ZX2500.1 dies after 2 months? wtf?

[ncc74656]

what is going on here? i had a ZX1500.1 for 5 and a half years with zero issues on stock electric between 3 different vehicles. My ZX2500.1 died earlier this year after only about 4 months of use, i sent it off to kicker for repair and got it back, not long after i lost my sub and had to buy a new one. this amp as is has been used less than a month and a half.

i was bumping at close to max volume day before yesterday, i arrive at my destination with time to spare so i sit in the truck with the engine off for about 45 min doing paper work with the stereo on at 1/4 volume. i had to run into the store so i shut off the truck accessories and go in, i come back out and turn the radio on again but no sub. i think the sub may have died or a cable came loose. so today i pull the amp and bring it in. the power light comes on, the protect light stays off. no signal output is produced what so ever. i have not opened it yet to check it out but it has got to be the amp at this point.

zero bass boost on amp, zero deck EQ, loudness, or bass boost. gains at 1/2 up on amp with remote bass volume knobb in use. the remote volume knob is used at 1/3-1/2 level.

the truck has zero gauge power/ground, a 280A mech man, and 4 group 31 batteries. 250A fuse on kicker did not blow, sub and amp were never more than warm to the touch. lowest voltage the amp ever saw was 12.2 while engine off and 13.6-14.2 while running.

im about to pull it apart but WTF am i missing here? should i just go buy a squared audio amp and be done with it? im at my whits end with this system and its failures.

edit: just pulled it apart and i have one resistor and a mosfet up in smoke (from what i can tell). someone please give me data on these parts, the resistor im sure i can find but where can i buy a mosfet? i want to solder this tomorrow and fix it rather than shipping it out.

secondly; WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!?!?! what do i have FU**ED up that is causing this 2500 to blow up?

[Chris Hammer]

When you said gain was set to 1/2 up... That there is probablly your first problem. If you set your gain like that it was probably clipping. Not to mention you sat that long with your truck off voltage probably got real low. Just making a few observations..

[n8ball2013]

It could be a lemon. Whats your final impedence

[Kyblack76]

after 5 years of use.. the repair may be suspect???

[ncc74656]

at 1/4 volume there is no way that drained my voltage below 12, even after my grid heater went off starting the truck when i left the voltage did not go below 12.1 so i do not believe that is an issue.

as for the gain it should not matter if the gain is 1/8 up or 9/10 up just so long as its matched to the output voltage of the head unit, which it was. gain in and of it self does not cause clipping right? i played various tones on teh sub, turned the gain up until i heard the tones change and then backed it down a bit. i heard no audible distortion and i never had any major voltage drops or large heat coming from the sub cone. short of hooking up a oscope while i play the sub there is no way i could tell if its clipping for certain but i did not hear any distortion.

for the sake of argument lets assume the voltage did drop to 10 or so. over the course of maybe 15min running at 10v at such a low volume level why would that cause damage like this? i understand that as voltage drops the amperage would need to increase to produce the same wattage output but even at 10v that low volume would require less amps through the mosfets than they work with at 90% volume and 13.8V.

[ncc74656]

this amp was repaired less than 2 months of use ago. it was my 1500.1 that i had for 5 years with no issue, this is a 2500.1

[tacomaguy1]

ohm load?

[ncc74656]

1.844Ohm

[CleanSierra]

Running for 45 kept running your voltage lower and lower. Me personally, I would have much rather had the vehicle running and burned $10 in gas rather than a $500+ amplifier. Quarter volume or not, you were only getting a MAX of 12 volts the second you turned the vehicle off.

Low voltage is low voltage man. I don't know how you were comfortable sitting for so long without at least having started the vehicle once to get some volts up. With no charging and continuing to deplete the battery, I'll guarantee voltage went lower than was safe.

[ncc74656]

ill pick up a voltage meter sure but how is this even a thing?

plenty of people play music or run accessories off there cars when they are off? there is no way in my mind that 40 min of play time is enough to damage a component? i just dont understand this... this whole processes is shit if 40 min of off time can damage an amp!

i have run 3500W of computers, tv's, and lights for 7 hours with my truck off before and it still started and we are saying that a mere 40 min of off time results in broken amps???

am i seriously wrong about this? i just am not willing to accept this and if this is the case then i just want to be done with car audio all together. one should not need to keep the truck running to have light music playing.... if the voltage dropped so low as to damage an amp then would my truck not have started after words?

you ask how i could be comfortable having my truck off for so long? i would say that if i were blasting it then sure this statement holds water but i feel it is much to the contrary. how could one NOT be comfortable with sitting for less than an hour playing the radio while doing paper work?

i understand this can look very much like a noob who did not know batteries drain in voltage but with 4 1100CCA batteries and the amps pulling... MAYBE 400W? at that volume level... i just can not out right accept this as a cause. even more so that my voltage did not drop below 12 when i went to start the truck.