Bad ground, bad amp?

[Casper Netherlands]

Hey guys

Yes, this is dumb, but I has a loose ground wire on my amp, I think because of the hard hits of the subs it came lose.

When the base was hitting I saw sparks on the negative terminal. The wire was supper hot, and the terminal is melted now. Its been quite a while that I was hearing the whispering from the engine, and now that I took my amp off I don't hear it anymore, another indication of the bad ground.
The amp was working OK even there were electrical sparks, so no fuse blown, and the power was OK as well, but the performance was really bad (obviously) 

My question is: 

Does the bad ground, have affected the amp overall? I am trying to fix the terminal since I can unscrew it now, but will the amp still perform at its best when I'll hook it up again? (This time I'll make sure my connections are rock solid)

Amp: Pioneer GM-D9605 1000watts RMS.

[audiofanaticz]

Yes a bad or lose ground can have a negative effect on the amp. The same goes for a lose or bad positive wire on the amp, or any other lose connection being made.

When wires are lose or to small of a gauge to handle the current demand of an amplifier this can happen.

The lose connection will cause resistance, which will result in heat when the amp does not get the power it needs.

You can easily melt the plastic around the terminals like you have done, you can melt fuse holders, you can make the bolts glow red from all the heat, you can even melt the casing on your power wires which can then lead to a dead short and start your car on fire.

As for will it perform like it should? That depends.

If you caught the problem before the amp blew and let the magic smoke out then sure it may work just fine.

You will most likely want to clean out the inside of the terminal where the wire goes in with a wire brush or sand paper because im sure that is no longer shiny smooth metal and has charring or piece of wire inside where you insert the wire.

[Casper Netherlands]

2 hours ago, audiofanaticz said:

Yes a bad or lose ground can have a negative effect on the amp. The same goes for a lose or bad positive wire on the amp, or any other lose connection being made.

When wires are lose or to small of a gauge to handle the current demand of an amplifier this can happen.

The lose connection will cause resistance, which will result in heat when the amp does not get the power it needs.

You can easily melt the plastic around the terminals like you have done, you can melt fuse holders, you can make the bolts glow red from all the heat, you can even melt the casing on your power wires which can then lead to a dead short and start your car on fire.

As for will it perform like it should? That depends.

If you caught the problem before the amp blew and let the magic smoke out then sure it may work just fine.

You will most likely want to clean out the inside of the terminal where the wire goes in with a wire brush or sand paper because im sure that is no longer shiny smooth metal and has charring or piece of wire inside where you insert the wire.

Thanks for your explanation, really helpful. I will try to if I can get this amp back to work normally, because its not a bad amp for the dollars I've paid for it.

I am also looking to get an XP batt, as I have reached 11.3 volts on the amp terminals, so lots of drops on the voltage as well.