oh freaking no....

Topic: oh freaking no.... (Read 3250 times) previous topic - next topic

oh freaking no....

July 21, 2006, 10:49:27 PM

so, i got this amp. its one of those older trans ana fosgate punch amps. nice little power houses. this one is a punch 400. long story short, i hooked it up, threw the key back and turned on the head unit only to be rewarded with the clssic bacoln sizZeling sound and smoke....WTF.

i know for 100% sure that the power, remote and ground were connected correctly, (60 amp fuse sounded high, but was recomended) cleanly and solidly. i wanted to test the amp for power, so i had no speaker input or outputs hooked up at all. i have never had any trouble with this before, testing amps in this way but it is the only thing i can think of.

(remote from tuner to remote on amp, pwr cable, 8g from bat. to 12v on amp with a 60 amp inline fuse, ground 8g screwed into the frame in the trunk with clean freshly ground metal as the contact point)

what can cause an amp to fail like that?
\
im afraid to try out any of my other amps now....i have NEVER had any trouble with an install much less smoke an amp...

oh freaking no....

Reply #1 – July 21, 2006, 10:51:30 PM

Age?

oh freaking no....

Reply #2 – July 21, 2006, 10:55:00 PM

me or the amp....

the amp is old school, id have to guess its anywhere from a 95'-99' but very clean. has a nice aroma now

i have another like it, smaller but well used and have never had an issue with it. im pretty bumbed out about this...

oh freaking no....

Reply #3 – July 21, 2006, 11:00:53 PM

The amp, could age do it ( I have no clue, guessing mostly)

oh freaking no....

Reply #4 – July 21, 2006, 11:22:19 PM

seems like i have a problem somewhere. i stepped back and threw a 30 amp inline at the fuse block. i hooked up another amp and the fuse popped. wtf.

oh freaking no....

Reply #5 – July 21, 2006, 11:39:00 PM

Sounds like you may have a power wire hitting gournd soume where. If not and you have a long power wire and the amp needs 30amp to run I could see how it would blow. those foagate amp are pretty good quality stuff. I had a punch 45 very old school for 15 years and never had a problem.

oh freaking no....

Reply #6 – July 22, 2006, 12:25:35 AM

i dunno...ive got a trans ana punch 60 as well but im afraid to hook it up. the 400 has got to be smoked now...a feaking shame.

im going to run a new power wire to eliminate that. i wont even bother snaking it through the car.

oh freaking no....

Reply #7 – July 22, 2006, 12:28:00 AM

Use a multi meter to check you wires.

oh freaking no....

Reply #8 – July 22, 2006, 11:36:46 AM

For testing amps, I just hook them up directly to the battery with temporary wires, let them sit in the engine bay, and run a couple rca's out to it. Plug in a speaker and you're good to go.

I'd open the amp up and see what blew. Amps really aren't "that" complicated, mainly the newer they are, the higher quality components they have - and the cleaner they sound. Had a guy at work fix one there in the office with a couple parts and a soldering iron. People build their own car amps all the time.

oh freaking no....

Reply #9 – July 22, 2006, 09:04:58 PM

Quote

Use a multi meter to check you wires.

i doublechecked it with one but whats to test realy, ground was good. 12v at the power cable and the remote wire was hooked up properly....it had to be a problem with the amp. i opened it up and see no obvious damage. i havnt taken the board off and looked at the other side yet either.

even if the power cable shorted out from being exposed somewhere, wouldnt it more likely pop the inline fuse or one of the fuses in the car itself before cooking the amp anyway?

oh freaking no....

Reply #10 – July 22, 2006, 09:24:57 PM

i know when i installed my amp in my car, we didnt put the inline fuse underneath the hood as we couldnt find a good place to mount it. so we put it under the drivers side kick panel.

anyways, when we first powered it on we heard a sizzling sound and sparks shot out of where the inline fuse was. my friend immediately dissconnected the battery and we checked to see what happened.

it turned out that the power wire had to much insulation stripped off and when it was inserted into the inline fuse housing, bare wire was still sticking out. that bare wire then touched something metal which in return caused the sizzling and sparks......

lucky me we didnt start a fire.

oh freaking no....

Reply #11 – July 22, 2006, 09:36:02 PM

suck...

but that wasnt the case with me....

oh freaking no....

Reply #12 – July 23, 2006, 02:02:11 PM

looks like the amp was pooched. thank you ebay, you know how i love a good screwing! i hooked a different amp up with no problems so u dunno.....now im looking for a decent quality 4 channel amp if anyone has any leads....

oh freaking no....

Reply #13 – July 26, 2006, 06:59:15 PM

Decent quality ?

I´m Using a 4 chanel sony XM-444. I know, everyone says sony amps are overrated and are expensive. Both are correct, but sounds nice and decent (i´m using it bridging to two channels and powering a pair of 10" rockford fosgate and it does the work very nice) and are tough units. Maybe you can get one of those cheap.

If you want a more decent sound, try JL Audio or audiobahn....

oh freaking no....

Reply #14 – July 26, 2006, 07:13:18 PM

well...the older fosgate trand ana amps are rated at about 1/3rd the RMS power they actually put out. a punch 60 is a 30 watt rms rate but put out more like 85. i have 2 of those, both 2 channel and a punch 400 trans ane (4 channel. im going to look into actually having them fixed if at all reasonable to do so. if not, ill likely buy a new fosgate....