installing my amp

[SR240DET]

im new at cars and audio equipment... i just turn 16 not too long ago... but while installing my system.. i had everything hooked up the first time... but when i turned my car on... my amp started smoking.. did i fry it?? oh yeah.. my friend hook it up to the positive side of the battery...

[hotdogg]

if it started smoking there is a pretty good chance the amp is fried, although it could have been your wires melting.

[icer]

anytime your amp smokes its not good. but you left out some info: wire gauge, do you have a in-line fuse?, do you have a good ground?

[ridebmx]

well you left out alot of infomation, but when your amp starts to smoke you probaby fried the mosfets, but it all depends on what you actually did to get it to smoke

[aricanderson]

Ok I'm not certified or anything but I have worked on a lot a car systems for my friends and even my own.  Next time when you go about hooking up a stereo system, disconnect the battery cables before hooking up anything, this will prevent any short circuits.  Then connect everything making sure that each wire is well insulated.  Then there must be a fuse connected to the positive wire in between the battery and amp, preventing shorting the amp the fuse will blow first.  Your best bet is to go to a website that explains everything on car stereo installation and just work through their instructions step by step.  Its better to take your time than maybe ruin a complete car.

[silvia lover]

oh man, same here. i was tried to put the amps in today. so i hooked everythings up. since i have two capacitors and two amps, i run another long remote wire to the back of my trunk so i can split it up to 4 wire. oh, i also have a disturbit block for the power cable. one 4 gauge in and two 8 gauge out. i hooked everything and i put back on the cable to the postive side of the battery. i had see some spark from the positive ring. but everything fine. so i turned on the radio, to deck is on, but none of the amps or caps on. so i guessed is the remote wire, btw, i have connect about four wires to the remote wire, one is to the wire harness, one to the button that i made for the antenna( so it goes up whenever i feel like it &nbsp;<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'> ) and the other go to the back of my trunk. so i tried the button to see is it work with and without the wire that goes to the back. the button only work when the back wire is disconnect. so i ran another new remote wire to one of the cap, and see is it worked, but tough luck to me, nothing happened. so i took the amp out of the trunk, and run it fresh from the 4 gauge wire and the new remote wire, it worked just fine, then i tried the one remote wire that i run to the trunk, nothing happened again, i'm kinda disappointed. so i disconnect that wire. when i did that, i saw some spark from that wire, i like wth.... that's not a power cable, it's just a remote wire, what in the world it has power on it <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/nervous.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':nervous:'> &nbsp;i don't know what i did wrong, but when the one that go to the trunk is disconnect, everything seem to be work just fine. and the distrubit block doesn't seem it work at all, so i will return it tomorrow and get another one(this one the guy told me it don't need any fuses for it, but when i check the instruction, it said it needed at lease two fuse, wth.... who knows). i will work on it tomorrow. and see what'll be happen.
but if anyone wtf the remote wire will catch spark like that, is it something i have done wrong?
sorry for my long story. but that's what i have been through so far. and i'm new to the audio area too.

[hotdogg]

your remote wire has power when you have your accessories on,such as your radio. it turns the amp on and off. if it didn't spark with the key on you would have a problem.

[ridebmx]

try hookin the rem wire to a different source, there are several ways you can hook up the remote, if your amp worked then you might not be getting power from your rem wire, another thing is some amps have protection mode, and when sparks start it goes into protection...shuting off the car usually makes protection go off, or disconnecting the power, your rem shouldnt spark, what i mean is you shouldnt have any power going to the amp untill its all connected... and about the fuse on the power wire that was mentioned above, one little thing to add is its best to be close to the battery with the fuse...thats all...

[TwinTurbo]

Never hook a remote wire to anything other that the radio. Only ever use the REMOTE wire previded on the back of your head-unit or the power antena remote. Anything else will cause interfierence. What about rca wires, are you guys using rca's or are you tapping into a back speaker wire and running it threw a X-over. If your doing that, spend the money to buy some rca wires and do i right. You should always fuse your power wire within a foot of the battery. And as for a ground many people believe they can get away with a small ground wire but in al reality the ground needs to be as big as the power wire. Dont worry about hooking up caps and all that junk. Just try and get the amp to work and then wory about all the extras.