Cooking

[aussie4life]

Heya fellas. Been a while. Hope y'all been good.

Anyway, onto my problem. I am having some issues with the amp that is powering my sub. On hot days, like today at 39.6° lol, my amp goes into protection mode. It's a MOSFET 2500w mono block powering 2 x 1000watt subs. It's located in my boot which I figure is contributing to my problems as the car is parked outside.

My question is, what have you all done to avoid/prevent this from happening? One idea I had was to make a raised enclosure and put a couple 12v fans under it to circulate the air, but will it work if the air is already hot?

The other idea is that I mount it under my passenger front seat? Has anyone done this? How hard would it be to mount it to prevent it sliding around?

If you have any other ideas, I'd greatly appreciate hearing them. Thanks in advance

 

[Muke]

Unfortunately I doubt fans will help much. I was having a similar problem in my VN. Had the amp mounted to the back of the sub box in the boot and on stinking hot days, if I had it cranked it would go into protection for a short while but was fine at lower volume or on cooler days. So I put a 12V fan on it blowing over the heatsink (then tried drawing air away). Did nothing as far as I could tell, so I removed it. Did think of running some ducting to the boot vents, but cbf with the effort. Maybe a fan on each vent, one in, one out to circulate fresh air would be easier??? Same gear moved to the VE and I have bugger all issues. Might be a cooler boot, might be I don't crank the music like I used to, or I think I read somewhere it could have been a wiring issue (not earthed well enough or something). Which could be it, the earth is slightly longer in the VE, but to a much better spot. Power lead is also a fraction of the length it was.

Anyway, I'll leave the advice to people that know what they're talking about. Just sharing my experience that the fan blowing on the amp was a waste of time for me. Hope you sort out a fix, I know how frustrating it is.

 

[StoneX]

Best way to fix it is buy a decent amp that doesn't produce so much heat. Your problem is that it's not a great quality amp and is probably running at its maximum limits. If you had a more powerful amplifier running at only half power there wouldn't be as much heat or if you had a more efficient class-D amplifier that doesn't make anywhere near as much heat.

Otherwise, ensure the amp is mounted with the heatsink fins upwards so the heat can dissipate more easily. You can try fans which will keep it cooler but may just delay the inevitable overheating. Mounting under seats generally causes a lot of heat already as there's no air flow... I guess you could aim your AC vents down towards the floor but who knows how effective that'll be.

 

[Deuce]

I had a Alpine V12 amp with a similar problem, I mounted 2 computer fans on top and a remote switch by the bonnet popper (easy access from drivers seat, although car was not a commy) and at full volume my subs without fans would cut out after 1/2 hour; or with fans on (and a boot load of crap as I was shifting towns when tested) it lasted 3.5hours. (and with fans going it re-started out of protection mode within 20min's, so I finished the trip with music at a bearable volume and it never cut out again, LOL)
Fans were drawing air from between fins and blowing it vertically (amp mounted on top of sub box) and there was a small access to allow that vertical flow into the cabin.

Likewise I had a smaller Alpine V12 running 2 speakers, it was mounted under the front passenger seat. The car had air vents down there so I had the A/C going straight on it. Problem was that the thermal protection detected at the front of the amp (which was ice cold) and the unit still blew a channel because the rear half was frying pan hot!
So I would definitely encourage the solution suggested by Stone X "get a Bigger amp that is suited to your desired usage"

good luck mate

 

[hotrod]

mmm, maybe you can take a bbq pack with ya and have a cook up ha ha , maybe worth getting a good amp that can cope with it , and don't run the amp at its peak.

 

[aussie4life]

The amp is not running anywhere near its peak. It's below half of its capabilities. Plus I have full control over it from the remote gain control I have mounted up front. Gives me the ability to tune to each song. Seriously, if all the advice you can offer is to get a new amp, keep it.

 

[hotrod]

ok sorry I didn't mean to get you upset , all I know from my experiences is to place the amp as low as you can in the car , good luck.

 

[StoneX]

The amp is not running anywhere near its peak. It's below half of its capabilities. Plus I have full control over it from the remote gain control I have mounted up front. Gives me the ability to tune to each song. Seriously, if all the advice you can offer is to get a new amp, keep it.

Sorry mate, but the advice given so far has been all correct for the poor amount of information you've provided. There is no amplifier brand called "MOSFET", a MOSFET is a metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor which is the electronic component that amplifies the audio inside the amplifier. It's like you JUST telling people your car is a 3.8L V6, how is anyone meant to know what make or model car you have?

Don't give us poor information and complain about poor advice.


If you want the honest truth, it's a poor quality amp that runs hot.

 

[hotrod]

amen :spot on: get a amp that can cope.

 

[mpower]

if it's out of warranty, maybe open it up and make sure the heatsinks (the things that are getting hot) are making good contact with the stuff that's getting hot, might just need some new heatsink compound applied.

Heatsink Compound - 10 gram tube - Jaycar Electronics

also as above, some active cooling could help.