Installation experts pls read.

[stc_101]

There is another post by me that is more detailed on my situation,,, but I took my car to best buy an hour after they had installed a whole new system for me,,, the amp had blown a fuse. The installer came out to my car and replaced the fuses in my amp. Then he popped my hood and removed the fuse by my batter...(it was not blown) he went and got a piece of power cable and used it to basically bypass the fuse.... i asked him what he was doing and he said "home made fuse" i left it alone and figured I would just speak to his mgr. about it b/c I'm uneducated on stereos. After that he checked the amp again and turned my car on. then he checked my sub and said it was blown.

IS this a some kind of diagnostic testing??? why didnt he just replace the fuse?? could that have blown my sub??

thx.

[wokeupscreamin]

what he did was perfectly fine. The battery fuse is only there in case of a ground or short. If the power wire gets damaged there will be an increase in current through the wire and that will blow the fuse. All he did was made sure there wasnt a problem with the fuse holder. You said this was an hour after it was installed right? Well.. i'm gonna guess what happened and I want you to tell me how correct i am... And be honest. You got in your car ... drove away... then got your cd with the biggest bass and popped it in. Then you turned it up slowly untill you looked in your rear view mirror and it was nothing but blur. Then you crused around.. and listen to a few more songs.. maybe showing it off to a few buddys and pretty much put your subs to the test. IF this is anywhere close to what you did... that is very bad. Subs need a certain break in period. In this period you shouldnt turn them up too loud. Im guessing you blasted your sub and overheated the voice coil causing clipping in the signal which ultimatly blew the fuse... A little bit too late. Or you might have even gotten a bad sub. In either case they Should have given you atleast a 2 week warrenty on the sub and replace it no questions ask. I havnt bought subs there in a VERY long time but atleast thats how it used to be. Get a new sub and take it easy for the first two weeks until the sub internals find their "sweet spot".

[RomeoGAOC]

yes, audio equipment need a break in period, especially when its cold. I was an idiot and cranked my speakers after i installed them and i ended up blowing one speaker and the amp. It was also -5 at this point too.

[TheNewLMHDesign]

You have to let subs break in. You have to run them low for about a week or so. Dont go blasting them right away.
It was pretty much, honestly, your fault that it blew. Not theres.

[stc_101]

ACTUALLY,,, I have found myself past the stage where i want tremendous bass, this is the reason that I only have one sub, just to give me that bottom i need, and ACTUALLY,, when i got in my car w/ my buddy,, i turned the bass down , and faded the sound to the front a lil bit b/c it was a lil over powering for my taste,,,, but I love the assumptions before I even replied. LOL

[birdhouse]

I agree with you, stc... Don't assume that he's some immature 17 year old who just go a system installed and just cruises around with his entire car falling apart. I didn't know about the break in period when I got my first set of subs, and I still didn't act like an ******* with them. I kept them at a low level for almost a month before I actually tried to see how loud they would get. They were MTX 6000's. Bah, I dunno... I'm tired, grumpy, and felt like bitching a little bit... Not everyone falls into a stereotype...

[Dave C]

lol.... stc is the one with the problem...

[birdhouse]

If that's directed towards me, Dave, I know and I think anyone else that read my post could pick that up, too. I was just telling Romeo, wokeup, and LMH that not everyone is an immature kid who just cranks it as loud as humanly possible when they first get a system.

[car audio dave]

ok heres my thoghts...that it as you want.

1) sub probably fused and then ran as a short, therefore, blowing the fuse for the amp to protect it.

2) NEVER short out the fuse by the battery. its there for a reason, if it didnt blow then why remove it? that installer was 100% wrong IMO.

3) who designed your setup? did they properly match up the ohm rating and power rating? did the installer set the gains correctly? these can all cause a sub or amp to go bad.

sorry to see that the poeple on here are still assuming things. the way it sounded, however, was that it was the typical too much power problem. lots of "kids" on here get over excited with new bumps and get bass crazy. :lol:

[Dave C]

Originally posted by birdhouse
If that's directed towards me, Dave, I know and I think anyone else that read my post could pick that up, too. I was just telling Romeo, wokeup, and LMH that not everyone is an immature kid who just cranks it as loud as humanly possible when they first get a system.


The way you stated it seemed as if you were talking to stc about someone else... Sorry.

I do agree with the point, though its an easy thing to stereo-type about.

[wokeupscreamin]

in responce to assuming things... 95 % of the time that i've heard about this problem.. it has been the case. I've seen it so many times. My bad.

[stc_101]

well thx for apologizing,,, very cool

[RomeoGAOC]

i wasnt stereo-typing. like wokeup said, this is the case almost everytime, no matter what maturity level youre at. like i said before, that was the case with me just 2 months ago! and im not immature!

[matts]

hell i aint gonna lie. i get a new sub......i put it to the test. i dont keep it up for an extended period of time. turn it up for a few seconds and see what it's made of. then turn it down and take it easy on it. when you buy a new toy you've gotta play with it.

i done the same thing with my new motor. let it sit there and idle for about an hour, drove it about 20 mile real easy, then i thrashed it to see what it'd do. then drove it normally for the next 500 or so miles

[nineteen88ga]

Originally posted by car audio dave

2) NEVER short out the fuse by the battery. its there for a reason, if it didnt blow then why remove it? that installer was 100% wrong IMO.


OK, so the inline fuse didn't blow, so why was that even considered to be bypassed? That installer should have checked continuity on each side of the fuse and or fuse holder if he felt the fuse /fuse holder was the problem. OR he could have checked for 12V right at the amp. As long as that fuse is good under your hood, it will still have 12V where it conects to the amp.

If the fuses on the amp are blown, its not a short in the power cable running back from the battery, its going to be an internal problem in your amp. Did the installer just "say" the sub was blown or did he use his DMM to find the impedance of it? Further more, new amps shouldn't blow fuses. Bottom line, there's a problem with your amp, not power cable from the battery. The fuses on the amp popped for areason, probably nothingto blame on the install, could have just been a faulty component in the amp. Have the amp swapped out for a new one if it wasn't already, also make sure the sub is metering propperly with a digital multi meter.

Freak things like this happen from time to time with amps. I wouldn't go pointing fingers at the owner of the system in this case. and considering it was "professionally" installed, I'd almost rule out installer error.

[car audio dave]

i still feel that if the sub was blown (bad to begin with) then it could have acted as a short, and cause the amps fuse to blow. if the isntaller used a DMM on the sub, hed know whether that was the case...assuming he knew what to look for. keep in mind, this is best buy, where they hire installers who might not have previous install experience. (not to bash on any BB employees)