These are the type of tips that keep us out of trouble that we didn't know we could get into. I want to mention that recently I chose an AGU fuse holder. However, it doesn't use spring clamps but the two ends tighten together. It seems like a good design for that type of fuse and I haven't have any issues with it yet. The brand is InstallBay.
Thanks for all the good that you do C.A.F. In my olds, regrettably I ran an 8 or 16ga power cable the full 15 feet, I spliced in a Max fuse within a foot of the battery. Not knowing about the big three or wiring pharaohs, plus... the system durability and efficiency suffered greatly. The fuse and box melted into a purple and black blob. Until this day I still think back on that old install and feel pride. After 10+ years of daily play, coming in 3rd at Naff's Audio and Electronic(140+db), no Cooling in a black trunk the single amplifier system(Kickerzr120) reproduce music next to flawlessly pushing a pair of c15" subs.
First install I had was put in by a chain store, before long I was cruising with it cranked up and it would cut out, and then a few minutes later it would come back on, eventually I popped the hood and found the fuse was super hot and the fuse itself had twisted out of the terminals. Turns out they used a regular blade fuse and small gauge wire, and the heat would force it to expand and contort, loosing contact with the terminals until it cooled down. I learned then that blade fuses are only for low-draw accessories, cable matters, and you can still suffer heat damage without the fuse blowing.
Your the one that made me buy the wire feruls and all the stuff you have omg it makes such a difference your the best audio guy on here in my opinion that has alot of great input
wire ferrules are the way to go. Just like solder is for your connections. check out the new butt connectors that include solder for any wire connections. you only need a heat gun and ,makes connecting wires simple but secure.
Definitely loose connections have caused heat issues before. Good call on the dielectric grease. May I suggest, just like other preventative maintenance, if you have modifications, you should set up periodic reminders in your phone calendar to look over your connections at least yearly if not more to avoid risk of fires or something else preventable.
1. Get the right info about the product you purchased. 2. Read the info mentioned in item 1. 3. In practice, follow the info gleaned on previous steps. 4. People think that tightening as far as possible is an easy solution instead. Not so. Go back to steps 1, 2 and 3. Example, find out the torque setting for your bolts and screws and tighten with torque wrench/screwdriver.
I think another issue is people run these 0ga power wires but do not realize that they're tiny 8-10ga factory ground is not going to be enough to support the circuit. I always use the same gauge ground as the power wire to the battery. Alot of people do not realize that.
Why skimp on the ground??🤨 Just use the same gauge for positive and negative.. If you got 4 lanes of traffic going into the city, common sense would be to have 4 lanes coming out for the best efficiency 😒
If you are installing new gear and your car's battery terminal has corrosion, clean it first & replace the battery if needed. Also, check the pos. + cable by cutting back a small section of insultaion. Battery corrosion is an insidious condition that can cause a lot of damage before it is even visible. Mark, your advice is always spot-on and has helped my decision process on managing my new audio system from the ground up. 👍
I also use the mini anl style fuse holders from knu konceptz. I always put a lock washer on the terminals. Great video Mark. I watched your wire size video a year ago to properly do my system. Went with the kolossus ofc 1/0 gauge.
Seen quite a few in my days. Managed a VIOC and a Jiffy lube. You'd be surprised what you'll see kids do when they first get their wheels. Ive seen wires stretched across the exhaust manifold, across the catalytic converter, not an inch from the prop/drive shaft going from the engine to the back of the car. Hot and Ground wires run from brake lights. Remote wire on the starter circuit.. LED's wired backward, frying the harness behind the cluster.
Went to comment on a recent vid, just wanted to say thank you for the content. Years of watching has given me knowledge that made making my recent system a breeze. All ct sounds: 4 strato 8s on a 2000.1 amp in a box I made with an aero port under the back seat in my 02 silverado. Also a set of 6.5 meso components for front doors on a 80.4 amp with 5.25 mesos soon to be baught for rear doors. Will be making an amp rack with a sheet of abs soon as well. Keep up the great content!
I have ur 2000 watt monoblock amp running two Audiopipe txx bdc - iv - 12s in a 2008 infiniti m35 wit stock alternator and battery but I'm having problems with my power cables near the inline fuse im running zero gage wire but the wire is getting to hot n starting to melt the wire plastic n turning my copper wires to my power wire grey from getting to hot I was running two battery's but cuz of that issue I'm taking one battery out also my inline fuse was installed on the. Power wire thats in between the two battery's not in between the second battery n amp which I think is wrong n that's were the problem is could u please tell me if I'm correct on that or not n also do i need two battery's to run the amp or no plz help me
I've seen too many people not using large enough wire for their builds. When in doubt if you have the correct size wire or not, go up a size to "cya". Yes pure copper wire has become expensive, but compared to the total cost of the stereo system being installed, it really isn't that expensive to ensure your stereo works a long time & without failure. In my last install 4 Ga. wire could have worked, but did not give me much room between what the wire can handle, and how much power was needed for the amplification. So I used 2 Ga, OFC to make sure there would not be any issues. Heat is the worse thing for your stereo system, and it performing well plus giving you many years of service. Hopefully, for the life of the vehicle. And forget about CCA wire for power wire. CCA wire can be a good product for speaker wire, but it has terrible thermal ability to be power wire.
Maybe I missed it, but did you mention using ferrules on your connection at the fuse block? I started doing that about 5 years ago and haven’t had a customer return with a melted fuse block since 😉
Clip style fuses are not a problem... until they overheat for some reason. Could be a loose/poor wire connection and heat transfers into the clip, mechanical damage from a sloppy or damaged fuse install, etc. In the cab, it takes decades for a corrosion problem to occur, so I usually don't worry about that. Whatever the case, a fuse blowing after a while at some % below rating means clips are annealed and there is no cure: replace the fuse block. Pinching clips might get you down the road but... its coming back, and soon. An hour, a day, a week... who knows.
Many years ago, I had the ARB Single Compressor unit with the original wire loom, after several uses, I noticed some power failure at the time of use it, I started to check all electrical wiring and found the the OEM plastic fuse holder with cap on it was melted and also the plastic fuse was deformed... I did some improvement on replacing the OEM ARB wiring LOOM for a 12ga positive and negative and also replaced the fuse holder and switched to a 80Amp Midi Fuse Link, also did an upgrade in the aditionals battery cable, extras ground and alternator so this extras did more juice... since them I didn't encounter any more melted fuse holders or pupout fuses... also my small stereo system did not have any issues either..
