Who knows amp repairs?

[phemps 10+ year member]

Hey all,

A chick i know has damaged her amp in some way. She has one of the smaller models of an audiopipe 1500. the protect light stays on, everything was checked to be good. i popped open the amp and found that one of the larger capacitors had blown and it appears that the dialectric fluid got onto the one side of the amp covering a bunch of surface mounted caps and resistors. everything else seems to be fine. My question is, can this cap be replaced to make the amp function? will the dialectric fluid short out the components that it has covered?

thanks in advance,

Eric

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[Magnatus]

The capacitaor can be replaced the fluide shouldnt of shorted it out since it went in off mode as the cap exploded

 

[ahole-ic]

The capacitaor can be replaced the fluide shouldnt of shorted it out since it went in off mode as the cap exploded

^Lulz. The caps are installed in parallel and not crucial for the amplifier to work. Caps usually pop for a reason... and that reason is usually that something else failed in the circuit. It can be AC going to the cap or too high of a voltage spike.... but usually it's not JUST a cap unless it's been in use for quite some time.

 

[phemps 10+ year member]

^Lulz. The caps are installed in parallel and not crucial for the amplifier to work. Caps usually pop for a reason... and that reason is usually that something else failed in the circuit. It can be AC going to the cap or too high of a voltage spike.... but usually it's not JUST a cap unless it's been in use for quite some time.

Im not very knowlegable on amp circuitry, is there anything you suggest looking for that could have failed and popped the cap?

 

[ahole-ic]

Im not very knowlegable on amp circuitry, is there anything you suggest looking for that could have failed and popped the cap?

Yeah. The most likely culprit is a mosfet. Usually when a mosfet goes, more than one goes.... and a resistor here or there. If you're not knowledgable on amp circuitry, I'd suggest putting the case back on and sending it off. It will save you money in the long run.

 

[phemps 10+ year member]

visually all of the mosfets looked fine, i dont know if they could be damaged without showing anything? I probably wont mess with it at all, although i wanna get into learning more about it for sure

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

Output mosfets almost always fail with no visual signs of a problem. Its usually the power supply fets that end up nice and crispy. The fluid inside of those capacitors is very corrosive. I would get a hold of some acetone and clean up as much of that electrolyte as possible . If it stays on the board for long enough it can start to eat away at the board,traces,and other components and cause irreversible damage. ecrack is correct when he says that the cap is not your only issue. Caps don't just go on their own in an amp that new. I've seen one of these amps before with a shorted output inductor that was throwing the amp into protect. Was the amp mounted in a high vibration area? These inductors in these amps are not very well supported but other than that the build quality is really not that bad. If the output inductor did short you could expect to see some shorted output mosfets and possibly the failed cap that you have now.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Trials and tribulations of Chinese electrolytics...

 

[dragonrage 10+ year member]

Look up some amp repair tutorials on Basic Car Audio Electronics