It could be the capacitor like on one of my amps.

 

yeah, most probably. Unless you also see a burnt transistor as shown above.. Replacing the capacitors seems to have solved most ppl's problems with the bose system

 

capacitor = transisitor.

 

Pardon me if I misunderstood you. But are you saying that a burnt capacitor(aka transistor?) looks different than a working capacitor?

 

a cap and a transistor are 2 different things. He was correcting himself by saying transistor instead of cap...had me a little confused at first but see what he ment. BTW LegitMafiaBoss you can edit your post instead of posting another one.

and yes a leaking cap will have crud comming out the bottom of it and a blown cap will have the top blown up most of the time.

a burnt transistor will usually have a hole in it or a big crack or something where the magical smoke came out of it.

 

I just resoldered all the caps on my passenger side 89SE amp and its still NOT working

i cant figure out whats wrong

 

when you say you re soldered your caps do you mean you replaced them already and it didnt work so you re soldered them again? If you didnt replace the caps that is what needs to be done but if you did replace the caps make sure you put them the right way because they can only go in one way.

or you may have other problems too.

 

yeah awsm66.....i got ALL new caps...atleast all new radial ones...and got the old ones out using a desoldering braid and all that....i even carefully put them in according to the polarity...the amp still doesnt work

u still repairing amps for a "small" price

 

I went to RadioShack today with the intention of buying all new capacitors. After telling the guy at radioshack (who seemed pretty educated on car audio) what I was doing, he told me not to buy new capacitors. He looked at my amp and told me I needed a new MOSFET component and not new capacitors. He said this because one of my four Mosfets were burnt. He didn't have the Mosfet for sale, so I didn't have the chance to attempt a Mosfet repair. Before I start buying spair mosfets, has anyone had a burnt looking mosfet and still been able to repair their amp by replacing just hte capacitors? Also, the guy at Radioshack told me that if a capacitor was blown, it would be visible and one of its wires would be split or broken. What do you think of that?

 

I think the guy was only half right.

NO you cant repair the amp with caps if the "Mosfet" is blown. You have to repair what is messed up so fix the part that is blown and ALSO replace the caps.

the part about him only being half right is this...if you read all of this thread then you will see that the caps that bose used deteriate over time and is causing problems. Some I have replaced were blown by having gunk coming out the bottom which you normally cant see while they are on the board. I have also repaired a couple amps that showed no signs of the cap leaking but yet if was messed up and then worked when I repaired it.

Read this whole thread and see how many have fixed their amps with caps and then tell me if you beleive the guy at radio shack in saying that all blown caps are visibly blown. I have repaired several amps just by replacing the caps.

Now like I said you have to repair the other blown components too if they are blown. You obviously cant fix an amp with blown transistors by replacing the caps.

Unfortunetly the amps that blow other components sometimes mess up the boards (traces, mounting pads etc.) pretty bad and can not be repaired.

drstillpatient---email me and we can talk. I will see what I can do.

 

Thanks awsm66. do you know a good place to get mosfets?

 

I have seen some post online places but cant recall any. I would look in the phone book and call an electronics store. Usually they will have more of that kind of stuff over radio shack.

 

OK.. this is time to give back to forum.. I found good link to fix most of Bose amps problems..
You will find amps for Corvette discussed but they should be equally applicable to our maxima as well
Here is the link.. Knock your self off..

http://www.zr1.net/Bose2.pdf

Let me know whether it helped..if it did please put this in FAQ...

 

Quick question as I just took my front amp out to start this.

No one seem to be talking about the 2 bigger caps, C19 and C?
(right across from it) 820uF-16V.

Do these not go bad?

Any updates since 8/22/02?

 

This is a great post. I think lots of people don't realize how easy and cheap it is to repair these things.
I just pulled my rear amps out. 1990 GXE. Here's what I found:
Drivers amp #3585/HS02- 2 large caps (1000uf 16v), 2 med caps (47uf 16v), 5 small caps (3-10uf 16v, 1-4.7uf 3.5v, 1-1uf 50v), 9 total. 4 show leak.
Passenger amp #3511/HS02- 2 large caps (1000uf 16v), 2 med caps (47uf 16v), 5 small caps (3-10uf 16v, 1-4.7uf 3.5v, 1-1uf 50v) 9 total. 3 show leak.
Are my amps different from the ones talked about on this forum???? I have 9 caps and there seems to be only 7 caps on the ones here.
I'm going to try and find the caps tomorrow. Changing them all. Don't know if it will work, but kind of interesting.
Now if someone can just figure out a repair for the master window switch!!!!