I bought a car on airride. The dude didn't use a single connector in the entire car, just twist and tape. He did put a 100amp fuse on the main power line. I drove it for a year and the wire before the fuse turned crunchy. I don't know how else to describe it besides burnt to a crisp.
Just need a good circuit breaker that's what I got mine 2 Vieira 444 with five gallon and I got 2 12 inch woofer 2 15 buy got main 300 amp fuse on three amplifier s 200 amp alternator but ever thing runs good
Yes mine ended up getting fried one day. Went to the store and they was talking about it being to close to the engine. Until i looked again and fount the same problem realizing that maybe its time that i actually invest in thicker sub wire.
I do truck logs on all my rides. Just out of habit from maintaining the company fleet vehicles. The usual oil, trans,water, air filter, tires and checking terminals and wiring to accessory components is on the check list. Rather safe than sorry. It's crazy what the flex can loosen!
Car Audio fab! Gotta question for you, I have 2 JP8s running 2 sundown 2ohm DVC subs in 2 separate wedge truck boxes each box wired to 1 ohm . I’m wanting to run them both off a JP23 v2 , my question is if I hook both of my subs to that one amp, each box wired to 1ohm won’t that make my final impedance from my amp be at .05 ohm load ? Any feed back will be greatly appreciated.
I have melted several and I have done everything I can think of to prevent it I have used collars around wire that smash against wire when tightening the screws and still have issues
Not a melted fuse holder but wire sheathing melting because of too many amps. Learned that on first real amplifier install. A single 8awg wire not enough for two Realistic 4160 (80+80 two channel) amplifiers. I still have one.
The shop that installed my system ran 1 100 agu fuse. 1 8gauge power wire in dual 8gauge power wires out to the amplifier. Amplifier rating is 1000w. Thinking about it, not sure if that safe/correct
Happened to me 2 days ago. Melted one side of the fuse holder along with 0 gauge wire that was connected to the fuse holder. The wire was only melted inside the holder. I’m suspecting the wire could had loosened over time and some corrosion formed. I realized there was a problem from volt gauge showing less voltage at the amp, vs main battery.
How do you feel about these automotive circuit breakers? I don't trust them honestly, but I don't know if I am wrong. I just bought some generic ones on Amazon, 20 amp breakers, so I am not too worried about it, I'll probably throw a 30 amp inline fuse on it as a backup in case of short and runaway situation. But how dependable are these amazon 12v circuit breakers? I've been considering getting some DC lab tested/certified DIN types from Europe for peace of mind, but cost and complexity of installation of those is not ideal. Please do a video on these with some intentional overloading tests if you can. Thank you, keep up the great work
The lack of power supply will also cause that issue. Had it happen to me until I added my second battery. Since then I haven’t had issues with a hot 0gauge 😅
It sure is convenient having the battery in the trunk of my r53 mini cooper Supercharged. My car is always thumpin and whinin. I definitely need these for my 1600 watt rms 10" ported setup @2 ohms.
My fuses keep blowing in my Lexus. I'm getting a block, but I was thinking of getting a 150amp block to prevent it from blowing so easily. I have a Skar ZVX 15 and it's 1ohm with a 1ohm stable amp (Skar 2000.1D) I think I have 4 gauge OFC wires.
great channel, just subscribed - building a 1978 ramcharger and planning for audio - any suggestions if there really aren’t trim/channels (like modern cars) to run power and other wires along sides of truck - and recommendations of where you would route wires in these older cars? Thanks!
Yes it’s fine to use it’s just not as quality as ofc it will work just fine I’ve used it for years with no issues at all. I use ofc now but cca is perfectly fine to use
I had a resettable fuse and it did not "pop" and the current heat fused it closed. Was running a Kicker cheater amp on half ohm load on 1 guage power cables.
@@micahblack454 in my experience the ones that claim to be over 140amps would melt. The posts would melt and they would get so hot they would trip them selves but the 140amp ones and below I have, have been going strong for over a year now. I replaced the ones that were melting with regular ANL fuses and it works perfectly, even the same terminals on the ends of the wires so it had to be the circuit breakers or "resettable fuses"
I use the agu fusrs in the inline holders but find the plastic cracks after a bit.. Also the 4 awg ones are very small and true 4 gauge wont let the seals fit properly... 90 % of all holders in the uk are sub standard and for such a high current are dangerous... I've seem a high current dc supply cable shorted and the insulation instantly vaporise filling the car with acrid smoke.. Be warned and do not waer watches or metal bracelets when working on battery systems.. Saftey first...
I use a circuit breaker instead of a fuse. Amongst other things, it provides a safe easy way to shut of the power feed to all of the amplifiers in my car audio system.
@@JasonWW2000 Arcing circuit breakers is still a thing? For DC (and certain AC circuits), that can be stopped by having a small capacitor across the connection. In any case, I can't say that I've ever run into that issue.
@@JasonWW2000 The circuit breaker I used in my car for the last decade seems to be a pretty sealed one, so no corrosion due to arcing or otherwise. It worked fine up until I replaced it with a smaller circuit breaker this year (I'd over-estimated my current requirements, so after a few peak current measurements with a clamp-ammeter, I decided to downsize it). The circuit breakers rated as waterproof would definitely be sealed, so arcing should be a non-issue. OTOH, prior to that I've experienced at least two occasions where a power fuse and its holder melted because corrosion on the contacts for the fuse lead to the situation you described. It was one of the main reasons I switched to using circuit breakers instead, the other being that circuit breakers provide a much easier way to shut off power, something I would want to do quickly if any of my amps show signs of releasing their magic smoke :-). A parallel capacitor is an easy fix if concerned with arcing when it opens, but I've never run into that issue.
Mine melted, I believe it's not rated for enough amps. Mine was on my truck winch. I did the calculation, and 500 amps will prevent this in the future.
Hey I have a question, is it safe to install a power distribution block inside the cabin? I would of course firstly have the inline fuse in the engine bay routed to the cabin but in my car there's not much space for anything else than for 1 ANL fuse holder, that's why I'm asking.
