when i connected my new RF 400a4amp yesterday, i used the existed 8 guage wiring for it, and ran new 4 guage wiring for the RF1000a2. i didnt touch the gains or anything. when i turned the car on to try it all it, it sounded fine, but it felt like i unleashed a beast. upgrading from 8 to 4 guage wire really made a difference and the bass was makin everything jump in the car. after listening to music for like 20 minutes, it blew the 90 amp fuse. so i went to the local show, and asked for a new one, he said he was out of 90, he only had 80. i told him i needed 90, he said 80's enough, i'm not pulling that much power. so i paid for my fuse, connected it, 2 minutes later it blew. he gave me 2 free fuses, but they're 80 amp. i took the 90 amp fuse that i had the 400a4 on and switched it to the sub fuse holder and put the 80 in its place(i doubt the 400 watt amp is going to pull enough to blow 80 amps). it's was fine all night with 80 for 400 and 90 for the 1000. but then this afternoon, the bass stopped hitting, so i assumed it was the fuse again but then as i'm driving, like 10 minutes later, it starts hitting again! so i say w/e and leave it alone. i get home, park the car, and then when i go out again tonight, no bass. i popped the hood, and the fuse is still intact, but with like burn marks on the glass(like it was about to go, but didnt). i put it back in and turned it on, bass works again. it was working all night, but for how long?
is there a reason why my amp is blowing my fuse? its been running 90 amp fuses for like 4 months now with no problem. is it because i changed the wiring to 4 guage and its pulling more now? if so, what size should i change to? 100 amp? it looks like 90 is almost enough, but not quite. also, are AGU type fuses alright?
What size fuses does your amp have in it? It's recommended to be equal to the total fuses on that amp. Also, are you running two seperate power wires from the battery, one to each amp? Try double-checking EVERY connection front-to-back. If even one strand is loose, it could manage to cause probs. I've used AGUs up til now with no problem (My current system takes a BUNCH, so I went to the ANLs.
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i have no idea, the amps fuses are internal i think. theres none visable otuside. i'm running 4 guage to distro block and then from the block, 8 guage to mids/highs amp, anf 4 guage to sub amp(i should probably get the subs 4 guage by itself)
and i may very well have a few strangs lose as my block doesnt really accept 4 guage on the out so i had to adapt(pliers and some twisting made it thin enough to fit in that how) to make it fit. i'll check in the monring, but i dont think that was it.
if anyone knows what fuses the 400a4 and 1000a2 use, lemme know..
One thing to think about is that AGU fuses are generally only used up to 100 amps. Being close to the maximum of that type of fuses could be affecting your voltage. I would say think about switching to an ANL style fuse, which are rated up to 400 amps
-Chris
i remember reading in crutchfield specs a couple years ago that a 1000a2 needs a 100 amp fuse
Yeah, the manual recommends 100 AMPS (though it says " (1) 100 AMP ANL Fuse of (2) 50 AMP AGU Fuses" )
why they have it written like that is beyond me. But that's all it says. Must have built in circuit protection on the amp.
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2 50 amp agu fuses? i cant just use 1 100 amp agu fuse? how would i wire 2 50 amp fuses? and i think it does have a circut breaker cause sometimes it turned off for awhile(like if i have it on for an hour straight at max) and then after like 20 or 30 min when it cools down, it turns back on
btw charlz, are you viewing the manual online? i've been dying to get a manual for my 400a4 and 1000a2. if you know what site has them so i can view it, i'd love to see it
Hmm.... if the ONLY thing you've changed was the wire.... and now it's blowing fuses...
Then your new wiring has a short in it.
Or.... by some strange coincidence... at the same time you replaced the wiring... the amp got screwed up somehow.... and now is drawing too much current (which, actually, sounds plausible since it's suddenly hitting so much harder).
If the wiring before was too thin.... it would have been pretty warm when hitting hard. Did you ever feel the wire??
(8 gauge isn't too thin for 100amps... but I wouldn't run that myself...)
...j
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the wire did get kind of warm. before i switched to 4 guage. and i dunno if its shorting cause it'll play for awhile with 90 amp fuse, maybe even a good hour. after that fuse goes. fuse got so hot that it burnt the glass(90)
its its not hitting THAT much harder, but i can definatly feel a difference. alot cleaner bass too, before i was getting a little distortion on some songs when i hit max, thats gone now.
right now i have it set to 78v bridged mode on a 100hz test tone,but yea, i'm gonna buy a 100amp, the 90 i have in there is getting pretty burnt..i'll take a pic tomm.
Ok, I misinterpreted what you'd written previously.... bigger wire better
Get that 100amp fuse on there... and see if it's still an issue. I imagine the poor fuse is breaking apart and coming back together....
...j
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i believe besse hit your problem on the head. your running the agl fuses at their basically maximum. most peopel will reccomend you not run fuses up to ther max. i'd almost bet that running the 8 gauge wire you werent able to pull enough juice to be an issue, now that you have the 4 gauge wire your able to pull allot more juice wich is burning up the agl fuses since now you are basically sending the maximum thru them to your amp. probalby also the reason your fuse holder looks the way it does, check your wiring and as long as there isnt a short wich i doubt there is (if you had a short you'd blow the fuse instanlty. u wouldn't be able to get any music out of it.) but check it anyway, then i'd sugges replacing what you have with a anl fuse holder and around a 140amp fuse.
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i'm using AGU, not AGL(not that iave any idea what the difference is, but i know mine are AGU. Whats the diff between AGU, AGL, and ANL? any pics?
AGU:
ANL:
"If life throws you a curve, pop the clutch and drift it!"
is agl a blade fuse? You might also check your ground just to be sure. It doesn't sound like ground to me, but I had some really screwwy problems before that seemed unrelated to ground, but once I properly grounded my amp, they went away.
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Hell hath no fury like a pissed off balloon animal.
"Sup, G?"
"Aren't you white?"
"Only on the outside, craka."
well now i realized that that the fuse holder is actually melting little by little. i bought the 100 amp AGU fuse today and it was fine all day. parked the car, when i turned it back on like 3 hours later to go t o the store, no bass. got home and checked it out,. the 100 amp fuse looked the the gold plating had melted just a tad(one of the corners was a little melted) but it still worked fine. put it back in the holder, nothing. then i moved it aroound and suddent i had power. all the plastic under the hole looks bubbled up too. maybe my fuse holder was designed to take such high amp fuses? and those ANL fuses look expensive. probably not nearly as expensive as the holder would be..i pay like a buck for the AGU ones.
Think of it this way: Price for one setup that will actually work consistently, or work to constantly reset fuse and price to continually replace fuse and/or holder.
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Hell hath no fury like a pissed off balloon animal.
"Sup, G?"
"Aren't you white?"
"Only on the outside, craka."
My setup uses a massive 100 amp blade fuse.
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Hell hath no fury like a pissed off balloon animal.
"Sup, G?"
"Aren't you white?"
"Only on the outside, craka."
yea, i'm gonna go ANL then. i was looking artound and i found the problem. the fuse was getting so hot, it melted the plastic around the fusholder and some of the gold plating so it wasnt making contact anymore. the fuse was alright, the fuse holder was not. how many watts do you think i'm running to be able to melt the fuse holder? its a double fuse holder and the one to my highs amp is fine, the other one is gone.
so you say i should use 140 amps for what (i think is) a 3000 watt RMS @ 2 ohms pull(i have both gains on the amp set to 39amps, so 78amps total)
Ive seen that happen from a crappy fitting glass fuse holder. The fuse is loose in the holder and it gets really hot and unsolders the fuse inside.
