 10+ year member]

A little .. so are you sayin that the amp is defected or there was something i could have done?

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like the amp is bad.