I have two 15s that are ran on a 6000 watt amp which is a lot of extra watts that could still power an extra two 15s if wanted. I don’t know what guage 12v wire I got but it’s the same wire I had when I had two 12s and a 800 watt amp. The fuse was a 60A and everytime I replace it the fuse blows as soon as I put the terminal back on. I also did not mention that I installed car play and had the 60a fuse and 6000 watt amp setup and it was running perfect but I had to redo my harness wiring and now it’s blowing fuses. Is this just because I need different guage 12v and higher fuse?? Sounds like a dumb question but I was confused because it worked fine before but all of a sudden wants to blow now.
I see melted fuse holders, quite often at work. Most of the time the fuse holder is not attached to anything and just bouncing around all willy-nilly when they’re driving or sometimes it’s an AGU fuse.
Great video as always. I have an unrelated question, I'm new to the car audio scene and wondering if I could get some advice on an idea. I have a 12" Kicker VR, 400watt rms dual voice coil at 4 ohm. I plan on getting a Taramps 400x4 to power it. The issue is that the amp is rated at 2 ohm on the 4 channels at 100watt each or 4 ohm bridged down to 2 channels. Wiring the sub in parallel will give me a 2ohm resistance and single channel on the amp will only power the sub at 100watt at a 2 ohm rating, wiring the sub in series for an 8 ohm load will give even less power in single channel. Ideally I like to drive the sub at 200watt atleast. My question is, if the sub is wired in parallel at a 2 ohm load and bridged to channels 1&2 or 3&4 at a 4 ohm rating on the amp, isn't that bad for the amp? Wont it likly go into power protect if I put a 2 ohm load on a bridged 4 ohm connection? And if not, I doubt I'll get 200watt from the amp with that connection. I had a thought as I had seen in a video that dual voice coil subs are technically like having 2 subs in one. That idea was to run 1 voice coil which is 4 ohm to channel 1&2 bridged at 4 ohm providing 200watt and run the second voice coil to channel 3&4 bridged at 4 ohm providing another 200watt which would match the subs rated 400watt rms. For the audio signal, I had thought to use a rca splitter from the head unit ch1 to split the signal to the amplifier channel 1&3 or 2&4 to get the same signal to the bridged channels of the amp going to each voice coil. Does anyone have an idea if this is even remotely feasible?
Yes the best option for you is to bridge the amp so you have 2 channels at 200w 4ohm each, and wire the 2 voice coils as separate subs at 4ohm so you get the full 400w. It's better to over wattage a sub than under power it. If it's under powered you have more strain on the amp and more risk of heating things up.
Okay too much detail. Here's a simple car stereo tips for ya. For your amplifier assuming a 2 Ohm or 4 Ohm stable 4 channel amp. if you are running a 2 ohm load on one channel, you want it to be the same for all channels: 2 Ohms. You don't want 4 ohms on one channel and 2 ohms one a 2nd channel. A little trick you can do is to wire a pair of Coaxial 4 ohm door speakers (front and rear passenger say) in parallel and connect those two speakers to a single channel. Then do the same for the driver's side, again two Coaxial 4 ohm speakers. Wiring in parallel will give you a 2 Ohm load. This allows the amp increased power rating to drive the two speakers. Then you want to bridge your channels 3 and 4 and then wire your subwoofer in such a manner that gives you a 2 Ohm load. To help with any kind of wiring configuration I suggest "the12volt.com". It has wiring configurations for both single and dual coil speakers/subs. Plus It is a great resource with many OEM wiring diagrams for many different vehicles to help with your car stereo installation. As you can see, with the tip on wiring coaxial speakers in parallel it allows you to wire 4 speakers to a 2 channel amp as well, and save a little money. Another tip, always match the amp to speakers where the amp is 30-50% more powerful than the speakers - using the gain control to reduce the power output to match your speakers. This allows the amp to run at a reduced power and not work as hard. Less power also means less heat. This helps lengthen the life of the amplifier and your speakers. For a good quality, and very efficient amplifiers that don't break the bank check out Pioneer. Pioneer offers some of the best quality for dollar in both car and home stereo equipment. And Pioneer eqpt. will last. If money is no object, then I recommend Rockford Fosgate. (For high end performance, affordable subs check out Savald Subwoofers, small family owned company in Louisiana.) Rockford is the only true bespoke car stereo manufacturer out there. Their equipment doesn't work for years, it works for decades, and offers great performance. Some of the best regardless of price. With Sundown and Down4Sound also being 2 other high end quality manufacturers. Good luck, and keep on rocking! (PS. Always use OFC copper wire for power cables!).
Lastly, it's good to only provide 80-90% of RMS wattage to your speakers and subs to make sure you don't have any issues of distortion or blowing the speakers or subs.
Set screw type fuse holders always leave wiggle room so the wire can be inserted, that's not good, it leaves it open to arcing, better to use bolt style fuse holders and properly crimped on lugs on the correct gauge wire needed for power transfer and proper size well known brand fuses
im using a 50 amp fuse for my power cord to my amp but it always gets melted or burnt within a week can i switch to a higher one like a 100 amp fuse without any problems?
@@JasonWW2000 thank you. Do you think that if I have my electrical all set up like my 320 alt and 2 battery on a cab 45 and one xmax american bass 1511
I replaced transistors in a friends amp twice because of the poor wiring. He attached the ground with a single sheet metal screw. After the third time he replaced the amp and I attached the ground with a bolt.
Mine just melted and I have no idea why. Everything in this video checks out, and the fuse is properly sized. The fuse blew with the melting, too. The whole system was professionally installed 4 years ago .How I'm just now having this issue, I've no idea. The fuse has only blown once before.
Maybe you can help me figure out my issue I have a taramps bass 15k and two xs power d7500 battery’s the issue is I had a bass 8 k with one battery before with no issues. Since I added the second battery and upgraded the alternator which is a 370 amp alt it keeps melting the wire right at the alternator and the fuse which is about 12 inches from the alternator. I don’t have a big 3 upgrade I only have 1 run of 0/4 going to my battery’s straight from the back of the alternator. And 1 run of 0/4 ground to hat comes from my factory battery up front. My stock alt only runs the truck I’m wondering if I have a poor ground on the truck somewhere any info would be greatly appreciated
When doing the math for fuse size are using peak watts or rms I'm not building a competition system I got a mrv m500 and a mrv f300. The mono says 1000 peak 500 rms. The 300 I have t found peak specs but alpine UK says 640. If peak it would be 1640÷.80÷13.8. ?
