ZX600ti Caught on Fire Today!

Steveman09 · Post by **Steveman09** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:04 pm

So I have 2 PG amps in my car.

ZX475.4ti 4-channel for the components
ZX600.2ti 2-channel for the sub

4-gauge Power Wiring with a 120amp Circuit Breaker at the battery.

Today after work the car was not running and the stereo was OFF, I walk out and discouver my entire car filled with smoke! I open the trunk and flames are shooting out of my ZX600.2!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I go to the battery and turn the breaker OFF and the flames stop, smoke everywhere!

I rip it outta my trunk to find it burned a hole in my carpet and the whole side of the amp melted where the power and ground terminals are. Inside all the main caps are blown and melted.

Anyone else had this happen?

Funny thing is over the last week I noticed my voltages were low 12.4volts at idle with car running at stop lights, now after I took this amp out its 14.5volts stable again! So it was dying slowly, thing is I had the sub removed from the trunk for the past few weeks but left everything else connected to the ZX600.2, so while the stereo was on so was the amp just had no sub connected to it, could this have damaged it having no load on it? or did I just have some bad luck?

Post by **Jacampb2** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:00 pm

That sucks, sounds like the caps leaked and shorted. The PS input caps always have 12Vdc connected to them, even when the amp is off...

Misfire · Post by **Misfire** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:47 pm

And thats why we recommend you change the caps at around the ten year mark. Very sorry for your loss.... They just don't make them like that anymore!!!

Steveman09 · Post by **Steveman09** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:04 pm

yeah it was a kickass amp, and I just learned my ZX475ti that was sitting 3 inches away from it got damaged, I hooked it up by itself and it sounds like crap, its screwed. being on the same power line as the ZX600ti it got damaged.

The thing im baffled about is, why didn't my Circuit Breaker trip?

I'm thinking it must be faulty, my 4 gauge power wiring was VERY hot it should of tripped.

Misfire · Post by **Misfire** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:06 am

It might not have caused a direct short. If the power supply caps leaked, it might not have been enough of a short to trip the breaker, but enough to start the components to start burning. I am guessing the the caps fluids leaked, it could have just started boiling, which in turn could melt the surrounding area. Electronics fail in crazy ways. I had a freezer a number of years ago that the ice maker did the same thing, luckily the wire gave way before the whole thing went up in smoke along with my house. Only lost my deer meat and the fridge. Very sorry, but welcome to the Phorum!

nico boom · Post by **nico boom** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:35 am

Misfire wrote:It might not have caused a direct short. If the power supply caps leaked, it might not have been enough of a short to trip the breaker, but enough to start the components to start burning. I am guessing the the caps fluids leaked, it could have just started boiling, which in turn could melt the surrounding area. Electronics fail in crazy ways. I had a freezer a number of years ago that the ice maker did the same thing, luckily the wire gave way before the whole thing went up in smoke along with my house. Only lost my deer meat and the fridge. Very sorry, but welcome to the Phorum!

I second that; circuitbreakers of the reset-type will only trip when the amount of amps given for that type [or more] flows through it for a number of seconds. By then your amps will have gone up in smoke [like you experienced already]

They are only ment for protection after a car-accident, protecting the car, but NOT the equipment.
Sorry to see you joining this forum that way..... WELCOME.

On the other hand; when you want to find such a amp again, YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE!

Post by **Jacampb2** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:37 am

The breaker protects the wire not the load, the fuse you should have had in line with the supply to the amp should protect the amp to some degree, but as mentioned above, it is possible to have odd failures.

I can't see any reason the Zx475 would have an issue just because it was on the same line. Have you checked all the connections to be sure they are still good? If there was excessive heating of the ground and power conductors, you could have a high resistance power supply connection now.

Later,
Jason

Post by **ttocs** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:55 am

it would not require 120 amps to catch that amp on fire, it could do it for much much less and not trip the breaker.

I have the caps in my octane LE on the short list of things to repair, just after the heater core in the mustang. I might move it up a notch or two.

Pics?

Post by **Eric D** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:06 am

Under the right conditions a 12V light bulb can start a fire with only an amp or two. A car audio amplifier can easily catch on fire but not draw much current doing so.

Your caps probably caused this, but I have not seen a Ti amp yet with bad caps (doesn't mean they don't exist, just I have not seen one). How was the amp mounted in the car?

Post by **AVICJR** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:49 am

Did you have one run of 4 gauge wire from battery? Or two runs of 4 gauge wire, one for each amp from the battery?

bogart · Post by **bogart** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:53 am

Man that sucks....sorry to hear about the amp.....

under no load the amp will idle as long as the remote is attached...the amp was drawing exessive current causing the voltage drop....think of amprage as electrical pressure and voltage as the force that propels the electons in the cable...that movement of electrons over a given time and distance is amperage....so anytime your car is running below 13.8 or so while the alternator is running there is a problem....especially when you are not stressing the system. So if anyone sees the indicators of voltage drop and such it is intrinsically tied to the amperage and you should check the system and amps are likely at fault

caps are rated by two values...the esr value and the capacitance value. Most amps caps that I've worked on had caps that were rated between two or three thousand hours before the esr value is likely to deteriorate to a point that they begin to fail. Now rail caps....and often the signal caps are not only under load while in the car with a 12 volt constant the caps are under load unless you discharge them in most cases. Some amps discharge the caps each time the remote pins on the ic drops to 0 volts. Now they are under much more stress while the amp is running for sure...but....when they have such a low life span to start I think that 10 years is far far far to long of a time span for cap replacement. If an amp was bought new and it has been in your use and and caps under load since the first time the amp was benched I would say five to six years and they are way beyond the caps best days and should be done....I won't work on an amp over bout 8 years unless the owner is paying for caps as well. I would say go for it if they are over five years if you want you amp to stay in peak operating condition.

Sounds like you were on your way to a serious car fire.....amps can be dangerous if not up kept guys....most here know this and respect it....some do not heed the warnings....

Steveman09 · Post by **Steveman09** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:26 am

So I pulled out my ZX475ti, it didnt get touched by the fire and shows no physical damage at all, I'm sellin it for $75.00 shipped.

It turns on and plays but sounds muffled, im guessing the caps got damaged from the voltage in the fire, but I took it to a shop today and was told it can be repaired. However I allready ordered a new set of USAMPS amps to replace my PG's.

The ZX600 I threw away it was not fixable.

Here are pics of the 475ti im selling :

Post by **Eric D** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:36 am

Why did you throw away the ZX600? It may not have been fixable, but you could have sold it here for parts.

Steveman09 · Post by **Steveman09** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:45 am

Eric D wrote:Why did you throw away the ZX600? It may not have been fixable, but you could have sold it here for parts.

I was pissed that it allmost burned my car so I took a hammer to it, besides I doubt there were any usefull parts left, it melted the case it got so hot and the insides are all destroyed.

My ZX475ti however looks new and wasnt touched physically.

Post by **Eric D** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:11 am

Well you could have at least posted photos of it. I was curious just how bad it looked.