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Last weekend I was just driving around and I had my music up pretty loud and my entire car started to smell like something was burning in it and i've never had this problem before, it was comming from my trunk so I flipped the kill switch on my subs and stoped the car and got out and opened up my trunk and it looked like somebdoy threw a smoke bomb in there or something. I got to looking at the back of my amps and the connector on the amp for my ground wire had completely melted and the insulator around the wire was melted and I have no idea what would have caused this. i tried looking in the forms but I wasn't able to find anything and I've already checked all of my connections over and over and I know it's not a faulty ground because I've taken a drimel and sanded all the paint off the metal where I grounded it at... I'm running two Sony Xplod 760W amps and 2 Sony xplod 12inch subs... Each amp is bridged out to one of the subs and the ground wire on each amp is 8 gauge. Everything is grouded at the same place but only one of my amps started melting so i'm hoping that somebody else will have some ideas about this...it would be greatly appreciated! thanks.

 
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crossed your wires, the heat built up and melted teh point of highest resistance (the terminal)

 
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so is my amp fried now?? It still works and everything but like before.. when i turn it up loud it starts smoking and stuff. I think i have a year warenty for it so I can get it replaced but since sony has a new line out now I think i'd get the 1000w 2 channel or the 800 Mono... (which is better?) .. I'm gonna want to mess up my other amp so I can get 2 of the same amps. if that makes sense.,. any ideas on how i should go about messing it up?

 
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if you got a warantee, id go claim it

 
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HAHA! I had that happen to me on my first install.I damn near lit up the whole stupid car.

Scared the crap outta me.

Oh, yea, It killed my amp too.

I hope yopu have better luck in the future.

 
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hold on, now before you waste 2 months by sending your amp into Sony, look at the REAL problem here. Heat is genereted because there is too much resistance in the path.

OK, onto your problem... if your "star ground" were at the same potential as the negative terminal of your battery, there would be NO RESISTANCE. Instead, as current passes thru your "star ground" (which in this case acts as a big *** resistor) that area heats up. This heat proves that there is a voltage drop between your amp and your negative battery terminal (PROVEING YOUR AMP'S GROUND IS NOT AT THE SAME POENTIAL AS YOUR CARS GROUND = BAD)

sorry to go on and on (and possibly confusing) this tends to happen since I am an electrical engineer for a well-known car audio company.

Simple answer: Make a new ground connection!!

~Tbone

 
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This is my second ground because the first ground connection was under some carpet and it burned a hole through the carpet with the amp that is melting now.. and after that I added a second amp and grouded everything at the same place. I didnt really know what I was doing at that time the first ground started burning through the carpet but I've learned alot sense then and I just figured that i didnt have the bolt tight enough on the first one... but I took it into this audio shop yesterday and the guy said that because it's only happening on one of my amps that something inside the amp came loose and it's allowing DC current to pass through the ground terminal or something of that sort... so he basically said that the ground and positive are touching each other inside the amp and I told him that the lights in my car have been dimming BIG time lately and he siad that might be part of the reason why.. I have a one farad cap and i can't tell a noticable differnce with it on there or off. So I think i'm gonna take it in there and he said that they will probably just send me back one of the new model of amps... so I need to mess up my Working sony amp so i can end up with 2 of the same amps (hopefully the new 2003 series) .. So I guess all i need to know now is how do i mess up the amp thats working with out burning out the power wires and everythign else in my car?

 
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when i said "grouded everything at the same place" ... I grouded everyting together at a differnt location then the first ground wire

 
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well, if your warranty is still valid, short the speaker terminals together with a big fat wire and crank her up. Most amps have short protection but SONY isn't exactly a "high-performance amp" and then tend to exadurae on their specs, protection as well (most likely) I'd try that tho, but make sure that you have a fuse in your car (you may need a big *** one to let them amp take all the current it needs to destry itself) but that should work (unless they actually make a descent protection ckt) Goodluck

~Tbone

 
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alright thanks man.. i'll give it a shot later this week and see what happens.. hopfully it will work