amplifier overheating problem

Guys I am really stuck here, my amplifier keeps over heating to the point that you can smell it (almost burning plastic smell). It has never shut down due to overheating it just keeps going I have to turn it off manually. I just upgraded my wiring yesterday to 4ga power/ground. I am running an alpine mrp-m1000 and a 10' Alpine type X subwoofer. I am running at 2 ohms, which the amp is supposedly stable as said by alpine. I have the gain turned to nominal and am not overpowering it at all. I know the power wire is a little bit too small but should not make it do this. My ground is not connected directly to the frame could this be the problem? Any suggestions? If you need pictures or any other info about my setup I will do my best to get it for you.

When the amp is totally cool, turn it on but keep the volume at 0 on your radio.  Leave it on for 5 minutes, does it still heat up?

i am an idiot wrote:

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When the amp is totally cool, turn it on but keep the volume at 0 on your radio.  Leave it on for 5 minutes, does it still heat up?

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I tried this and the amp does not heat up.

I found that it heats up in one corner but eventually makes the whole amp hot, so I decided to take the amp apart to see what was in this corner and here is where the mystery continues....
https://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9594/1002803e.jpg
Thats the corner that is heating up, but it seems to have the least amount going on there. I know nothing about how amps work so anyone have any idea as to the problem? I am now running under nominal power but still heats up and smells bad.

OK now im really ready to tare my hair out...like i didnt have enough weird problems i now encountered one more, I cannot connect the power/ground to my amp without blowing all of my fuses. I have tried every which way i had everything hooked to the amp/battery with no fuse and simply inserted fuse....blew fuse I tried unhooking from battery and having evrything else hooked up including fuse then tried to connect to battery....spark show and i tried unhooking from amp putting fuse in and hooking to amp power first then ground...blew fuse. I also blew all fuses on my amp during this process and replaced them also. I am so frustrated I needed to just step away before I broke something.

I know this isn't wut you wanted to hear, but it sounds like something is already broke. Make all your connections and insert the fuses with the car and stereo turned off.

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UNLABELED Custom Car Club President

Does it blow the fuse if you have only the power and ground wires connected?   No remote, no speaker wire and no RCA cables.

hah really dumb answer to second part lol im used to my old amp were power and ground were in diff spots so I had them backwards on this amp...lucky the fuses blew only. But the amp is still overheating like crazy...is it time to invest in a new one?

now i used a voltometer and measured the ohms presented to the amp and it actually said it was a 3.8 ohm load, but it is dual 4-ohm voice coils wiredd in a parallel which should present a 2 ohm load. Could this possibly have any effect on the heat?

sounds like u have a bad power transitor, where did u have your ground hooked up to before, did u have a ground at all?  but must likely its a bad transistor.

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rocker

el ranchero wrote:

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sounds like u have a bad power transitor, where did u have your ground hooked up to before, did u have a ground at all?  but must likely its a bad transistor.

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The ground wasnt the best before..will this permanently affect the amp? The ground now is in a very good spot

Im looking in to buying the same amp...is there another amp you wourld reccomend thats rated 1000 rms at 2 ohms?

Now I found out it is fairly common for this amp to overheat, how should I wire this to prevent it.. would you reccomend me wire in a series to run at 8ohms? How much power will i lose?

Sure you can wire it in series to create an 8 ohm load, you will usually lose around half the power output but in turn your amplifier will run cooler, and will create less distortion.

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Garbage in EQUALS Garbage out...

If its designed for a 2 Ohm load, it may not like 8 Ohms - it depends on its design.


Is the power rating an RMS Wattage?
Or - what input fusing does it have (eg - 2 x 60A)?

It is stable anywhere down to a 2 ohm load.  It would be the same exact situation as driving your 1 ton pickup around town, having only 500 pounds of cargo in the bed.  An 8 ohm load wil be fine.

oldspark wrote:

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If its designed for a 2 Ohm load, it may not like 8 Ohms - it depends on its design.


Is the power rating an RMS Wattage?
Or - what input fusing does it have (eg - 2 x 60A)?

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yes the power is rms, and has 4 25a fuses

A couple of things:
1. Check the gauge of the ground cable from your battery to the frame many manufacturers only use 10 gauge, upgrade it, remember the smallest gauge wire in the system will cause the entire power circuit to act as if it is that gauge.
2. Individually check the ohm loads of each coil on the speaker, I've seen many a time when one coil was "going bad" especially under load creating a load that wasn't heavy enough for the amp to go into protection but would generate a lot of heat.