Was wondering how I should connect my ground I used to have it connected with vicegrips😂😂 I can’t find a spot that will actually ground and I sanded it to to bare metal
I wired my amp and subs in, and have made a few mistakes, I thought the area I mounted my fuse holder was good enough, but now I'm guessing it due to the engine heat, as it is mounted under the windshield in the engine bay towards the middle of the engine, and it kinda melted a little bit, I was using 10 guage wire(that's what the kit came with for the sub/amp combo), same for the fuse(it was a 40amp fuse) the amp isn't too powerful pulling maybe 500w max, with a rms of 100w(hits hard enough for me, maybe a little too much, better then stock tho), either way I'm planning on swapping that mono block amp for a 5 channel and replacing the door and rear deck speakers, and running 4 guage for that, I might as well go ahead and run that If anyone thinks it might be a problem, please let me know and I'll place 10 guage back till I get the new amp
Years ago I had a 100A glass fuse, that my Amp end up pulling through so much power, that it blew the small metal fuse part, and then melted the metal back together and cracked the glass.
Mine legit blew up. Dude broke in two pieces and melted . Guna see what’s wrong tommrow I think I didn’t have a powerful enough fuse for my setup I never changed any wires or fuses since I got my new setup that’s way more powerful than my old one . Might have to end up getting bigger wires to I guess
I have ur 2000 watt monoblock amp running two Audiopipe txx bdc - iv - 12s in a 2008 infiniti m35 wit stock alternator and battery but I'm having problems with my power cables near the inline fuse im running zero gage wire but the wire is getting to hot n starting to melt the wire plastic n turning my copper wires to my power wire grey from getting to hot I was running two battery's but cuz of that issue I'm taking one battery out also my inline fuse was installed on the. Power wire thats in between the two battery's not in between the second battery n amp which I think is wrong n that's were the problem is could u please tell me if I'm correct on that or not n also do i need two battery's to run the amp or one n my fuse is if i member right 275 amp fuse. plz help me
hello, i have a question not directly related to the video, i apologize....i want to mount aftermarket speakers in my doors, but the factory mounting location is actually on the door cards, and not on anything behind them, like metal, what should i be paying attention to, to get the best results considering this?
Mark has an older video on his channel about mounting door speakers. A few of the important things are making sure the window won't hit the back of the speaker, making sure it will fit in the hole for the speaker (if there's a speaker hole in your door), and using weather resistant materials (good plastic) if you need to make a mounting adapter.
@J. Ward yeah kinda, I think he's more thinking of when someone has a 250w amp with 10g 8g wire with a 500a fuse. So the whole system is low power but the fuse can handle very high power, so instead of the fuse blowing when it's supposed to it keeps letting current flow way higher than it should causing a full melt down.
I saw the fuse holder melted, but my subwoofer makes one big loud pop every 30 seconds and doesn’t let me connect to blue tooth I can’t find the problem 😊
Is this a real problem? I've been messing with car audio for over 35 years, never melted a fuse holder and no one I know ever has. Granted, I've always overdone my crap, but still...
@VirtuousWarrior-wr2fv you are right I did the research and the place who installed it basically tried breaking my stuff so I’d come back again but I’m the type to do it myself if it ain’t done right😂
The majority of melted fuse blocks I have seen are the tube-style with small CCA wire. To my mind - those are the two major culprits. Cheap parts and cheap wire
These are the type of tips that keep us out of trouble that we didn't know we could get into.
I want to mention that recently I chose an AGU fuse holder. However, it doesn't use spring clamps but the two ends tighten together. It seems like a good design for that type of fuse and I haven't have any issues with it yet. The brand is InstallBay.
Thanks for all the good that you do C.A.F.
In my olds, regrettably I ran an 8 or 16ga power cable the full 15 feet, I spliced in a Max fuse within a foot of the battery. Not knowing about the big three or wiring pharaohs, plus... the system durability and efficiency suffered greatly. The fuse and box melted into a purple and black blob.
Until this day I still think back on that old install and feel pride. After 10+ years of daily play, coming in 3rd at Naff's Audio and Electronic(140+db), no Cooling in a black trunk the single amplifier system(Kickerzr120) reproduce music next to flawlessly pushing a pair of c15" subs.
First install I had was put in by a chain store, before long I was cruising with it cranked up and it would cut out, and then a few minutes later it would come back on, eventually I popped the hood and found the fuse was super hot and the fuse itself had twisted out of the terminals. Turns out they used a regular blade fuse and small gauge wire, and the heat would force it to expand and contort, loosing contact with the terminals until it cooled down. I learned then that blade fuses are only for low-draw accessories, cable matters, and you can still suffer heat damage without the fuse blowing.
Your the one that made me buy the wire feruls and all the stuff you have omg it makes such a difference your the best audio guy on here in my opinion that has alot of great input
wire ferrules are the way to go. Just like solder is for your connections. check out the new butt connectors that include solder for any wire connections. you only need a heat gun and ,makes connecting wires simple but secure.
@@johannjohann6523 Can I use ferrules on the fuse holder?
Hands down you are the best in car audio installation 💯
Definitely loose connections have caused heat issues before. Good call on the dielectric grease.
May I suggest, just like other preventative maintenance, if you have modifications, you should set up periodic reminders in your phone calendar to look over your connections at least yearly if not more to avoid risk of fires or something else preventable.
I got in the routine of checking connections any time I clean the car or when I check through my lights fluids every couple weeks.
I go through mine before every competition. Even when gone thru often, you'd be amazed how stuff comes loose from the copious amounts of vibration.
@@georgesrisomsak9650 you’re absolutely right about that. My door speakers always rattle loose at the crossover
1. Get the right info about the product you purchased.
2. Read the info mentioned in item 1.
3. In practice, follow the info gleaned on previous steps.
4. People think that tightening as far as possible is an easy solution instead. Not so. Go back to steps 1, 2 and 3.
Example, find out the torque setting for your bolts and screws and tighten with torque wrench/screwdriver.
I think another issue is people run these 0ga power wires but do not realize that they're tiny 8-10ga factory ground is not going to be enough to support the circuit. I always use the same gauge ground as the power wire to the battery. Alot of people do not realize that.
