i have a fosgate 1100a2 pushing 4 10" pheonix gold x-max's.. recently i noticed that the insulation on the ground wire started to melt when the amp shut down and i started to hear what seemed to be some kinda of groud loop noise in my componets. just as a fluke, all i did was move the ground wire by the connection, and everything came on again and played fine for a while so i just figured that the amp had just ran too hot and didnt go into thermal that one time. since then, i replaced the burnt ground wire, added a cap,(i already have an optima yellow top), and also mounted two fans over the amp in hopes of helping it keep cooler. now the amp plays fine at lower volumes, but as soon as i turn it all the way up it cuts out and the noise retuns until i wiggle the ground wire connection again, and then will only play for a few seconds before it does it again. this happens sooner and more often on warmer days. ive also noticed that the small plastic peice where the ground connection goes has become very loose, but if i jiggle it around while the stereo is on at low volumes it doesnt affect it at all. i am totally stumped on this one.. do i need to send this amp out for repair? if so does anyone have an idea on what could have happened? its been in the car for months with no problems until now....

 

I think when the first time you must
have had a bad ground. there are probably
a lot of reasons for that, small wire, bad
grounding point, etc. anyway, when you blew the
ground, you may have damaged the ground connection
on the amp itself. the reason it sounds ok when
you have it running at low levels is because amp
isnt drawing a lot of power so the damaged ground is
still able to handle the load, but when you bump it up,
theere is too much power going through the damaged ground
on the amp... the only way to fix that is to send in your
amp to fosgate and have them resolder a new ground
connection on your amp, assuming thats the only thing
broken on the amp... I've seen this happen before on
one of my old fosgate amps. another thing i would
definitely check is the gain setting on your amp
as well as the impedance of the speakers.... sometimes
overdriving your amp will cause it to draw too much
power as well...... anyway good luck

 

The 1100a2 is rated for 2 ohm unbridged, 4 ohm bridged
loads. The PG Xmax10 has an impedance of 3.36 Ohms.
Since you're running 4 of them, I'm assuming you've got
your system running 2 channels, one pair wired in parallel
off each channel. If this is the case, the load on each channel is 1.68 Ohms... which should be ok for low and standard volumes, but when you turn it "all the way up" you're overworking the amp... This may be the cause of the initial overheating.
Check all the things EY listed. If you're confident with electronics and have adequate soldering skills, then you may want to open it up and make sure the ground contact on the amp pcb isn't loose... if so, touch up with solder.
good luck

 

i guess when i find the time ill open it up and take a look.. now the thing is.. how do i prevent it from happening again?

 

So what would be the appropriate amp to run 12a 8ohm Kicker Comps....I was thinking 500.a or so but what would be the best option?

 

Run 2 wired in parallel off any mono (or 2 channel bridgeable & 4 ohm stable) amp with somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 Watts. If you don't want to invest in a seperate electronic crossover, then make sure the amp has crossover electronics built-in.

 

I agree with jashick. You had it for a month? Take it back where you bought it and exchange it!

A step up amplifier would be the JL 500/1