So here's my problem. I just recently wired 4 brand new speakers, and a sub with an enclosure I made myself. Brand new everything except for the amp which is an Eclipse EA3532 5/4 650W that I got an excellent deal on. I wired up everything and it all worked perfectly... until I started driving. On the road the audio would cut in and out, and once I thought I smelled the blue smoke of death. Then it went away and I wasn't sure what was up. It wasn't until I stopped at a gas station and went to turn back on my car when the amp behind my seat started smoking profusely. I cut the engine and pulled the cables from the amp. I opened up the amp to see if their was any damage and there was a minuscule amount of blackness around one of the capacitors near the power intake.

Why did this happen?

Here's my setup - (Running at 4 ohms in a 1994 Ford Ranger Regular Cab)

Amp - Eclipse EA3532
105W x 4 channel Max. Power Output at 2 ohms plus 230W x 2 Max. Sub-Out
40W x 4 channel (4 ohms), 120W x 1 channel(4 ohms)
Maximum Amperage: 50amp

Door Speakers - Pioneer TS-A6872R x4
6-Inch X 8-Inch 3-Way 240-Watt Speakers
40W RMS, 240W Max

Sub - Pioneer TS-SW841D x1
Shallow Mount 8" (all the space I have in my regular cab)
120W RMS, 500W Max

All of my RMS levels exactly match that of the amp, so nothing should be drawing too much power... The only thing that I can think of would be the amp kit that I installed...

Stinger SHK241 4 Gauge Kit
4 Gauge Copper Wire
150 Amp Fuse

Does having a 150amp fuse feeding into a 50amp amplifier cause a problem? It worked fine when I wired it and it was running. Even when I was driving for most of the time it worked great...

Until it started smoking... obviously...

I read elsewhere that you could put another fuse inline close to the amp to bring the power down. Would that help or cause more problems? The amp itself has two 25 amp fuses, therefore 50 amps. Shouldn't those protect that from happening? Or do those protect from something else?

I'm new at the whole car stereo installation thing so bare with me. The system sounded great when everything was running, and had a decent amount of bump to it to! Please help!

 

Are you running all 4 door speakers and the sub off the same amp?

 

Yes, it's a 4/5 amp, so it can run just 4 channels or 5 with four speakers and a sub rated at 120 rms. Not super powerful, but enough for the sub that I'm running, it actually has the exact rms level that I'm running in the pioneer.

 

Don't add more fuses. Your amp has been fried. My recommendation, send it to somebody to have it repaired or buy a new one.

 

That amp is only rated for running 4 door speakers OR 2 door speakers and a subwoofer. You cooked the amp. Either buy a 5 channel amp or a 4 channel amp and a mono amp for the sub

 

Not true. It was running a 5 speaker set up in it's previous life for 4 years.

 

Hmm it is a 5 channel amp. Anyways reading reviews on it, it doesn't look like the greatest amp. At any rate the 'miniscule blackness' you see is an electronic component that is fried. Electronics have a funny way of just packing it in sometimes

 

What gauge wire are you using ?

Wire too small can cause smoking not only in the wire but in the amp because the amp is trying to draw more than is available.

There should be a main fuse near the battery, one of the high current type, (flat with proper connections) and some put a fuse near the main component but I think too many fuses can increase resistance in the wire and again cause over heating.
Only time I would use more than one fuse is if you split up the power at some point for more than one component.
Rate the main fuse for the wire you are running and the secondary fuses for the components.

I am not an audiophile just an Amateur Radio Operator for over 25 years so take what I say with a grain of salt.

luck with it.