My ground wire is 12g and my battery wire is 6g. If you're pushing babywatts, it'll be fine.
Why skimp on the ground??🤨 Just use the same gauge for positive and negative.. If you got 4 lanes of traffic going into the city, common sense would be to have 4 lanes coming out for the best efficiency 😒
If you are installing new gear and your car's battery terminal has corrosion, clean it first & replace the battery if needed. Also, check the pos. + cable by cutting back a small section of insultaion.
Battery corrosion is an insidious condition that can cause a lot of damage before it is even visible.
Mark, your advice is always spot-on and has helped my decision process on managing my new audio system from the ground up. 👍
What are your thoughts on breakers? We stopped using fuses and now use circuit breakers.
Got a melted fuse holder rn🙃 that's why I'm here
I also use the mini anl style fuse holders from knu konceptz. I always put a lock washer on the terminals. Great video Mark. I watched your wire size video a year ago to properly do my system. Went with the kolossus ofc 1/0 gauge.
Lock washers are always a good idea. good tip and reminder.
Seen quite a few in my days. Managed a VIOC and a Jiffy lube. You'd be surprised what you'll see kids do when they first get their wheels. Ive seen wires stretched across the exhaust manifold, across the catalytic converter, not an inch from the prop/drive shaft going from the engine to the back of the car. Hot and Ground wires run from brake lights. Remote wire on the starter circuit.. LED's wired backward, frying the harness behind the cluster.
Went to comment on a recent vid, just wanted to say thank you for the content. Years of watching has given me knowledge that made making my recent system a breeze. All ct sounds: 4 strato 8s on a 2000.1 amp in a box I made with an aero port under the back seat in my 02 silverado. Also a set of 6.5 meso components for front doors on a 80.4 amp with 5.25 mesos soon to be baught for rear doors. Will be making an amp rack with a sheet of abs soon as well. Keep up the great content!
I have ur 2000 watt monoblock amp running two Audiopipe txx bdc - iv - 12s in a 2008 infiniti m35 wit stock alternator and battery but I'm having problems with my power cables near the inline fuse im running zero gage wire but the wire is getting to hot n starting to melt the wire plastic n turning my copper wires to my power wire grey from getting to hot I was running two battery's but cuz of that issue I'm taking one battery out also my inline fuse was installed on the. Power wire thats in between the two battery's not in between the second battery n amp which I think is wrong n that's were the problem is could u please tell me if I'm correct on that or not n also do i need two battery's to run the amp or no plz help me
N my fuse is 275 amps I think if I member right plz help
I've seen too many people not using large enough wire for their builds. When in doubt if you have the correct size wire or not, go up a size to "cya". Yes pure copper wire has become expensive, but compared to the total cost of the stereo system being installed, it really isn't that expensive to ensure your stereo works a long time & without failure. In my last install 4 Ga. wire could have worked, but did not give me much room between what the wire can handle, and how much power was needed for the amplification. So I used 2 Ga, OFC to make sure there would not be any issues. Heat is the worse thing for your stereo system, and it performing well plus giving you many years of service. Hopefully, for the life of the vehicle. And forget about CCA wire for power wire. CCA wire can be a good product for speaker wire, but it has terrible thermal ability to be power wire.
Maybe I missed it, but did you mention using ferrules on your connection at the fuse block? I started doing that about 5 years ago and haven’t had a customer return with a melted fuse block since 😉
I dont think I caught it in this video but in every other video he mentions wiring an amp up or something he does mention the ferrules.
What are your thoughts on fuses vs circuit breakers?
Thank you for the info. Switching from an old glass AGU fuse block to a new ANL fuse holder fixed a random intermittent problem.
Clip style fuses are not a problem... until they overheat for some reason. Could be a loose/poor wire connection and heat transfers into the clip, mechanical damage from a sloppy or damaged fuse install, etc. In the cab, it takes decades for a corrosion problem to occur, so I usually don't worry about that. Whatever the case, a fuse blowing after a while at some % below rating means clips are annealed and there is no cure: replace the fuse block. Pinching clips might get you down the road but... its coming back, and soon. An hour, a day, a week... who knows.
My issue according to your video, was apparently too thin of wire. Thank you for info friend.
Many years ago, I had the ARB Single Compressor unit with the original wire loom, after several uses, I noticed some power failure at the time of use it, I started to check all electrical wiring and found the the OEM plastic fuse holder with cap on it was melted and also the plastic fuse was deformed... I did some improvement on replacing the OEM ARB wiring LOOM for a 12ga positive and negative and also replaced the fuse holder and switched to a 80Amp Midi Fuse Link, also did an upgrade in the aditionals battery cable, extras ground and alternator so this extras did more juice... since them I didn't encounter any more melted fuse holders or pupout fuses... also my small stereo system did not have any issues either..
I bought a car on airride. The dude didn't use a single connector in the entire car, just twist and tape. He did put a 100amp fuse on the main power line. I drove it for a year and the wire before the fuse turned crunchy. I don't know how else to describe it besides burnt to a crisp.
Just need a good circuit breaker that's what I got mine 2 Vieira 444 with five gallon and I got 2 12 inch woofer 2 15 buy got main 300 amp fuse on three amplifier s 200 amp alternator but ever thing runs good
This is why I use ring terminals and bolted connections. Must less likely to have resistance at the connection point.
Thank you for the helpful information
Yes mine ended up getting fried one day. Went to the store and they was talking about it being to close to the engine. Until i looked again and fount the same problem realizing that maybe its time that i actually invest in thicker sub wire.
I do truck logs on all my rides. Just out of habit from maintaining the company fleet vehicles. The usual oil, trans,water, air filter, tires and checking terminals and wiring to accessory components is on the check list. Rather safe than sorry. It's crazy what the flex can loosen!
Looks sketchy....
One thing is to use nolox on your wire IF IT'S CCA . Also I use torque seal on everything, I have shook stuff lose before
If my cars voltages ranges from 13.6 to 14.9 at times how do I know which value to Input in the equation?
Car Audio fab! Gotta question for you, I have 2 JP8s running 2 sundown 2ohm DVC subs in 2 separate wedge truck boxes each box wired to 1 ohm . I’m wanting to run them both off a JP23 v2 , my question is if I hook both of my subs to that one amp, each box wired to 1ohm won’t that make my final impedance from my amp be at .05 ohm load ? Any feed back will be greatly appreciated.
