Smoke!

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=12521
Printed Date: May 31, 2024 at 8:18 PM

Topic: Smoke!

Posted By: jbl4me
Subject: Smoke!
Date Posted: April 21, 2003 at 6:21 PM

Hello

I got a cigarette lighter to bare wire adapter at Radio Shack and connected it to my amp. It was right, + to 12V and - to GND. Smoke came out of my amp after being on for a few seconds. Is the power here a different type? What is wrong??

Replies:

Posted By: wrencher_25
Date Posted: April 21, 2003 at 6:29 PM

What gauge of wiring were you using? Cause most amps require 10gauge minimum. And usually they are run through the firewall from the battery and down along the car to the amp. Oh, and I don't want to be the one to break it to you...BUT...once the magic smoke comes out of the amp, you can't get it back in. posted_image . Sorry dude.

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Andrew Weitzel

MECP First Class Installer

Posted By: markwilliams
Date Posted: April 21, 2003 at 7:01 PM

Like wrencher said you must go through the firewall to the postitive terminal of your battery.

Posted By: Cletis
Date Posted: April 21, 2003 at 7:54 PM

Sounds like your amp is toast. You need to hook it directly to the battery and ground it to the chasis. Did you put a fuse inline with your wirng?

Posted By: jbl4me
Date Posted: April 21, 2003 at 8:01 PM

Is the voltage different there?

Posted By: jbl4me
Date Posted: April 21, 2003 at 8:41 PM

I may try to RMA the amp. I want to know if the amp was defective of if the cig plug friend the amp. All connections were correct as described above.

Thanks

Posted By: speedwayaudio1
Date Posted: April 21, 2003 at 9:57 PM

the wire from you cig lighter is to small you need 10awg or 8awg min. you were lucky your car didn't burn down. ask a local shop for some help

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Big Dave

Posted By: jbl4me
Date Posted: April 22, 2003 at 7:13 AM

Sombody please ansewer my question! Did I fry my amp because I connected it there. The amp never turned on just smoke. I should have at least turned on, right? I really need this question ansewered.

Thanks

Posted By: thepencil
Date Posted: April 22, 2003 at 8:53 AM

What you have done mostly likely have cause the IC inside your amp to burn. It can be fix, but it might be expensive to the point where you are better off getting a new amp. Did you have speakers hooking up to the amp when this happen? If you did, what tense to happen is that you didn’t have enough power to supply to your amp so it overheated and as a result you can see smoke coming out of it. That’s just one of the scenario that I am guessing which might have caused your amp to smoke. If you are lucky enough to have connected the positive and negative incorrectly you might just have blown the fuse on the amp, so you can also have smoke coming out of there as well. So check your fuse on the side of the amp. Anyway, I don’t think there much more I can tell you other than a lesson you will have learned and be more careful of it the next time.

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Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. posted_image

Posted By: jbl4me
Date Posted: April 22, 2003 at 9:12 AM

No, there were no speakers

Posted By: thepencil
Date Posted: April 22, 2003 at 9:33 AM

Check your fuses on the amp. Are there any?

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Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. posted_image

Posted By: jbl4me
Date Posted: April 22, 2003 at 11:05 AM

Yes, they appear to be fine. I got the amp on Ebay, is there a chance that the amp could be defective?

Posted By: thepencil
Date Posted: April 22, 2003 at 11:56 AM

Yes, there is a good chance that it was already defective before you got it now that you say it's from Ebay. If it's on Ebay the rule of "Buyer Beware" applies. If you were just trying to switch the amp on I don't see how you can short it out.

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Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. posted_image

Posted By: jbl4me
Date Posted: April 22, 2003 at 3:17 PM

OK, so I am going to try and get a refund. If I scrwed up the amp I didn't want to do that. Thanks All