amp overheating.

utajoker

utajoker

utajoker

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my amp in my car is overheating, it takes about 30 mins in the warm weather.

its a 600w amp powering a sub, 2 upgraded front speaker and 2 standard rear speakers.

it just cuts out for 10 seconds or so every 30 seconds when it starts getting hot, what can i do to stop this?
 
what is load of the individual speakers?

could try reducing the load by using the HU amp (if its not a component unit) for say the fronts?
 
was hoping i could do something that doesnt require rewireing. could i stick some fans blowing over the amp?

i didnt install it myself, it was done by the shop i linked the amp from.
 
utajoker said:
was hoping i could do something that doesnt require rewireing. could i stick some fans blowing over the amp?

i didnt install it myself, it was done by the shop i linked the amp from.
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take it back to them then? sounds like its trying to do too much, reasonably simple re-wiring job anyway :)
 
depends on the impedance of the speakers - those specs reckon the amp is good for 2ohm on each channel. Id image that would be 2 channels bridged for the sub and the other two driving each pair of door speakers....lousy way to set the amp up though.

UTAJoker, are you sure the amp is driving the rears? take it back anyway, it shouldnt be shutting down at all and looking at the way the rate their amps, if you paid that price you got thoroughly ripped off as well.
 
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james.miller said:
UTAJoker, are you sure the amp is driving the rears? take it back anyway, it shouldnt be shutting down at all and looking at the way the rate their amps, if you paid that price you got thoroughly ripped off as well.
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its definatly powering the rears.

no i didnt pay that price.

what do you mean by the way they rate their amps? i went in and he said it shuts off at 75C, the amp is quite hot to the touch so i assume thats whats happening.
 
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they are going to fit a fan to blow air over the amp which they say will stop it overheating.

Liquidfox said:
Power the standard rears off the HU. You're getting no benefit running them off the amp, it's just increasing the load.
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if did this the rear speakers will distort well before they fronts so this will make it sound bad

Will Gill said:
could try reducing the load by using the HU amp (if its not a component unit) for say the fronts?
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the fronts are the uprated speakers so want to have them running from the amp to get the best out of them.
ive no idea what a component unit is :p

if the fan doesn't solve it then shall have to see what they suggest to do next, but he says rather than it taking 40 mins or so to over heat it will take several hours which i don't think i will ever run it for that amount of time turned up.

when chatting to the guy he said 2 channels are bridged for the sub and the other 2 are running the speakers across 2 ohms, ive no idea what this means but maybe someone on here does :)
 
component head units have no built in amplification and rely solely on external amps - usually the higher end comp offerings

from my limited amateur ICE experience it sounds like he is running your front and rears through the same channel (in parallel?), subseqently your sub off the other channel, not ideal, you have no fade functionality, high load (one channel powering 4 speakers) and as a result I reckon thats why its over-heating.

most head units nowadays have more than sufficient in-built amps to run most speakers, if your fronts are upgraded just run the rears through the HU then?
 
Just unplug the rear speakers, all they are doing if pulling your soundstage back and having an overall negative impact. In addition I would also provide some forced ventilation to the amplifier.
 
Will Gill said:
from my limited amateur ICE experience it sounds like he is running your front and rears through the same channel (in parallel?), subseqently your sub off the other channel, not ideal, you have no fade functionality, high load (one channel powering 4 speakers) and as a result I reckon thats why its over-heating.
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2 channels for sub 2 channels for speakers. im not fussed about fade. my HU only has 1 pre out so its split into 2 for the amp but i plan to get a new HU after xmas to fix that.

Will Gill said:
most head units nowadays have more than sufficient in-built amps to run most speakers, if your fronts are upgraded just run the rears through the HU then?
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posted earlier up that they will most likley distort way before the fronts get loud so that wouldnt be ideal.

Abyss said:
I would also provide some forced ventilation to the amplifier.
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thats the plan for tomorrow :) as posted above it should as they say stop it overheating for a good few hours.
 
My mate had the exact same issues and it was because he was trying to run fronts back and a sub from his. Managed to burn it out in the end.

When i had my set up I ran back from a sub and felt it made absolutely no difference.

I ran 4 6x9 (two on shelf two in door cards at back) and components from the HU and left the Sub to run the Sub.

And it was chuffing loud i can tell you

Fitting a fan IMO is just trying to ignore the problem without actually fixing anything. Its heating up for a reason
 
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I've got a similar setup, 1 pre-out doubled up. 1 set to Channel 1 & 2 (Uprated fronts - 75W RMS) other set to Channel 5 (Sub - 240W RMS). It's a 5 channel amp should i ever want to uprate the backs :)
 
dont let them palm you off with a fan, got a half decent amplifier. Hell even something like my vibe a4 (£130) is a good deal better than that amp. its more powerful (2x150w RMS + 1x 500w RMS) and it has never shut off due to overheating. My sub may have been bouncing off the end stops from time to time, but it has never shut down on me.
 
james.miller said:
dont let them palm you off with a fan, got a half decent amplifier. Hell even something like my vibe a4 (£130) is a good deal better than that amp. its more powerful (2x150w RMS + 1x 500w RMS) and it has never shut off due to overheating. My sub may have been bouncing off the end stops from time to time, but it has never shut down on me.
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My Audison amp is only 2 * 75 + 1 * 250 watt and is certainly 'half decent'! I don't know much about Planet Audio but I wouldn't write them off as crap just because of the power rating.
 
I wouldn't call that half decent, my lowly £300 speaker setup would be close to maxing that out, something i wouldn't be comfortable with.
 
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