Blown Fuses, quick question..

[burton907 0]

i was having some issues with my electrical, and my battery died at the school yesterday. long story short i had to go get a new battery and put it in. well at the school i don't have any tools in mine or my friends car. i decided that i was sick of hearing them rattle last week so i took them out hahah. and so i could only tighten the terminals by hand. well on my drive home, so i can completely tighten them, i was having some shorts goin on with the terminals and i ended up blowing 2 of my 30 amp fuses on my amp.

i was just wondering if there is any way i can test the amp myself to make sure no other damage was done? i'm about to go get some new fuses, and i will get back on when i get home.

ps i know i was stupid for doing it by hand, but i didn't have much of any other choice unless i wanted to wait 4 hours for somebody to get off work.

idk if you need any more details.. ask and i'll let you know when i get back. thanks guys

[ADK 0]

so im guessing like you power cable came loose and fell out and touched the ground or vice versa. im sure nothing happened internally to it. as long as it doesnt smell you should be pretty much fine. thats what the fuses are for.

[burton907 0]

k, thanks.

no, i have no idea waht happened, i got it somewhat snug tight with my hands. buy it was still freaking out, when i hit the brakes (just light enough so the light will come on) my battery meter on my dash dropped down to about 7, sometimes less, volts. and when i used my turn signals it would drop to about 11v everytime the light was on, and go back to 14 when it was off. then when i got home my brand new battery was completely dead. so i tighted them down, jumped it, and it was fine.. (kinda) since. before the old battery died i started having weird issues too, like what i described earlier with the lights, except not as much of a drop, and it would take for ever to recharge. like if i was to turn on my heater fan, it would drop to about 11 volts and stay at 11, like my alt wasn't keeping up.

i'm sure i need a new alternator anyways. it has 196,000 miles, original alt in a 91 pathfinder haha.

thanks for your help. i'll go put the fuses in now and give it a shot.

[burton907 0]

crapppp

so i got new fuses, hooked it up. did a load test to set the gains and everything up again. (i lowered them when i noticed it wasn'tw orking right.

about where i would normally get my max RMS @ 31.6v i'm getting no more then 15v. is that an amp or a sub problem?! i checked my sub out, it looks fine on the exterior, then again i don't exactly what to look for. and when the sub is playin above about 12v it sounds like it's clipping. but once again i don't know what that sounds like from a sub, but it does definitally sound different.

ideas??!

[Duran 387]

crapppp

so i got new fuses, hooked it up. did a load test to set the gains and everything up again. (i lowered them when i noticed it wasn'tw orking right.

about where i would normally get my max RMS @ 31.6v i'm getting no more then 15v. is that an amp or a sub problem?! i checked my sub out, it looks fine on the exterior, then again i don't exactly what to look for. and when the sub is playin above about 12v it sounds like it's clipping. but once again i don't know what that sounds like from a sub, but it does definitally sound different.

ideas??!

Open the amp up for us, take it out and remove the four screws on the corners. Just don't tough anything, and take a picture for us, also of anything that looks burnt or weird to you.

[nem 2,019]

I remember years ago my brother received a jump start from somebody and did not remove the fuse in the power wire, he ended up burning the diodes in the power supply.

[KU40 173]

it sounds like your alternator may be messed up, go have it tested. I'd worry about the electrical of the car before the system.

[burton907 0]

yea i know im gonna get a new alt asap anyways. and i'll open it up today and take a picture for you duran. what kind of things should i look for as far as burnt? would it just be black? or broken (like on a fuse)?

fyi i haven't smelled any burning at all. or seen smoke. the only thing i could think of was that there was some loud pops and what not when my alt wasn't putting out enough power for my sub. (back before i turned my car off and found out my battery was completely dead). and my head unit kept powering off as soon as the bass would hit because it couldnt keep up. and in the process of that there was some fairly loud pops, but nothing too weird.

nmssd12 - i didn't think of that ill check the fuse on my powerwire. i would think that if that fuse was broken, then there would be no complete circuit going to the amp anyways? so that couldn't be the problem could it?

[dbjunior 0]

the popping noise may have been your amp shutting off and turning on due to low voltage it would also not make as much power if its not getting enough. have the alt checked if its ok it could be your charging wires. have you done the big three? if not now is the time.

[nem 2,019]

A picture will tell us what may have happened.

Yes his fuse was blown, but the damaged happened before the fuse blew. Just for referance is was a Rockford Punch 45 before the HD series. A long time ago.

