Fuse Blowing

[joshemerson]

I have a Memphis 1000.1 on 2 12 Memphis power references in a 2001 ford escape.

I've been running my system on 8 gauge power and ground. the other day the system quit working. i got out and my fuse was blown. i thought nothing of it and i checked to see if the wire was grounding out and it wasn't. I pulled the fuse out and my fuse block was melted a little bit. I ran a second power wire when i had my floor up so i had an extra 8 gauge power wire fromm the batt to the amp not hooked up to anything. Today I put a new fuse block and fuse under my hood and ran a 4 gauge wire from the batt to the fuse block and the 2 8 gauge wires to my amp. So now I'm on a 60 amp fuse. I added a 4 gauge ground also. I hooked it up and it was fine, but when i crunk the car up the fuse blew again. I've already checked to see if my wires have been cut or frayed so they would ground out and they weren't. I unplugged the 2 8 gauge wires and plugged a 4 gauge up to the amp and just ran in to the engine bay through the doors, because it wasnt long enough to tuck. when i touched it to the power with the engine running and radio on 0, the engine started to bog down. i could see the power light on the amp. when i touched it at first it had a strong light and it quickly faded as i left it connected.

I don't know where to go from here. Any suggestions welcome

Thanks, Josh

[HatersGonnaHate]

Upgrade everything to 4ga or 1/0ga. That 8ga can't handle the current going through it.

[joshemerson]

I had it on that 8 ga for at least a month or two. I know it needed to be upgraded i just hadn't got around to it. I have a 4ga wire sitting around and its not long enough to actually tuck and hide under the carpet but to try and test it i had it ran on top and through the door. My engine is acting like somethings ground out. Non of the fuses on the amp itself are blown either. there's no way something ground out the way I'm testing it, Except the actual ground wire of course.

[HatersGonnaHate]

I'm still thinking it's the 8ga though. Do you have any in-line ANL fuses? I'd recommend going to audiosavings.com or knuconcepts.com and checking out the wires that are available. If you're tight on a budget, get some 4ga or 0ga from audiosavings and a 150amp or 250amp ANL fuse and fuse holder. If you have the money for it, get some really good wire from Knu.

Double check all grounds and all the paths that the power wire is going through from the battery to the amp just to be absolutely sure that the grounds are secure and that the power wires haven't grounded out.

[joshemerson]

I just tried to test that 4ga again with the volt meter on the battery. hooked it up and it dropped to like 11v. then came back up to like 13.8v. Checked the amp fuses and all 4 were blown. is this an amp issue?

[joshemerson]

Well i get paid this week so I'll probably unhook everything and just wait for next weekend to re run everything. Thanks for the help

[HatersGonnaHate]

Yea, almost seems like something got shorted out within the amp

[joshemerson]

I popped off the back plate of the amp. I'm not seeing any obvious signs of overheating.

[Guest]

you need 4 gauge on that amp. not 8 gauge.

you need a 120 amp fuse on there since (from what i can find on google) there is 120a worth of fusing on the amp itself.

if you turned your amp on and you instantly dropped to 11 volts, your amp is either fried, or there is something shorting along the power wire. those are the only two reasons why that would happen.

im going to go ahead and say that you fucked your amp up by running 8 gauge to it and thus having the voltage drop like crazy because you've been trying to pull over 100 amps through wire that can sustain like 60. in those two years, you were more than likely slowly killing your amp

edit: why on EARTH would you wire an amp up with your car running?! let alone with the battery hooked up. dear god man, what the fuck were you thinking?

edit 2: there doesn't have to be anything visually wrong with an amp if its bad.