so i blew a 120 watt anl fuse today in like 10 minutes... i checked all wiring and its fine and my ground is fine..there is nothing else i can do because i have 4 gauge wire and if i put a bigger fuse i will blow up my amp basically...if i switch to a 0 gauge wire then i still gotta up the fuse which is pointless obviously!!
if you are absolutly positive its not a wiring issue (did you check every inch of every power wire to make sure there is not a small nick or cut in the outer housing causing a grounding issue) then it is a electronic issue. switch out to a diffrent amp and see if the problem persists. if it does u know its not the electronics its the wire. but i'd check your wiring again, ive never blown a main power fuse in 18 years of car audio.
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yea but the manual for the amp recommends a 150 watt fuse. so should i get that fuse or should it still not be blowing??
I don't think you understand what you're doing. At all. Firstly, fuses are rated in AMPS, not Watts. Inline fuses are not there to save your AMP they're there to save your CAR from burning. The fuses in the amp are to protect it. Putting a bigger inline fuse is going to effect the amp in absolutely no way(unless of course your amplifier is drawing too many amps causing the 120amp fuse to blow).. Look for a short along your wire as sndsgood recommended. CHECK THOROUGHLY!!! Any small nick or pinch or anything that pierces the insulation could cause your wire to short out, blowing the fuse. That's either the problem, or the amplifier is buggered. There are really no other variables in this equation as far as I know.
wysiwyg wrote:i would say they bang, they don't really pound so much. but if
you want to bump, then they will bump and hit real hard and a lot good. 
LOL
the amp doesn't have fuses thats wat the 120 amp one is for.
Every amp has a fuse. Look closer.
What amp is this?
Also, on the amp itself make sure the power wire isn't shorting against the heatsink(cover) of the amp.
no this amp really doesn't have any fuses on it whatsoever its a kicker zx 1500.1
some are under the heatsink (sp) cover... not many butt some are
ive checked there aren't any for some reason???
It's true. the zx's come with an external fuse. Kinda strange but true.
Regardless, you're power wire cleanly goes into the amp and isn't frayed out or anything?
Does it blow as soon as you power up the amp or after driving around a bit?
If it's the second, disconnect the amp's power (tape it up) and see if the fuse still blows. That will prove if it's the amp or the wire.
well with this last fuse i played a few songs while idle and then drove down the road about 100 yards and it went out. so its not right at that second. but the last fuses i used were just regular in line fuses which sucked worse than the smaller agu fuses. im switching to anl fuses now and putting a 150 on there because thats what kicker recommends for this amp in the manual. but thats with 1/0 guage wire and i have 4 gauge which was probably also a mistake!!!
did you already have the power wire in the car before you bought the amp. If they recommend 0 gauge and 150 amp fuse, why wouldnt you run that? what size is your ground? where do you have it grounded?
How about turning the gains & volume down? Does it still blow if you listen to it at a reasonable level?
i haven't turned down the gains because they are barely turned up and were set by the installers and if i turn the volume down past 3/4 theres not enough bass to even have the subs in the truck. and its grounded to a bolt in my floor and the power and ground wire are both 4 gauge. and the 4 gauge i used says for up to 1600 watts so i used that
All I can say is your @!#$ is @!#$ up or your installer sucks. Find someone who knows what they're doing.
wysiwyg wrote:i would say they bang, they don't really pound so much. but if
you want to bump, then they will bump and hit real hard and a lot good.
LOL
did they grind the paint off where they grounded.
PS: If you had a shop do this for you, why not take it back and get THEM to fix it?
i am as soon as my new fuses come in. and there was no paint on the bolts
this isnt a solution, but you should think about a breaker and stop wasting money on fuses.
^^^i agree that the problem is probably in the install, but he seems to want to figure it out on his own by throwing fuses at it. just making a suggestion to help him not waste any more money.
well the manual says that you should use 150 amp fuses with 0 gauge wire. i ordered a 150 amp fuse and am going to put it in. if it blows then im for sure having the installers re wire it for free. i had this same problem with my last system and had to unbridge my subs to stop from blowing fuses!
So the fuses only pop with the volume turned way up?
IMO, 4Ga is small for 1500wrms (on a run from the front to the trunk in a J).
Are you running that amp off a stock electrical? If your electrical is stock, voltage drop could be a major reason why your fuses are popping. The lower the voltage drops on big bass hits, the more current the amp has to pull to produce a certain power output. Too much current, and either a fuse needs to pop or the amp can burn itself up.
It just seems fishy that it took 10 minutes to kill the first fuse. The next fuse you mentioned died after playing a few songs while idling (when your alt is not discharging nearly enough to keep up with the demand of a 1500wrms sub amp). You said the fuse died 100yds down the road. If your electrical can't keep up with demand, and you just ran your battery down while idling, your voltage drops could easily be sufficient to pull enough current to pop that fuse.
Things just scream voltage drop to me. But I've been wrong before.
GAM (The Kilted One) wrote: if you think you're that much better than them because you're "correct" I hope your progeny don't turn out as screwed up as yourself.
im gonna say it's your amp, i just had this same problem.