Edited March 21, 2009 by nmssd12

[burton907 0]

the popping noise may have been your amp shutting off and turning on due to low voltage it would also not make as much power if its not getting enough. have the alt checked if its ok it could be your charging wires. have you done the big three? if not now is the time.

i havent done any electrical upgrades yet, including the big 3. i was planning on doing it this weekend (before any of these issues came up) and then once it came up i knew i had to do it now. my only problem is my alt is under my AC and basically teh whole engine, which means i need a lift. and i won't be able to get a lift untill at the school auto shop on tuesday. ill see if i can get into a family friends shop today. my only problem is, i can't find my engine block to chassis ground. and i don't know if this is normal or not, but my only ground coming from my battery is going straight to my engine block. is that normal? and should i upgrade that too?

[F-150 Murphy 0]

I remember years ago my brother received a jump start from somebody and did not remove the fuse in the power wire, he ended up burning the diodes in the power supply.

So if you ever jump your car you should remove the big power fuse in the hood?

[KU40 173]

Actually, if you had shorts on the power and ground wire on the amp, it may have been pulling a lot of juice from your electrical system. Fuses don't pop right away, a lot of them need high current for a few seconds. What size is the fuse under the hood, and did it pop?

[burton907 0]

Actually, if you had shorts on the power and ground wire on the amp, it may have been pulling a lot of juice from your electrical system. Fuses don't pop right away, a lot of them need high current for a few seconds. What size is the fuse under the hood, and did it pop?

it's a 100 amp fuse, and i haven't checked yet, but i don't believe it popped. like i said only 2 of the 3 30 amp fuses popped and the last one was fine.

i opened it up and took some pictures on my phone. they aren't great but i whipped out my camera and for some reason it wont focus at alllllll. so this was my only other option. here they are, i took a picture the whole thing.

then i took a picture of each quarter of it, kinda for a close up

here i noticed some like brown sticky [glue?] stuff.. not sure what it is but i don't think it's a big deal, but i thought i'd take a picture just in case.. it's kind of hard to see, but it's just below the wire.

i put the original (unpopped) fuse back in for comparison, but those are the fuses i was using all new ones though.. all 30 amps. the color is a little off, both are green but i don't think that really matters does it?

[nem 2,019]

I remember years ago my brother received a jump start from somebody and did not remove the fuse in the power wire, he ended up burning the diodes in the power supply.

So if you ever jump your car you should remove the big power fuse in the hood?

Might be a good practice to save your equipment.

[nem 2,019]

Baised on your pictures, the only thing I see might be the by the 2 black caps. Do you have a way to power up the amp?

[burton907 0]

bump for requested pics

[burton907 0]

Baised on your pictures, the only thing I see might be the by the 2 black caps. Do you have a way to power up the amp?

oh sorry i didn't see this.

i can power it up out in my car no problem.. what did you have in mind?

[nem 2,019]

It powers up right. Does it put out any sound?

[burton907 0]

umm, it powers up right. well, it powers up the same as it did before this issue. and i don't know about it putting out sound. what kind of sound are you talking about.. sound to my sub? or a noise coming directly from teh amp? it puts out power to my sub, but it's not the same power it did before. so with that i would assume your tlakin about sound directly from the amp. i haven't put my ear to the amp, but i've been close to it while it was running and i didn't notice a noise.

[Duran 387]

umm, it powers up right. well, it powers up the same as it did before this issue. and i don't know about it putting out sound. what kind of sound are you talking about.. sound to my sub? or a noise coming directly from teh amp? it puts out power to my sub, but it's not the same power it did before. so with that i would assume your tlakin about sound directly from the amp. i haven't put my ear to the amp, but i've been close to it while it was running and i didn't notice a noise.

He is talking about output sound, as in to a speaker. Not sound coming from the physical amp, they are not fan cooled and have no moving parts

[burton907 0]

umm, it powers up right. well, it powers up the same as it did before this issue. and i don't know about it putting out sound. what kind of sound are you talking about.. sound to my sub? or a noise coming directly from teh amp? it puts out power to my sub, but it's not the same power it did before. so with that i would assume your tlakin about sound directly from the amp. i haven't put my ear to the amp, but i've been close to it while it was running and i didn't notice a noise.

He is talking about output sound, as in to a speaker. Not sound coming from the physical amp, they are not fan cooled and have no moving parts

well i knew there were no moving parts, i thought he was reffering to a like a buzzing/humming sound. something the electrical might make.

anyways to answer the question, yes it does put out sound, but it sounds clipped/distorted. though i haven't heard actual clipping from a sub before, so i could just be paranoid and think i'm hearing it. and it isn't putting out full power.

[burton907 0]

hmm so i just reinstalled it all. and it seems to be working fine..

but i'm gonna ride it easy just to make sure. i think i was just being a little paranoid. or it was my car rattling which caused me to think it was clipping.

thanks guys!

[nem 2,019]

I was wonding if it made any type of noise or even reproduced music, sorry for not being clear. Sometimes the relays may hang up because of arking. That migh have been part of your problem to. Just keep an eye one it.

Edited March 23, 2009 by nmssd12