[trixman]

Driving this morning and the sound started to go on and off through the stereo, with a fuzzing in between.

Weird.. so I press the power off. Then a funny smell in the cabin. Barlocks.

Pull over and drop the rear seat forward into the back seat area. Get in the back and there's smoke pouring (ok, I might be exaggerating) out of the plug holes of the amp.

Now I've always suspected the amp was a little dodgy. They installed it and couldn't get the subs hooked up to the separate supply as I was getting serious interference. They called Blaupunkt who said it shouldn't do that, and they thought it might be a dodgy amp but couldn't say for certain. So the subs have never had a separate supply.

I've sent an email to the supplier asking about the warranty process. Bugger is the amp is with me in Spain, going to be weeks before I can get sound back in the car again.

[lostuser]

Good luck with the warranty process. Between you and me, Blaupunkt in the UK has recently dropped from 15 employees to 2.

The business is currently in the process of being sold.

Saying that, I'm sure they're honouring the warranty so I wouldn't expect you'd have any problems.

[sheps]

Originally Posted by trixman

Driving this morning and the sound started to go on and off through the stereo, with a fuzzing in between.

Weird.. so I press the power off. Then a funny smell in the cabin. Barlocks.

Pull over and drop the rear seat forward into the back seat area. Get in the back and there's smoke pouring (ok, I might be exaggerating) out of the plug holes of the amp.

Now I've always suspected the amp was a little dodgy. They installed it and couldn't get the subs hooked up to the separate supply as I was getting serious interference. They called Blaupunkt who said it shouldn't do that, and they thought it might be a dodgy amp but couldn't say for certain. So the subs have never had a separate supply.

I've sent an email to the supplier asking about the warranty process. Bugger is the amp is with me in Spain, going to be weeks before I can get sound back in the car again.

Sorry to hear of your Blaupunkt-based woes Trixman.
I was really keen on this upgrade when Gizzee first mentioned it, but there have been a number of people that have had issues with this and the smaller (275?) amp, which has caused me to hesitate.

Can you not ship the amp back via an international courier to get it back to them to start the warranty boll rolling? Not sure how expensive that'd be, but if you're away for weeks it's worth considering.

I doubt they'd ship it back to Spain when they repair/send you a new unit, but I'm sure someone on here (I'd always do it) would receive the amp in the UK for you and forward on to Spain?

It depends if the cost of two international shipments is worth having some sounds whilst you're away - I know that would drive me crazy!

[jinjur]

Originally Posted by lostuser

Between you and me

Not anymore buster......



JJ

[dxb335d]

Originally Posted by jinjur

Not anymore buster......



JJ

+1

[Budgie]

Oh dear...hope you find some relief...could have been worst and could have

[trixman]

Very true.

I only just thought about the whole warranty issue if the amp decided to try the whole electrics of the car.

Took it off this morning and had a look, seems that two of the capacitors went boom.

Talked to Blaupunkt who are happy to receive it and 'allow our technicians to look at it'. Hmmm. Hope that doesn't mean a quick fix rather than replacement. It's never been quite right anyway, I was looking forward to a new unit and hooking up the subs to a seperate supply to get full power out of them.

I'd only have to wait until next Friday. But I'm impatient. Already been looking at the Spanish sites to see if I can find an amp nearby. lol.

[trixman]

Originally Posted by sheps

Sorry to hear of your Blaupunkt-based woes Trixman.
I was really keen on this upgrade when Gizzee first mentioned it, but there have been a number of people that have had issues with this and the smaller (275?) amp, which has caused me to hesitate.

Can you not ship the amp back via an international courier to get it back to them to start the warranty boll rolling? Not sure how expensive that'd be, but if you're away for weeks it's worth considering.

I doubt they'd ship it back to Spain when they repair/send you a new unit, but I'm sure someone on here (I'd always do it) would receive the amp in the UK for you and forward on to Spain?

It depends if the cost of two international shipments is worth having some sounds whilst you're away - I know that would drive me crazy!

Think it would be too much mate, they are quite heavy and new only 260 odd Gbp. Not really worth it. Actually been looking around for a replacement to get the whole system upgraded again but not really much out there unless you want to go completely custom.

[dazzapb]

Originally Posted by trixman

going to be weeks before I can get sound back in the car again.

Hi Trix,

Not sure if I am barking up the wrong tree here, and I am not 100%, but I have the tha275, and you can bypass the amp, by plugging the connectors that feed the back of the amp into each other, so you get power from head unit again, only till its fixed of course.

Acutally I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I did this.

[dazzapb]

actually ignore that stupid suggestion you obviosly already know this. i am an ICE novice

[trixman]

Thanks dazza... I actually didn't! But to be honest, smoke pouring out of a device screwed into the boot of your new car doesn't give the confidence to plug it back in... I might be taking the facia off this weekend anyway, see if I can hook the original amp back in.

[CrimsonRedE93]

PM sent Trixman

[trixman]

Originally Posted by CrimsonRedE93

PM sent Trixman

Replied, cheers G

[trixman]

UPDATE:

Blaupunkt had the amp picked up on Monday while I'm in the UK. Yesterday they phoned to tell me that the unit blew up. Well, duh.

