Amp overheating

[alero168]

i have a rockford fosgate amp model 401s i think, and a fosgate sub, the amp is currently attached to the back of the sub box and usually on short trips it's fine but if i go on a usually a 2 hour or longer trip and i'm thumping the amp will overheat like crazy, too hot to touch and it will cut off and cool before it comes back on. i asked silent and oldsman about this before just wanted to konw what others think to do... also i went to best buy and asked a rep and the guy told me to get a cap.. not sure if hes mistaken or being truthful.


and oldsman i put some rubbers between the box and amp :thumbsup:

[vulgar]

the cap idea is bullpoop...they really dont do much of anything

[vodkaslut85]

they sell cooling fans that power off the amp and you could do that, such as what bazooka offers for their amps since they are poopish. And a cap would somewhat keep the amp from overheating but it still would in the long run. I would say to set up an amprack in your trunk so that it's off the carpet, that would keep the bottom from getting hot, and get it off the box, not a good idea.

[smokinAMD]

Fold down the rear seat and use your AC?

[BLK03GXS]

First... what ohm load are you running your amp at.. this is prolly the 1st problem... the second is what gauge of wire are you using for power & ground...
most likely some one sold you a poopty wireing kit and the amp cannot pass enuff current.. thus the overheating.. that or you have it wired with too low of an ohm load on the amp....

IF its on a long trip its prolly the wireing... maybe the ohm load but at full power amps usually dont live for an hour or so at full volume if they are loaded too low...

If you are using an appropreate size power and ground... you can move the amp offa the box.. this is good for 2 reasons, first the ammount of vibration on the amp will be less... and will stop the amp from becoming a paperweight as fast...
second, you can mount it in the darkest coolest part of your trunk... allso you can get 12volt computer type cooling fans... i had to make an amprack+cooling fans for my buddys Soundstream rubicon 502 (500watts rms at 2 ohms...) it gets hawwt.... i beleave we recorded over 60degrees celcius on some places on the heatsink (not even inside the case...)

[bigd6983]

what everyone is saying is correct, your load plays a big part, your wiring, position of amplified, and yes a capacitor could help solve it but its the not the problem, it will help the amplifier in getting power instead of it starving for some........but yea i doubt its anything to do with the amp, if you are running a 2 ohm load, in a tight spot, for a long period of time with too small of wiring.......that would definately do it.....let us all know what you are running so we can help you better

[niral622]

I agree with vulgar,
some of the people at best buy don't know what they're talking about...the other day I went and the guy was trying to tell me that I couldn't buy amplifier wire bulk b/c it would fry my car :angry: lol

but I have to say, I have a bazooka amp, the EL1500 and it's not bad, never had a problem with it overheating even in my unairconditioned car....and yes I know I could have gotten better, but I get my fair share of power from it (it claims 350rms @ 4 ohms but I think its probably 250rms, which is still plenty for me)...and the best part, I got it for $80 new

as for solving the overheating problem, fans are the way to go, if you're a showy type of person, they sell a lot of LED fans and stuff which look kind of cool...make sure that if you get more than one fan that they dont contradict each others' air flow (i.e. they push air in the same direction)

goodluck :thumbsup:

[alero168]

this is what i got:

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/cpa/shared/DSCN4727.JPG
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/cpa/shared/DSCN4729.JPG
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/cpa/shared/LABEL.jpg

and i do usually keep the seat down in the back on longer trips

[dopey]

i say save ur money and buy a digital amp..... wont over heat that.

[bdyman]

i dunno charlie looks like ya might have the power wire to small
just a guess
do you have a good ground??

[alero168]

yeah, i think it's under the back seat

[b-spot]

The amp tilting slightly back doesn't help either.. Most amp cases are designed to let the heat travel up and out, and don't take kindly to being mounted upside down.

[alero168]

oh no it's not tilted at all it's just the angle of the shot :P

[bdyman]

i don`t think the way the amp is installed the prob at all
iam guessin that it could be a ground prob or power wire to small
ask marc or joel they no more about audio than i would know

[BLK03GXS]

looks like you have 10 or 8 guage power and ground...
Get some 4awg, and make your ground as short as possible...
I allso agree with b'spot.... maybe mount the thing the right way, it could help

Ps its better to mount the amp n a place that ISINT the box... and if you need too run longer led's from the amp output to the subs... thats ok but keep the thing offa the box and with a short ground...

[BLK03GXS]

Ohhh allso... it says there from what i can see that the amp IS NOT 2 ohm stable in bridged mode... so if your sub is DVC 4ohm.... or if you have 2 SVC 4Ohm subs.. then your prolly runing it at 2 ohms....

[Steve03TropicTeal]

4awg is overkill for 400watts.

The big thing is how the amp is wired.. liek BLK03GXS said.. if its not 2ohm stable.. which it isnt.. and ur truying to run it on 2ohms.. that would definately overheat things.

[BLK03GXS]

Not if its 400rms...

[Steve03TropicTeal]

hell yeah thats overkill..

not even teh ppl that make the wire tell you to buy that big.

first of all you never are using all 400 watts, unless you have the gain on max all the time, and then you'll get clipping.

second, it depends on how long the wire is also. Unless your running into a 73 caddy, 8awg would be good for 400watts (more like 300watts) RMS.

I have a 4awg, being split down to to 8awg for a 424rms and 530rms amps (according to birth certificates)

thats about 1kw RMS and 2kw MAX. 4awg is no problem. As long as it isnt crappy wire i dont think 8awg would be an issue for anything under 500watts RMS.

