My amp is blowing fuses...

[quote=“speedped79,post:18,topic:32450"”]

what im saying is on my friends car he had 2 cheap 300 watt a piece subs and a nice kicker amp and when he would overload the subs the amp would click off and sometimes blow the fuse if the fuse didnt blow the amp would go back on when you turned the stereo down or the bass so the subs werent being overloaded, i said this could be a possibility

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the amp could have gone into thermal protection, or have a overload protection. It would blow the fuse if it is constantly being abused, and the woofers your driving are a lower impedence than the amp is rated to handle, it would attempt to put out more power, and would likely blow the internal fuse, due to the fuses most people put along the transmission line being way overrated…

[quote=“BDR5oh,post:14,topic:32450"”]

now thats the dumbest thing ive heard in a long time … amps just dont take a shit over time … I have plenty 20+ year old amps that still work just as good as they did when new

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Yes, they can. It depends on the design, but most car amps rely heavily on the capacitance in order to keep them in check. theyre very crude, and without the capacitors working the way they should, they can go into a oscillation, and essentially blow themselves up. Most components are rated at 50,000 hours, wich is about 6 years continuously on. If you were abusing the amp, it very well could extremely decrease the life. And im sure the components used were about a year old or more by the time he bought the amp. But, something could have come loose, or low voltage could have damaged the amp. And its only a 300w amp, so im sure it was constantly clipping wich is the main cause of amps blowing up.

[quote=“dirtye30,post:16,topic:32450"”]

because a sub is either blown or its not. theres no in between. the only way that makes any sense is if the sub loses a coil and its running at a lower impedence than the amp can handle.

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Unfortunately, that is not quite so true also… There is. If a sub were to loose a coil, it would run at a higher impedence, and the amp wouldnt be able to put out as much power. If a sub is abused for a while, the coating around the wire used for the voice coil can crack, or get burned off from heat, or rubbing. If this happens, the sub would appear fine, but every once in a while it would short, and if the amp dosent have short portection, it would blow the fuse.