Apparently he's never seen one like it, and I must have done something to it. I obviously haven't and informed him of the reservations of the installers, and their call to tech support upon installation, that the unit was a dud to begin with.

The tech's there are nice enough and he's raising the issue, but as it stands right now he's saying they won't replace or fix it, and they 'can' send it to Germany to have a look at but at my cost.

This makes me a sad panda.

UPDATE:
Just got off the phone with the UK warranty/tech support. Theyre saying it looks like 'customer abuse'. Either water got in or overpowered. Needless to say neither is true and the amp, I'm convinced, was duff to begin with.

So, to wrap it up. I bought the Blaupunkt THA-555 6 months ago, it (quite literally) blows up and could have caused all sorts of damage as I've yet to plug the system back in and test... and Blaupunkt refused to fix/replace it as they say 'I' caused the damage. They can send it to Germany, and it will be at my cost, but the likelyhood is they will say the same thing.

I was going to just buy another one and sell the other replacement on ebay or something, but what if something goes wrong with that too? Whats the point in a warranty if you can't actually get a broken unit fixed or replaced? Now I'm stuck without sound in the car, wary of buying anything Blownpunkt, and no access to any decent audio installers where I live to get anything else fitted. Anyone got any ideas on a different amp that is equally or more powerful I could install instead?

Annoyed? Just a bit.

[ShereKhan]

Trix,

You said that some capacitors have blown up.
Sounds like the power supply feed may have been going up and down like a yo-yo. I have seen inflated caps on some boards and they tend to point to a power supply problem. Eventually they will go pop.

How was the amp fed? Did you have a zener diode (to cap the supply voltage). With regards to fixing unit. As its an amp I would get it repaired by any good electronic repair house (i'm sure Blaupunkt do this).

Dowding and Mills do a good job of repairing elecronic boards. But there are plenty of people out there (UK and Spain) who could do a good job.

[trixman]

Yep I guess it will be fixable, CrimsonRed has offered to take a look which is very kind of him and I'll probably take him up on his offer.

That's what is worrying me, if there is an actual fault with the power supply. The feed is from the head unit, and not the battery, as they were getting too much interference when hooking it up to the battery (they said).

Whats a zener diode btw?

[ShereKhan]

Hmm if the feed is from head unit. Have you checked the load needed by the head unit? Namely the inrush current (usually in data sheet). This is the peak current on power up. Add the amp's inrush and you know what the current load is needed. I would opt to have a separate feed to the battery (local earth is ok). A zener diode is a clamp diode. You can buy one from RS/Maplin to clamp the incoming voltage (if there are peaks). Usually an item liek an alternator has one to prevent damage further down the line.

If they were getting too much interference from the battery how did they wire up the earth? Sounds like they had a "potential earth" (dirty earth) hence
the noise.

[trixman]

Until I take a look I'll not know exactly what they've done, but from the basic information they gave me the install went something like this:

There was bad interference after they installed it properly(ish). Took it back and they moved the wiring from the wrong side (can't remember which) to the centre and it stopped it... but when they put the supply to the battery it came back.. so they left the power from the head unit. Its never had dedicated cables from the subs.

Can guess they didn't hook a proper earth and might be why I got interference the first time... although doesn't explain the amp going pop. So for the last 6 months its been feeding on the head unit.

[kend]

Originally Posted by trixman

Yep I guess it will be fixable, CrimsonRed has offered to take a look which is very kind of him and I'll probably take him up on his offer.

That's what is worrying me, if there is an actual fault with the power supply. The feed is from the head unit, and not the battery, as they were getting too much interference when hooking it up to the battery (they said).

Whats a zener diode btw?

I am pretty sure that on the THA 575 the feed should come direct from the battery as the amp is pretty powerfull and requires a lot of current.

I have been running a THA 475 directly connected to the battery without interference or problems for over a year. The instructions on the THA 475 show power fed from battery.

Is it possible that the problem was caused by the original install?

[trixman]

Very possibly, but here's the thing, they won't tell me for sure unless they send it to Germany... and then I have to pay the courier fees to get it there and back.

I'm 50/50 between bad install and duff amplifier. It's a plug and play so don't see how it can be done so wrong...

[CrimsonRedE93]

SK is right, the feed should be from the battery and could have caused a problem, I guess its the interference issue that you need to get sorted and connect the amp to the battery.

The high pulse currents will pull the voltage down so the input voltage to the amplifier will move around possible lower than recommended.

[ShereKhan]

Originally Posted by trixman

I'm 50/50 between bad install and duff amplifier. It's a plug and play so don't see how it can be done so wrong...

Hmm I wish it was plug and play. If you have a bad earth then the reference zero all the electronics need on board the amp go haywire as the 0v level is going up and down like a yo-yo.

If they were a big outfit (installer) then I am suprised that they did not install a good earth strap from the amp. You should normally rub away at the paint on the body - in your case in the boot and and have the earth strap anchored to this area.

If I were inspecting the amp I would point towards user error. I think you should be speaking to the installer not Blaupankt as they owe you an amp.