[alero168]

i have no clue what you guys are talking about, can you guys explain more what's awg sorry for being such an audio n00b

[Steve03TropicTeal]

Thikness of the wire.

The lower the number tha thicker.

for example, on my speakres i have a 14awg wire, and the power to my amps is basically 4awg.

the smaller the numebr the thicker the wire.

goes down to 0 awg, then 0/1 awg.

i guess it goes lower to.

What sub do you have? what is the impedance? measure in Ohms? It'll say on the spec sheet for the sub somwehres

[xsavyor1]

I would use the wire you have and put a 2nd battery in the trunk. that will fix voltage probs. then make suree your subs are the right imp. buy a meter at radio shack for 10$. make sure your subs are 4 ohms. if they are lower change subs or change amp ti go with the subs you have. and it will play for hours with the 2 nd battery and right ohm load on the amp.

[Steve03TropicTeal]

adding a second battery will do absolutely nothing except let you play your music for longer after the car is turned off.

the system will always run at 13-14.4v area. Its the current that changes. I think that has little to do with the amp overheating Its most likely that the subs are wired to the amp incorrectly, or the amp may just be in a bad spot.

[mikegett]

You can have a few problems causing the overheating. First, how high is your gain. The higher the gain, the harder the amp must work.
It would also be wise to take a picture of your speaker wires on the amp. That will let us see how you have the amp wired. Let us know if you have a dual voice coil sub as well. I believe that you stated that the amp was in 2 ohm load. I only see one set of wires coming from your amp. If you do have the amp bridged and in 2 ohm then your are asking for trouble.
I doubt that your wiring is the issue here. It is always best to have a larger wire than needed. The larger the wire, the more amps that can pass through to your amp. The same goes for your speakers. The larger the wire, the more wattage that can pass to your sub or speaker. The difference is that if you are running wires that are not large enough to supply your amp the proper amperage then the wire will overheat. It is not as likely the amp will. The same goes for your ground. You want the ground to be the same size as your power wire. If it is not, then you will not get the full amperage going to your amp. In this case your amp ill only be able to produe a fraction of its wattage. Example: It may be a four hundred watt amp, but require 50 amps to run it. If your wires are only letting it pass 40 amps then it will probably cut out 90 to 100 watts that it can produce. So check your wires. Do they get hot as well? If so then go to a lager cable. Otherwise, the most damage you will do is to make your amp inefficient.
Another thing to concider is how good that the amp realy is. Have you ever wandered as to how one manufacturer may rate a amp at 500 watts and ony require a 35 amp fuse, while another manufacturer has a 500 watt amp with a 50 amp fuse? Some manufacturers over rate the product. The easiest way to tell this is by the amp rating. Wattage is in direct proportion with amps. My eclipse amplifier is rated four channels at 85 watts rms. Your amp is rating 2 channels at 100 watts rms. Bridged, your amp is rating 400 watts rms at 4 ohms. The eclipse is rated for 240 watts rms at 4 ohms. The rockford fosgate requires 40 amps to power it. The eclipse requires 80 watts (20 per channel) to power it. It is more than likely that you are poducing around 280 to 300 watts rms. Your gain and head unit pre-outs will affect this as well. The lower your head unit pre-outs voltage is, the higher you must raise your gain. The higher your gain is the more distortion the amp produces. Normaly, anything over 3/4 gain on a amp wil produce clipping at high volumes. If you have a head unit that produces over 2 volts at the pre-out then you can safely lower your gain below the half way margin. IF it is five to eight you can probably turn it to nearly off.

[alero168]

ok i'll take some pics of the wiring and stuff and post it later

[BLK03GXS]

Good post mikegett...

I think steve03tropical failed to take into account that some amps require differant ammounts of current, you should also tell us (allthou i could look it up...) wut class your amp is... a/b or D...
I wouldnt personally run anything less than 4awg for 450-500wrms.... you can do w.e you want, but from personal experance you get better results and cooler runing amps
Besides if you ever want to upgrade 4awg is good enuff for 1000wrms plus... in most instances... saves you time and bunnyin around....

[alero168]

sorry just been kinda lazy with the pics ill try and get some up before the weekend and then you guys can talk again and i can be confused again :P

[Steve03TropicTeal]

i completely agree that for the extra cost it doesnt hurt to use 4awg. I had 4awg running about 500wrms awhile ago, But 8awg will probably do unless u have a real good efficient amp.. which that Rockford, while a good amp, should really require more than 8awg.

basically. i have no damn i dea why ur amp is overheating!! :wacko:

[BLK03GXS]

Yea... lookin at the pics agen... those wires are really pinner.... what i would like to know is what guage/size they are should say the awg of the wire on it... or on your kit if you still have it...

[mikegett]

I agree that you should double check your wire size. This will help us to be certain that we are not dismissing the real issue. Just take some good shots of the amp wires, sub wires and anything else you can think of. The more information the better we can help you. To state it simply, none of us know what is causing the problem until we fix it. So until then, bear with us and we will try our best.

[alero168]

^been kinda lazy and had some bad weather and i dont have a garage so i'll try and get some today, thanks guys.

[xsavyor1]

If your amp is pulling to much amperace over the corse of a small gauge wire. and a long run of the wire, your amp will over heat. If you have a battery in the trunk it will only pull power from 3 feet away. less voltage drop and lower gauge of wire can be used.

[Steve03TropicTeal]

nice little article on what an extra battery does and does not do for you.

http://www.caraudiohelp.com/car_audio_wiri...audio_batteries (http://www.caraudiohelp.com/car_audio_wiring/car_audio_wiring.htm#car_audio_batteries)