orion 4004 amp overheating

  • 4
    Participant count
  • Participants list

fatmatt2003
10+ year member

Junior Member
I just recently bought 2 12'' orion xtr subs, new in a ported box. Then decided to get a Orion amp, I found a old school Orion 4004 on craigslist for dirt cheap , hooked it up and works great, I wired both subs bridged on the rear channels and had the 4 guage power/ground wire ran professionally at a retuable car audio shop. Everything was good and i mean great , the xtr's are slamming hard but that 4004 amp gets stupid hot , I've read some other reviews and learned that the amp has a protection agianst heat and shuts down at 190 degress. So after about 15-20 mins the amp just shuts down, Then when cooling down comes back on for about 2-3 mins then repeats itself. I tried turning down the gain to less then half way and even tried messing with my head unit to adjust the bass and input , it still gets very hot and kinda defeats the purpose of having that amp. when the gain is at a somewhat safe level , it is like the subs are not even on (very little bass). I belive the subs are the 2-ohm version , but do not know for sure. anybody know what to do?does anyone think a fan would help ???

 
You didn't really say how the subs are wired, either paralell or series? There are 2 versions of the XTR subs, a 2-ohm version and a 4-ohm version. If you have them wired for 2-ohm and run them in series, you'll have a 4-ohm load going to your amp. If you do the same and they are the 4-ohm version, it will be running at 8 ohms! At 8 ohms, its going to sound very quiet until you get the gains turned up. I would make sure you're driving your amp down to at least 4 ohms bridges, per channel. I believe that's a 4-channel amp so you should be able to bridge each set of channels (front/rear) into each sub.

 
Here's the deal when i bought these subs , They were already in the box and havent yet looked to see how they were wired , but even when I do , I still dont completly understand how wiring them differently will change the ohms , and how can I tell if they are the 2-ohm or 4-ohm version ? All I know for sure is that I just sold two memphis pr 15's with a 1000 watt memphis amp and these orion's slam twice as hard easy. I had no Idea that they would be this loud. Now how I have them wired I'm only using 2 channels but i have them bridged , I'm going to try and do some research on how to wire the subs correctly .

 
There's 2 basic ways to check your resistance. Either measure it with an ohm meter and see what they're wired to at to the box. Or remove the

sub from the box and check the model number or measure it directly. If you Google "Orion XTR sub", it looks like they make at least 2-3 models so you have to match yours up.

 
ok i open it up and found out that they are the 4-ohm vesion and the are wired just using the one set of negitive and positive , the other set on the other side of the woofer is unused. I tried looking at different wiring diagrams and thought i have it , but dont know 100% so dont want to risk it, But I understand what your saying about the two 4-ohm subs being bridged at the amp , creating a 8-ohm load , that would be the reason why my amp is overheating ? is there any way you could find the proper diagram for the orion xtr124 4-ohm , So basically i need to wire both subs down to 2-ohm so the is a 4-ohm connection at the amp right ?

 
my buddy has an Orion 4004 and has the rear channels bridged to his Orion HP 12dual 4 @ 2 ohm and it gets somewhat hot but not shutdown due to thermal meltdown hot...

 
I got it now , I just downloaded the orion xtr124 instruction booklet , and you must 1. Connect the speaker in parallel by connecting the two positive (+) terminals

together and the two negative (-) terminals together.

2. Wire both positive (+) terminals of the woofer to the positive (+) terminal on

the amplifier. Wire both negative (-) terminals of the woofer to the negative (-)

terminal on the amplifier.

this will take the 4-ohm sub and turn it to 2-ohm and two 2-ohm subs bridged at the rear channel will result in a 4-ohm load!!!! in theory lol , I hope i dont blow **** up...

 
i wouldn't use a 4 channel amp that is only 50 watts rms x 4 on some subs.

that little amp isnt made to slam some subs...lol it is getting hot and shutting off because it is made to push some little mids and tweets.

of course you could use it on subs without a problem. but like you said at a respectable level its like the amp just doesn't have enough balls to do the job. and your right. you need to go and buy a amp capable of running subs. even a small class d amp is going to give you loads more power over a 4 channel..

 
i really like this amp and found the 4002 orion on ebay. its the 2 channel version and i feel it would do a better job at not overheating. the rms for those orions subs are 250rms and i think they are underrated , but do not want to blow them up with a bigger amp. im really happy with the 4004, i just wish i would not get so hot. I re-wired the subs to 2-ohm and you can tell the difference. it does not get as hot but still pretty hot ( you cant really hold your hand on it for more than 3-5 seconds )

 
i really like this amp and found the 4002 orion on ebay. its the 2 channel version and i feel it would do a better job at not overheating. the rms for those orions subs are 250rms and i think they are underrated , but do not want to blow them up with a bigger amp. im really happy with the 4004, i just wish i would not get so hot. I re-wired the subs to 2-ohm and you can tell the difference. it does not get as hot but still pretty hot ( you cant really hold your hand on it for more than 3-5 seconds )
also it is the middle of the summer in northeast ohio and the temp is always above or around 90+ , this could have something to do with the heat , since it is in the cargo area of a expedition with not that much ventalation

 
well now I think I have them wired to 1-ohm , since they are both wired at 2-ohm and bridged .it doesnt matter really the amp is getting way to hot and after about 5-10 mins only at half way it just shuts down , I dont know what else to do besides get a new amp, I found the 4002 Orion where it is 1-ohm stable at 400rms which I think would be perfect. I just dont want to buy it and it has the same problem as the 4004. any suggestions

 
I'm kinda in the same boat as you.....I have a pair of PG Titanium 12's that are 500RMS each, 4 ohm. I'm looking at 1000-12000 watt RMS amps, but running them in parallel. You would be better off with a mono class D amp to prevent overloading your charging system. AudioQue, MB Quart and a few others make reasonably priced Class D sub amps that are good quality.

 
i really would like to stay with orion amps , and I'm going back and forth with deciding between two other orions , one is a orion cobalt 600.2 its the two channel and the other is the 4002 two channel , I feel like both amps should do the job but I just dont want to go with the 4002 , simply because the 4004 i have overheats fast, If I decided to go with a brand new Orion xtr mono block amp , the smallest one the make is 500X1 rms and the rms on the subs is 250rms , do you think the two subs would be able to handle the monoblock amp

 
Activity
No one is currently typing a reply...
Old Thread: Please note, there have been no replies in this thread for over 3 years!
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.

Similar threads

Ive seen so many amps done this way over the years. Especially ones that had the Molex plugs and a couple others
9
466
I have created a post with all related information regarding the build under this link: https://www.caraudio.com/threads/2000-camry-build.614208/
50
3K
Yes, they do. As for the Taramps remote control, it is for use with the EQ they sell, not as a remote bass knob. They are not very sophisticated...
24
3K

About this thread

fatmatt2003

10+ year member
Junior Member
Thread starter
fatmatt2003
Joined
Location
Canton,OH
Start date
Participants
Who Replied
Replies
12
Views
5,984
Last reply date
Last reply from
fatmatt2003
Screenshot 2024-03-07 184329.png

Doxquzme

    Mar 27, 2024
  • 0
  • 0
IMG_3075.jpeg

Daniel Lee

    Mar 27, 2024
  • 0
  • 0

Latest topics

Top