Quick Amp Problem

[TimG]

I have my Kenwood 250W amp running my 12" in the trunk but the other day I was pounding it and I smelt something that smelt like burnt plastic. I just popped of the cover to it and there is white gluey stuff all over the large capacitors (I don't know if that is what they are). Is that supposed to be there? What happened?

 

[dTERM]

That is normal. What you need to look for are burn marks on the board, around mosfets, caps and the power and signal terminals. If your caps were going bad you would notice seperation of the creases at the top of the cap. The "Y" shaped crease at the top will pop open and let the cap blow away from the board, keeping damage to a minimum.

 

[level10a/t93tsi]

ya look for burn marks. you also could have over heated the amp if it dosent have a built in fan thats what happend just keep stuff off it and away from the edges of the trunk

 

[runuover2]

Ive seen an older alpine amp i got that when it finally quit the white gooey stuff was all over. I havnt noticed the white gooey stuff being that spread out like that on any of my new amps.

 

[Turbo Guru]

That white gooey stuff is thermally conductive. It is used by some companies to help transfer heat to the heat-sink casing from the transistors.

 

[espydur]

ok "burnt plastic smell" doesn't sound too good. if your amp is getting really hot to the touch, then you've got it wired into too low of an ohm load or your gains are turned up too high. if this is the case, you'll have to wire it differently or just get a class d (mono) amp.

 

[SPAWN6996]

Or, are your speakers brand new. If they are the smell you are smelling is the voice coiles breaking in. Also check your ground cable it may be to small and the insulation is geting to hot on the wire,that also could cause that smell.

 

[dTERM]

Also, turn your gain down. That's not a volume control. a 250w kenwood on a 12 will fill your bass in, you shouldn't try to blow windows out with it, that's what a 1000w Kac-929 is for.

 

[TimG]

Turns out I just blew up my sub. I picked up a 350W amp cause I thought it was the problem. Yet when I looked at the sub, the foam around it was blown and I had the sub tested and it didn't work. Damn, time to find a new sub... ya know, the one you pick up from some guy for no tax. Hee Hee.

 

[dTERM]

Yeah, the kind that's still warm from the last owners stereo...