Correct, youll end up with a 0.5 ohm load!
@ Secret Squirrel, thanks for the feed back! Happy New Year to you!
I have melted several and I have done everything I can think of to prevent it I have used collars around wire that smash against wire when tightening the screws and still have issues
I've seen the agu fuses melt the soldier joints inside the fuse and it'll be an open circuit that will sometimes make contact and drive you insane.
My fuse block is cable tied in place. Solid . No need for anything the other end as I have a single 5 channel amp.
Have a question is required to add a additional battery? When installing a high watts amplifier?
I hate those round glass fuses they are a headache to me but the anl fuses I like those
With all this rain that’s been happening I think water got inside my fuse 😭😭 do you guys recommend wrapping the fuse with electrical tape ?
Not a melted fuse holder but wire sheathing melting because of too many amps. Learned that on first real amplifier install. A single 8awg wire not enough for two Realistic 4160 (80+80 two channel) amplifiers. I still have one.
The shop that installed my system ran 1 100 agu fuse. 1 8gauge power wire in dual 8gauge power wires out to the amplifier. Amplifier rating is 1000w. Thinking about it, not sure if that safe/correct
Happened to me 2 days ago. Melted one side of the fuse holder along with 0 gauge wire that was connected to the fuse holder. The wire was only melted inside the holder. I’m suspecting the wire could had loosened over time and some corrosion formed. I realized there was a problem from volt gauge showing less voltage at the amp, vs main battery.
How do you feel about these automotive circuit breakers? I don't trust them honestly, but I don't know if I am wrong. I just bought some generic ones on Amazon, 20 amp breakers, so I am not too worried about it, I'll probably throw a 30 amp inline fuse on it as a backup in case of short and runaway situation. But how dependable are these amazon 12v circuit breakers? I've been considering getting some DC lab tested/certified DIN types from Europe for peace of mind, but cost and complexity of installation of those is not ideal. Please do a video on these with some intentional overloading tests if you can. Thank you, keep up the great work
The lack of power supply will also cause that issue. Had it happen to me until I added my second battery. Since then I haven’t had issues with a hot 0gauge 😅
It sure is convenient having the battery in the trunk of my r53 mini cooper Supercharged. My car is always thumpin and whinin. I definitely need these for my 1600 watt rms 10" ported setup @2 ohms.
Hey, mark I was wondering what your methods are to reduce or eliminate mirror vibration and rattle due to subwoofers?
Just solder where ever you can!
My fuses keep blowing in my Lexus. I'm getting a block, but I was thinking of getting a 150amp block to prevent it from blowing so easily. I have a Skar ZVX 15 and it's 1ohm with a 1ohm stable amp (Skar 2000.1D) I think I have 4 gauge OFC wires.
great channel, just subscribed - building a 1978 ramcharger and planning for audio - any suggestions if there really aren’t trim/channels (like modern cars) to run power and other wires along sides of truck - and recommendations of where you would route wires in these older cars? Thanks!
Hi Mark!! I have a 2002 chevy camaro I’m gonna run a 400w. Amp with AMradio do you recommend me to run new speaker wires or can I use the ones it has?
Just had this happen I guess I need to step up my wire size I'm currently using 8g but I am only pushing around 600 watts to my speaker
What about the crushable wire end caps. Do they work?
Sooo, is cca okay to use?
Yes it’s fine to use it’s just not as quality as ofc it will work just fine I’ve used it for years with no issues at all. I use ofc now but cca is perfectly fine to use
I had a resettable fuse and it did not "pop" and the current heat fused it closed. Was running a Kicker cheater amp on half ohm load on 1 guage power cables.
I've wondered just how dependable those fuses were... knock on wood I have had to tighten terminals but thankfully issues on mine yet.
@@micahblack454 in my experience the ones that claim to be over 140amps would melt. The posts would melt and they would get so hot they would trip them selves but the 140amp ones and below I have, have been going strong for over a year now. I replaced the ones that were melting with regular ANL fuses and it works perfectly, even the same terminals on the ends of the wires so it had to be the circuit breakers or "resettable fuses"
I use the agu fusrs in the inline holders but find the plastic cracks after a bit.. Also the 4 awg ones are very small and true 4 gauge wont let the seals fit properly... 90 % of all holders in the uk are sub standard and for such a high current are dangerous... I've seem a high current dc supply cable shorted and the insulation instantly vaporise filling the car with acrid smoke.. Be warned and do not waer watches or metal bracelets when working on battery systems.. Saftey first...
I use a circuit breaker instead of a fuse. Amongst other things, it provides a safe easy way to shut of the power feed to all of the amplifiers in my car audio system.
@@JasonWW2000 Arcing circuit breakers is still a thing? For DC (and certain AC circuits), that can be stopped by having a small capacitor across the connection. In any case, I can't say that I've ever run into that issue.
@@JasonWW2000 The circuit breaker I used in my car for the last decade seems to be a pretty sealed one, so no corrosion due to arcing or otherwise. It worked fine up until I replaced it with a smaller circuit breaker this year (I'd over-estimated my current requirements, so after a few peak current measurements with a clamp-ammeter, I decided to downsize it). The circuit breakers rated as waterproof would definitely be sealed, so arcing should be a non-issue. OTOH, prior to that I've experienced at least two occasions where a power fuse and its holder melted because corrosion on the contacts for the fuse lead to the situation you described. It was one of the main reasons I switched to using circuit breakers instead, the other being that circuit breakers provide a much easier way to shut off power, something I would want to do quickly if any of my amps show signs of releasing their magic smoke :-).
A parallel capacitor is an easy fix if concerned with arcing when it opens, but I've never run into that issue.
Yeah I had it happen with my system and I believe it was from not being tight
Can you make a video about different amplifiers? I mean ex, class A/B and class D
Mine melted, I believe it's not rated for enough amps. Mine was on my truck winch.
I did the calculation, and 500 amps will prevent this in the future.
Hey I have a question, is it safe to install a power distribution block inside the cabin? I would of course firstly have the inline fuse in the engine bay routed to the cabin but in my car there's not much space for anything else than for 1 ANL fuse holder, that's why I'm asking.