 

I was wondering if anyone has tried to use tautalum caps insted of electrolytic caps?????
The tautalum caps don't have any liquid in them to leak out or dry up. It would seem it would last longer.
Any thoughts ?????

 

Last longer???????

My first amp went at 12 yrs old at which time I replaced the caps in all four amps. That was two yrs ago.

How long do you expect to keep the car?

Tim

 

Actually the car is for sale. My dad has a 1990 Maxima and I had to change the front amps once already. If I knew now what I didn't know then, I could have saved myself $200.
In reallity I just like to mess with things. It's fun and interesting. My motto is "If man can make it, man can fix it!!!"
I'm looking for some information on fixing the master window switch, any ideas???

 

Sorry abunai, never had any problems with the window switches.

If I find anything, I'll let you know.

Tim

 

I replaced all the caps on my two rear amps. One works fine, the other only makes a low buzzing noise. Double checked everything. Nothing cracked or burnt.
Anyone have any ideas????

My master window switch is not working right so I opened it up to see if it had caps in it. It did and 5 of 7 had leaked!!! These are what's called surface mount caps. No one had them so I used regular caps. Still not working. But it was worth a try.

 

One of the amps I changed the caps in is still not working and just makes a buzzing noise. Looked at the Corvette Bose amp repair site, and checked as far as I could, but still not fixed. I know it's the amp because I attached a self powered speeker in place of the amp and it plays fine.
Any other suggestions???? I did a google search, but found nothing helpful.

 

Errr... Sorry for this bump, but I can't make a new topic yet.

I'm trying to fix my amps on my '91 Maxima, so I ordered the capacitors that were mentioned earlier in this thread. I just received them today, and I noticed the 50v 1uF capacitors I ordered look weird. I am unexperienced with capacitors, so bear with me please. The 50v capacitors I ordered don't look like the other ones I ordered. Here is a picture of them

They are called UWT SMD Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor. I noticed the other ones I bought are radial. Not sure what this means... Did I order the wrong capacitors? Can anyone help me out, please?

 

I got radial. They should look like this:

 

Thanks for responding. I ventured to my local Fry's, and discovered the ones that I posted are front mount capacitors, so I have to either buy from Mouser again or find a shop in my area that carries them. Neither Fry's nor Radio Shack carries the 1 uf 50 v capacitors.

 

I get all my supplies from www.futurlec.com. They exceeded my expectations with product pricing, quality and fast shipping! You might be surprised how cheap you can get parts from there. Don't ever think about spending a buck or two on ONE capacitor from radioshack when you can get them for a nickle elsewhere.

 

the caps you got in the picture are for surface mount (that's the SMD), not through hole like the picture Aaron posted

digikey is another good online source for electronic parts

 

Oh right, surface mount not front mount. I was thinking about just ordering from Mouser again. The capacitors took 2 or 3 buisiness days to reach me. The only thing holding me back from ordering there again is the shipping. I need 8 of the capacitors, but shipping is like $4 . Maybe I'll order them tonight.

 

Well, Merry Christmas everyone. I finally got around to changing all of the capacitors on one of my rear amps. Sadly, it doesn't work. Like abunai, I get a low buzzing noise. I plugged in all of the amps, and discovered only one amp squeals (front driver's side); debating whether it's worth changing the capacitors on it. As for the other amps, is there any fix for them, or do I need to buy a new system? I just got some money for Christmas...

 

i just got 2 6x9 Sony speakers for my car i screwed them in wired the speakers to the amp but still doesnt seem to work it still squeals and everything is it possible to wire the speakers straight to the headunit instead of the amp?

 

your sony speakers will not work with the bose amp...... if you have the stock headunit.. it wont work either....... bypass the amps.. they are worthless now

 

I replaced the capacitors on one of the amps and there's a low buzzing noise. Is there anything else I can do to salvage the amp so I won't have to buy a new system?

 

How do i bybass the amps? anyone got a link to DIY or somethin? im putting in a new Sony Headunit put in next week when i recieve it. but id like to listen to somethin while im in my car till it arrives is there anyway to remove the amp i got a 92 GXE so i shouldnt have to take out my backseats right?

 

I got a couple of pictures that you will find very useful, so just PM me, leave me your AIM or yahoo screen name and I will send it to you, plus answer questions that may arise. Thing is, I won't be home from work until 11 pm, so just let me know...

 

k will do thanks alot

 

Well Disgruntled helped out alot im gonna slap together a quick guide to bypass the amp! with the pics by disgruntled!