Melted ground wire? Fire in my trunk?!!

DevaughnB · Post by **DevaughnB** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:01 pm

So a day after switching my old 300w MTX amp with my newly purchased US AMPS 600x to hook up to my IDMAX, i'm driving down the highway listening to glorious bass... And just like that poof it was gone? I had been pounding it... But i was a lil shocked my US AMPS was going into protection after 20 minutes? On inspection, i thought it had something to do with a loose remote lead, because after playing with it, i had my bass boomin again.... until 5 minutes later. Finally i get home to find about an inch and a half of my ground wire melted/charred right where the screw is grounded to the floor of my trunk? It very much looked like the thing had caught on fire. Luckily my amp still looks beautiful.

First, i'm assuming it was due to an insufficient ground? The grounded area had not been sanded and the guy who did it simply drilled a screw into the floor attaching the ground wire (8gauge) crimp to it. The amp has dual grounds so i have 2 8 gauge wires running from the amp to a distribution block which has a single 8 gauge wire to the chassis. All together from amp to chassis the ground wiring is 8 inches long. Im assuming my old amp was fine all this time because i was running with half the power.

There it is. Am i right about it being the ground? Or do you think i may have an issue with my amp? Help me out before i blow somethin up!

JeremyC · Post by **JeremyC** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:06 am

DevaughnB wrote: The amp has dual grounds so i have 2 8 gauge wires running from the amp to a distribution block which has a single 8 gauge wire to the chassis.

Yeah the ground is to small. I would run a peice of 4 guage from the distro to the chassi ground, and sand off any paint. Other than that you should be good.

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:30 am

Also, check for stray wires incase you had shorted it somehow.

Post by **GlassWolf** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:48 am

cut the carpet away from the ground location or slit the carpet and stick the grounding wire under the carpet to hide it.
sand the paint off of the grounding surface so it's bare, scuffed metal.
use a large bolt for ground, not a small self threading screw.
use ground wire equal in gauge to the power line. for that amp, at least 4AWG.

the carpet didn't catch fire, but it did melt some from the heat generated. automotive carpet is usually flame retardant.

DevaughnB · Post by **DevaughnB** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:12 am

GlassWolf wrote:cut the carpet away from the ground location or slit the carpet and stick the grounding wire under the carpet to hide it.
sand the paint off of the grounding surface so it's bare, scuffed metal.
use a large bolt for ground, not a small self threading screw.
use ground wire equal in gauge to the power line. for that amp, at least 4AWG.
the carpet didn't catch fire, but it did melt some from the heat generated. automotive carpet is usually flame retardant.

Thanks for the help everybody! I've sanded down the area, and doubled up on wire. So my ground is now two 8 gauge wires. My amp doesn't seem to have any fuses... And in the amp's manual it only mentions to have a fuse close to the battery. Should i also have a fuse closer to the amp?

Glasswolf: I am not clear about what you meant concerning splitting the carpeting?

cargodz · Post by **cargodz** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:56 pm

slit not split, he means cut a line in it so you can tuck it all the way under rather than feed it through a whole in the carpet :)