Thread: I think my amp is overheating....

Its overheating alright. But the question is how hot was it in the trunk?? Make sure all your wiring is right and you are using good fuses. You may be burning it up accidentlly.

But if its just really hot in your trunk then its just overheating out of your control. Best way to keep it cool is to take it out of the trunk. Move it to the inside of your car under a seat and turn on the floor a/c. Fans wont do anything cause if your trunk is hot, then you are just blowing hot air back onto it. Put it inside your car under a seat or somewhere out of sunlight. It will help alot.


PoBoy

One thing I forgot to mention is that I pulled the back seat down and it never went into protect mode again. Thanks for the confirmation, Poboy. If I could pull air in from the cab somehow, it should solve my problem. I'd rather not rewire it and move it under my seat if possible. I can't find any vents in my trunk since it's all covered with a stiff cardboard/carpet material that's incredibly hard to remove. If only I could find a way to draw air in from the outside, or even better, from inside the cab, it should solve my problem.

Hmmmm, much to think about.

Hey!!! I just checked out your website!! YOU ARE THE PERSON THAT GOT ME STARTED INTO ALL THIS!! I ran into your site back in January 2000 I think. Its all your fault!! But you got me an A in my English class. I used your site to write a how-to on an install.

Hehehe, anyways...I used to drive a geo prisim, your car might be similar. The tire was in the bottom of the trunk. You may want to look around there. You may be able to drill a few holes in the bottom of your trunk and suck some air in with a fan. Just have to get the hot air out....which you might be able to do by loosening your back seat hinges a bit and put some washers in. Then you will have a bit of space for hot air to escape into your cab. Other than that...you may be able to find a big heatsync for your amp, but that is just avioding the problem further.

I know re-wiring sucks, but its still your best solution unless you want to install a/c in your trunk and run tubing to it somehow. Hrmmm...

Good Luck,
Thanks again!
PoBoy

You got an A in English off my stuff?!? Geez. I failed englsh my seenyer yeer of high skool. My benevolent english teacher gave me 6 whole points so that I could pass and graduate. The site's been up since mid-'99 so it's very possible that's when you saw it.

I see amps in trunks all the time and nobody else seems to have this problem...or do they? I think I might have found a vent, but I'll have to rip up the carpeting to make sure. I'll do it in the daylight. There's gotta be an easy way to do this. Maybe I will just rewire it and put in under my seat. Grrrrrr.

my 5ch Clarion amp has a cooling fan built in..... its thermo controlled so only comes on when required.

Also with the very large size of the amp it has a much larger metal/heatsink area than alot of car amps.....

Hi Gutter,

I had the same problem..
My amp (RTO 150w 2ch 2ohm stable, 4ohm load, sub) was cutting out and going in protect mode, with the gain not even half open.
My amp was also getting pretty hot (like one can hold it in his hands for 10sec.)
But my amp was only cutting out when I pushed it very hard.

The amp was always good before in my previous car, so I thought it had something to do with the wiring.

I changed my ground of the amp, and now the amp is half as hot as it was before, and I can push it much harder and it is not goint into protection.

So make sure you have a good ground...
Hope this helps you out !
Greetz,

I agree, if its not the ground/earth connection then almost certainly wiring. Are you using at least 4gauge for ground? The other end of the cable needs to go to a secure point on the car body free of rust and paint, and the cable should be as short as possible. if its more than 50cm you should consider chopping it back. Iv seen this overheat problem quite a few times and have suffered myself, and thats in the crappy cold UK weather.

Is your sub in bridged mode? Sub + connector goes to amp channel 1 + connector and Sub - connector goes to amp channel 2 - connector. If your using it like this then the load presented to the amp is 2ohm using a 4ohm sub.