I have two 15s that are ran on a 6000 watt amp which is a lot of extra watts that could still power an extra two 15s if wanted. I don’t know what guage 12v wire I got but it’s the same wire I had when I had two 12s and a 800 watt amp. The fuse was a 60A and everytime I replace it the fuse blows as soon as I put the terminal back on. I also did not mention that I installed car play and had the 60a fuse and 6000 watt amp setup and it was running perfect but I had to redo my harness wiring and now it’s blowing fuses. Is this just because I need different guage 12v and higher fuse?? Sounds like a dumb question but I was confused because it worked fine before but all of a sudden wants to blow now.
So if i have two amps and their both a 100 amp fuse each, so do i use a 200amp fuse?
I see melted fuse holders, quite often at work. Most of the time the fuse holder is not attached to anything and just bouncing around all willy-nilly when they’re driving or sometimes it’s an AGU fuse.
Can I use wire ferrules on the fuse holder?
Always use ferrules when using fine stranded wire!
Is it bad to put my fues holder in bk with my amp and sub
Hi i was seeing whats the best amp on fuse for a 4500watt amp im using 0 wire please i cant gind it nowhere in the internet
I’m thinking about putting Skar evl 8s under my seat in my 2010 f150 super crew cab should I do 2 or 4
I put 2 10s under my seat sounds pretty amazing. Loud and low
Great video as always. I have an unrelated question, I'm new to the car audio scene and wondering if I could get some advice on an idea. I have a 12" Kicker VR, 400watt rms dual voice coil at 4 ohm. I plan on getting a Taramps 400x4 to power it. The issue is that the amp is rated at 2 ohm on the 4 channels at 100watt each or 4 ohm bridged down to 2 channels. Wiring the sub in parallel will give me a 2ohm resistance and single channel on the amp will only power the sub at 100watt at a 2 ohm rating, wiring the sub in series for an 8 ohm load will give even less power in single channel. Ideally I like to drive the sub at 200watt atleast. My question is, if the sub is wired in parallel at a 2 ohm load and bridged to channels 1&2 or 3&4 at a 4 ohm rating on the amp, isn't that bad for the amp? Wont it likly go into power protect if I put a 2 ohm load on a bridged 4 ohm connection? And if not, I doubt I'll get 200watt from the amp with that connection.
I had a thought as I had seen in a video that dual voice coil subs are technically like having 2 subs in one. That idea was to run 1 voice coil which is 4 ohm to channel 1&2 bridged at 4 ohm providing 200watt and run the second voice coil to channel 3&4 bridged at 4 ohm providing another 200watt which would match the subs rated 400watt rms. For the audio signal, I had thought to use a rca splitter from the head unit ch1 to split the signal to the amplifier channel 1&3 or 2&4 to get the same signal to the bridged channels of the amp going to each voice coil. Does anyone have an idea if this is even remotely feasible?
Yes the best option for you is to bridge the amp so you have 2 channels at 200w 4ohm each, and wire the 2 voice coils as separate subs at 4ohm so you get the full 400w. It's better to over wattage a sub than under power it. If it's under powered you have more strain on the amp and more risk of heating things up.
Okay too much detail. Here's a simple car stereo tips for ya. For your amplifier assuming a 2 Ohm or 4 Ohm stable 4 channel amp. if you are running a 2 ohm load on one channel, you want it to be the same for all channels: 2 Ohms. You don't want 4 ohms on one channel and 2 ohms one a 2nd channel. A little trick you can do is to wire a pair of Coaxial 4 ohm door speakers (front and rear passenger say) in parallel and connect those two speakers to a single channel. Then do the same for the driver's side, again two Coaxial 4 ohm speakers. Wiring in parallel will give you a 2 Ohm load. This allows the amp increased power rating to drive the two speakers. Then you want to bridge your channels 3 and 4 and then wire your subwoofer in such a manner that gives you a 2 Ohm load. To help with any kind of wiring configuration I suggest "the12volt.com". It has wiring configurations for both single and dual coil speakers/subs. Plus It is a great resource with many OEM wiring diagrams for many different vehicles to help with your car stereo installation. As you can see, with the tip on wiring coaxial speakers in parallel it allows you to wire 4 speakers to a 2 channel amp as well, and save a little money. Another tip, always match the amp to speakers where the amp is 30-50% more powerful than the speakers - using the gain control to reduce the power output to match your speakers. This allows the amp to run at a reduced power and not work as hard. Less power also means less heat. This helps lengthen the life of the amplifier and your speakers. For a good quality, and very efficient amplifiers that don't break the bank check out Pioneer. Pioneer offers some of the best quality for dollar in both car and home stereo equipment. And Pioneer eqpt. will last. If money is no object, then I recommend Rockford Fosgate. (For high end performance, affordable subs check out Savald Subwoofers, small family owned company in Louisiana.) Rockford is the only true bespoke car stereo manufacturer out there. Their equipment doesn't work for years, it works for decades, and offers great performance. Some of the best regardless of price. With Sundown and Down4Sound also being 2 other high end quality manufacturers. Good luck, and keep on rocking! (PS. Always use OFC copper wire for power cables!).
Lastly, it's good to only provide 80-90% of RMS wattage to your speakers and subs to make sure you don't have any issues of distortion or blowing the speakers or subs.
Set screw type fuse holders always leave wiggle room so the wire can be inserted, that's not good, it leaves it open to arcing, better to use bolt style fuse holders and properly crimped on lugs on the correct gauge wire needed for power transfer and proper size well known brand fuses
Could a fuse block meltdown from battery voltage dropping too much and wire getting too hot from it
The fuse holder at 0:26 looks alot like what happened when I used a AGM & Lead Acid battery for my stereo system, and realized that was a mistake!~
Help. I need a high quality 2 gauge power wire. Any recommendations? Knukonceptz, Crutchfield and MESA don’t offer it.
Just use 0 gauge.
Skyhighcaraudio
im using a 50 amp fuse for my power cord to my amp but it always gets melted or burnt within a week can i switch to a higher one like a 100 amp fuse without any problems?
