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Hey everyone, I was just driving around listening to my music. I got back home and went inside, and when I was fixing to go somewhere else, I turned on my car and my HiFonics ZX6000 amp started smoking. Is made a weird sound, like a pop, and then smoke started coming from the side vents. The thing is that my amp is on the back of one of the rear seats so when it is folded up it is in the trunk. There really isn't much ventalation so the amp gets pretty hot. The thing is that usually when my amp gets too hot, it goes into protection mode. This amp is also very new, only a few months old. The thing though is that my speakers, JL XR Comp Set, are still working, so my amp is still working. I am kind of freaked out though and im afraid to use my amplifier, in fear that it will get screwed up even more. Could you all please help me, what the hell happened.?

 
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I took a pic to the part that caused the smoke. My amp still works, so I don't know what this particular piece acutally does.

 
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call the company and get it fixed. burned parts are not good and i doubt they would just put extra stuff in there.

 
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Oh man its no big deal you conections probibly just scraped a little, when that happens it causes a spark on the boards and they heat up a bit causing a little bit of smoke, i wouldnt worry about it tho, if you have any more problems i would take it back to the shop you got it from ok.

 
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if youre under warranty, jump on it.

 
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those are the transistors.. very important to your amp but the do get very hot. You were probably just crankin it too much for too long

 
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thats definitely an odd thing to happen!

if your XR's still work, you definitely lucked out! maybe take it easy, or keep an eye on it for awhile, before you start crankign it again!

now, as to teh CAUSE.... are you running exclusively yrou XR's off it? its a 4 channel amplifier, right? and you are playing the XR's at 4 ohms bridged? i think ive got it, dont I?

so if im correct, you are feeding a 4 ohm load to a amplifier bridged?

 
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it is a 2 channel amp and im running the XR comp set at 4Ohms. I was talking to my stepfather, who used to work on electronics, and he told me that since everything still works, it was probably just some dust or something that crossed two wires or something. Ive been playing it for a while today and it seems to be fine, so smoke or anything.

 
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yea like i said dont worry about it, i had a lady come in and the same thing happened to her, but her car was very very dusty and it did get dust on the capasitor casings so take it easy for a while and keep the car clean.

 
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I would be willing to bet the amp doesnt play for much longer. Those are chopping transistors and are part of the amplifiers power supply. Normally when the board looks like that, one of the transistors actually has a small crack on the bottom or underside of it and is the source of the smoked circuit board and won't last much longer.

If your under warranty definatly send it out.

 
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i would say that's definitely not normal...

dust will not cause such a huge spark....

most amps will run at around 20volts AC... and that's not high enough to make dust conduct even if it falls across the terminals

what could have happened is that you had it cranked too high and there was too much current moving through the fets.

it could also be those isolators are worn out and the bottom of the transistors is getting in contact with the grounded heatsink..

 
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I agree I definatly don't think dust had any role in causing a burn mark like that.

I figured it was the transistor because of the left leg on the right one. Sorta has the burned/ charred look when transistors heat up and crack.

 
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i wont stay off topic for long, but most amplifers certainly do not run at 20 volts AC. that would mean that since V^2/R, at 4 ohms most amplifiers would put out 100 watts. which just isnt true.

I want to agree with custom2k1 for the most part on this one, however. a buddy of mine had this same problem with his pioneer radio. happened maybe 14 weeks ago. still kicking strong. maybe amplifiers are different, and maybe the hifonics will react differently, but we were thankful when we powered up the radio again, everything worked fine.

my vote is that you lucked out, in the end, ZSK. I only wish we could determine the cause of the problem so you knew what to avoid in the future....

I just cant see why it was an overdrawn current issue, if its a 2 channel amplifier runnign at 4 ohm stereo. that shoudl be well well under the current carrying limits of that amplifier.....

im flat out stumped

 
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which is why he should send the sucker back

 
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oops i meant it's dual rail +20V and -20V....
my blue thunder pro uses +20V and -20V

anyhoo, it's still unlikely that 40volts is high enough to get dust to conduct