trent.g

Hi guys. Having a little technical difficulty putting a new amp in my car. I've had a Boston sub integrated with the OEM Bose stereo in my Mazda 6 for a few months now using an old (really old and quite small) Kenwood mono sub amp. Been working perfectly off the low level signal used for the stock powered sub. I picked up a used Zapco AG650 with intentions of running an all aftermarket speaker system but don't have my front components yet so I decided to go ahead and use the sub channel for now....

When I powered it up (having checked and double checked all my connections) all I got was a tiny bit of white noise, a repeated power-on pop, a flashing power light, and then all three fuses lit up and popped. I replaced the fuses, re-checked (and re-secured) my connections and tried again. This time I found a little smoke from the RCA inputs and shut it down before any fuses blew. Unhooked the RCA's and it still flashes on and off.

I'm a little puzzled because this level line worked fine on the other amp. I have 4GA power with a 125A inline fuse, but I also have a set of distribution blocks and have choked the power down to 8GA for temporary purposes. I was planning on dual 8GA to the AG650 and another 8GA for a rear fill amp in the future. I just happened to get 1 4GA to 4 8GA blocks... Do you think the Zapco isn't getting enough juice or is it the RCA lead? Or is my amp fried?

JohnVroom

sounds like a used amp, perhaps a little more used than you thought?

trent.g

Well I actually put power to it earlier in the day and got interrupted but I did hear the fan running. The amp is absolutely mint. Terminals are spotless. I'm pretty sure, at this point, that I f'd up the ground and that's when it went into protection mode and then blew the fuses. That doesn't explain smoking RCA's though... Any idea if it'll come out of protection mode while it's unhooked? Or should I go ahead and crack the case open to inspect what's inside?

Dilatory

iTrader: (1)

Why not correct the grounding issues, put fresh fuses in and see what happens?

trent.g

I did... Flashing power light syndrome. Even without any inputs or outputs hooked up.

Dilatory

iTrader: (1)

Ah my bad, not sure in that case, it may need to be serviced, although what has me wondering is why a fused amp had something blow in that fashion.
Furthermore amp's aren't supposed to turn on if they're not grounding correctly... /shrug

Sorry I can't be more help.

trent.g

Yeah, I guess I better crack it open sometime this weekend to look for melted bits and pieces. I'll let it sit for a day and give it one more try before that because I've seen some of the other guys here say that works sometimes for amps in protection mode. Can't even tell you for sure that it is in protection mode although from what I understand it should either turn on and have no sound or not turn on at all if it was fried.

JohnVroom

do you have anything that vaguely resembles a warranty? if so dont open it return it... it sounds like you got took (remember pretty amps blow up too). 'Giving it a day' to unscrew itself is awfully optimistic, but what the hey Santa does have free time this time of year.

trent.g

Warranty? No. Used, private sale, secure transaction, etc.... I know, buyer beware, yada yada. The more I think about it, the more I think I pooched it myself though because I remember specifically listening to the fan running after plugging in the power/remote leads and slapping my interior back together to leave home. I think my negative wire came loose last night because it fell right out when I pulled the amp out of the trunk today. I guess that still doesn't explain why the amp didn't fully shut down, or why blowing the fuses didn't protect the power supply and circuitry, or why my RCA jacks were smoking today after re-connecting everything with new fuses (which did not blow).

Dilatory

iTrader: (1)

Probably just bad luck man.

Depending on what type of amp it is it may be easier to just get a new one.

Live and learn.