Hey I got breakers 300 Amp do you think they will work as good as the fuse holders you like
@@JasonWW2000 thank you. Do you think that if I have my electrical all set up like my 320 alt and 2 battery on a cab 45 and one xmax american bass 1511
Few days ago it happened to a friend nd i replaced it...i think it was the wire size or shakiness
I replaced transistors in a friends amp twice because of the poor wiring. He attached the ground with a single sheet metal screw. After the third time he replaced the amp and I attached the ground with a bolt.
Mine just melted and I have no idea why. Everything in this video checks out, and the fuse is properly sized. The fuse blew with the melting, too. The whole system was professionally installed 4 years ago .How I'm just now having this issue, I've no idea. The fuse has only blown once before.
Maybe you can help me figure out my issue I have a taramps bass 15k and two xs power d7500 battery’s the issue is I had a bass 8 k with one battery before with no issues. Since I added the second battery and upgraded the alternator which is a 370 amp alt it keeps melting the wire right at the alternator and the fuse which is about 12 inches from the alternator. I don’t have a big 3 upgrade I only have 1 run of 0/4 going to my battery’s straight from the back of the alternator. And 1 run of 0/4 ground to hat comes from my factory battery up front. My stock alt only runs the truck I’m wondering if I have a poor ground on the truck somewhere any info would be greatly appreciated
When doing the math for fuse size are using peak watts or rms I'm not building a competition system I got a mrv m500 and a mrv f300. The mono says 1000 peak 500 rms. The 300 I have t found peak specs but alpine UK says 640. If peak it would be 1640÷.80÷13.8. ?
Yea people buy the cheap eBay or Amazon amplifier wiring kits.i only install raptor,stinger,t spec,kicker fuse holders.
Was wondering how I should connect my ground I used to have it connected with vicegrips😂😂 I can’t find a spot that will actually ground and I sanded it to to bare metal
I have had an amp shut down due to to small a wire. But I have seen melted fuse blocks and wire.
I wired my amp and subs in, and have made a few mistakes, I thought the area I mounted my fuse holder was good enough, but now I'm guessing it due to the engine heat, as it is mounted under the windshield in the engine bay towards the middle of the engine, and it kinda melted a little bit, I was using 10 guage wire(that's what the kit came with for the sub/amp combo), same for the fuse(it was a 40amp fuse) the amp isn't too powerful pulling maybe 500w max, with a rms of 100w(hits hard enough for me, maybe a little too much, better then stock tho), either way I'm planning on swapping that mono block amp for a 5 channel and replacing the door and rear deck speakers, and running 4 guage for that, I might as well go ahead and run that
If anyone thinks it might be a problem, please let me know and I'll place 10 guage back till I get the new amp
Years ago I had a 100A glass fuse, that my Amp end up pulling through so much power, that it blew the small metal fuse part, and then melted the metal back together and cracked the glass.
If you're going to choose one thing to be ANL about, it should be your fuses ;)
😂
I’ve had two different Kicker fuse holders melt and fail due to screws backing out over time.
Yes mines is doing it right now idk why
Mine legit blew up. Dude broke in two pieces and melted . Guna see what’s wrong tommrow I think I didn’t have a powerful enough fuse for my setup I never changed any wires or fuses since I got my new setup that’s way more powerful than my old one . Might have to end up getting bigger wires to I guess
Those glass fuses at this point is never even a thought. i see them i replace instantly.
I have ur 2000 watt monoblock amp running two Audiopipe txx bdc - iv - 12s in a 2008 infiniti m35 wit stock alternator and battery but I'm having problems with my power cables near the inline fuse im running zero gage wire but the wire is getting to hot n starting to melt the wire plastic n turning my copper wires to my power wire grey from getting to hot I was running two battery's but cuz of that issue I'm taking one battery out also my inline fuse was installed on the. Power wire thats in between the two battery's not in between the second battery n amp which I think is wrong n that's were the problem is could u please tell me if I'm correct on that or not n also do i need two battery's to run the amp or one n my fuse is if i member right 275 amp fuse. plz help me
I mean a 2000 watt mono block from ct sounds*
I know the video old but my fuse holder was melted and my wires were fried but it was still working
to small a rating for the current can also cause them to get hot
Using too thin of wire guage could cause melting or constsnt fuse blowing.
hello, i have a question not directly related to the video, i apologize....i want to mount aftermarket speakers in my doors, but the factory mounting location is actually on the door cards, and not on anything behind them, like metal, what should i be paying attention to, to get the best results considering this?
Mark has an older video on his channel about mounting door speakers. A few of the important things are making sure the window won't hit the back of the speaker, making sure it will fit in the hole for the speaker (if there's a speaker hole in your door), and using weather resistant materials (good plastic) if you need to make a mounting adapter.
@@luchvk much appreciated, ty
Consult CRUTCHFIELD
@@TexasBig will do, thanks!
Mines melted but I don't know is the fuse blowed I'm not getting any power. Can somebody help me?
yea my old one mealted i think the cause was lose fues
Another way to melt a fuse holder, is to use too high of amperage fuse for the current draw on your power circuit.
True
What does this mean?
@@JWard2 try breaking a land speed record in flip flops.
@@Volksoner619 does he mean if I have a 500amp fuse on a 0 gauge wire that only draws 235amp?
@J. Ward yeah kinda, I think he's more thinking of when someone has a 250w amp with 10g 8g wire with a 500a fuse. So the whole system is low power but the fuse can handle very high power, so instead of the fuse blowing when it's supposed to it keeps letting current flow way higher than it should causing a full melt down.
I saw the fuse holder melted, but my subwoofer makes one big loud pop every 30 seconds and doesn’t let me connect to blue tooth I can’t find the problem 😊
I blow my fuse on certain songs, I just carry spare fuses with me 😅
Is this a real problem? I've been messing with car audio for over 35 years, never melted a fuse holder and no one I know ever has. Granted, I've always overdone my crap, but still...
My fuse is between my air filter and computer and has no chance of having any issues
Mine melted, 150amp fuse for my 500 watt amp maxing out at 625. Never having someone install my sub again😂
@VirtuousWarrior-wr2fv you are right I did the research and the place who installed it basically tried breaking my stuff so I’d come back again but I’m the type to do it myself if it ain’t done right😂
The majority of melted fuse blocks I have seen are the tube-style with small CCA wire. To my mind - those are the two major culprits. Cheap parts and cheap wire
Oh my gosh the 2 adds before i could watch your video was SO annoying! But Love your Channel