Location of power amp main fuse

[CarAudioAddict 10+ year member]

yeah thats pretty stupid man.

Everytime you let yer battery die. After a battery has been drained it can NEVER be fully charged again. every time you kill the battery it loses some of its capacity.

I would suggest doig what I do. I attach a battery recharger to my battery when working on the vehicle. Keep the olume low and you shouldn't draw more than 10-20 amps and you won't kill the battery.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Happened a couple weeks ago when I replaced my heater core. Thought it would take a couple hours, ended up taking like 6. When I went to start the car it turned over slow. I don't think it's the end of the world, and I don't think it makes me stupid.

 

[stevert_2003 10+ year member]

Originally posted by n2audio A lot of higher priced amps have circuits built in for current protection (like mine). Power down, they reset. More times than not, if you have an amp with on board fuses, and you do something that pops one, your amp just went up in smoke, but possibly saved your car from doing the same.

 

 

 

No, not what I'm saying.

Not an applicable analogy anyway. If you have a bad ground the current path is restricted -- Less current, less chance of power problems, just less output from the amp.

 

However, if that wire gets grounded before the amp(cut - comes in contact with chassis) then yes, the amp will be fine because all the current that will flow through the wire -- in this case, all the current the battery can put out -- will be trying to flow through the wire directly into the car's chassis. The amp will never know it happened, effectively there is no circuit beyond the point of grounding. This is the dreaded situation that will turn the pwr wire into a heating element and likely cause a major car fire.

 

 

 

If you say so.

I disagree with the first part because several of my fuses blew and my amp and car is still fine.

 

[CarAudioAddict 10+ year member]

Thats what the fuses on the map are for. If there is a problem, either with wiring or an internal fault, the fuse on the amplifier should blow. This protects the amplifier from severe damage (assuming severe damage isn't what blew the fuse).

n2audio is partially correct in saying that higher priced amps have protection circuits. But these circuits are very limited and are no replacement for fuses. Also it should be noted that even low priced amps (like the 800 watt I saw for $99 NEW) have protection circuits to protect against overheating, overload, and shorts.

All in all we can all agree that proper fusing is ESSENTIAL to car audio for safety and to protect your $$$.

just a few guidelines for fuses and wiring:

1. Always put a fuse within 10" of your battery. This fuse hould be rated at 10% below the maximum current your wire can carry (or your total amplifier load, whichever is lower).

2. Put a fuse everytime the wire size changes. Follow the same rules as for your primary fuse

3. The wire that comes directly off the battery should be the largest wire in your power system. Never increase a wire's size larger than the wire before it. Example - Main power wire is 6Ga, no wire after this 6Ga should be larger than 6Ga.

Most of these guidelines are common sense, but there are many people who don't realize this.