Heat sink on head unit in car gets extremely hot. I've tried almost everything.

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fal13n

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Heat sink on the head unit in my car is getting extremely hot, and I can't figure out why. A little back story: (96 Subaru Legacy Sedan) I've had the system for about 2 years and this is a new problem that began to occur after I simply took out the subs for trunk space and put them back in a few weeks later. The first time it happened, I was playing my music for a bit until the subs suddenly stopped hitting. Music was still playing through my door speakers, but nothing coming from the subwoofers. I wasn't sure what the issue was so I replaced and re-wired the harness that comes with the head unit, replaced the "Radio" fuse which seemed to have melted slightly, and still nothing. My 4 door speakers are all 4ohms, as well as the subwoofers. The head unit is a Kenwood dpx792bh, which the manual says is meant for between 4-8 ohms. The head unit will heat up to the point where it cannot be touched, whether or not the external amp (1000w) is hooked up or not. The external amp turns on and has never gone into protection mode, or overheated. I'm hesitant to take my car into an audio shop that will charge 3x what it will cost for me to fix it. Any ideas? All help is greatly appreciated!

 
sounds like you have a slight short in the speaker wiring, which would cause the amplifier to run really hot and thus heat up the head unit. 
That's what I thought as well. How would I go about testing this? I've used a multimeter and tested the speaker themselves, each coming to around 4 ohms.

 
Tested where?  Tested at the speaker wiring behind the head unit?  You'll also measure between each speaker wire and chassis ground.  I've seen speakers short out at the mounting point where metal touches the speaker leads.

Pics of how the wiring is done?  Any bare copper anywhere is suspect.

Any exposed copper is a problem.  Mechanical crimps or solder with good electrical insulation are needed.  And taped separately, not as a group (unless first taped separately).

 
Tested where?  Tested at the speaker wiring behind the head unit?  You'll also measure between each speaker wire and chassis ground.  I've seen speakers short out at the mounting point where metal touches the speaker leads.

Pics of how the wiring is done?  Any bare copper anywhere is suspect.

Any exposed copper is a problem.  Mechanical crimps or solder with good electrical insulation are needed.  And taped separately, not as a group (unless first taped separately).
Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes I had the harness itself on both ends tested, everything seems fine. Today I was trying to isolate a speaker short in hopes I would be able to just replace a speaker. I've cut all the wires on the harness (except for ground, 12v battery, and the 12v constant wires) so that it only can turn on, and well, it does the same thing! (Gets too hot to touch, doesnt shut off. If amp and subs are connected the amp will turn off once the head unit is too hot). This is the most odd issue i've ever encountered. It is a brand new head unit also. Anything helps, thank you.

 
Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes I had the harness itself on both ends tested, everything seems fine. Today I was trying to isolate a speaker short in hopes I would be able to just replace a speaker. I've cut all the wires on the harness (except for ground, 12v battery, and the 12v constant wires) so that it only can turn on, and well, it does the same thing! (Gets too hot to touch, doesnt shut off. If amp and subs are connected the amp will turn off once the head unit is too hot). This is the most odd issue i've ever encountered. It is a brand new head unit also. Anything helps, thank you.
Sorry for the delay, I missed the notification.   Sounds like an internal failure, when no speakers are connected (assuming each speaker wire is separately insulated (taped) so not to cause a short between wires) the head unit should never get that hot, even if left on for days.

 
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fal13n

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