Water + Amps = BAD

[Josh90TSI]

Man did I have a scare today. After work I decided I would go give my baby a bath so I went to the local carwash and washed her. After I pulled iinto the parking lot to stop and dry it off, I realized that my towels were in the trunk. So I opened up the trunk grabbed the towels, and dried away. Seems innocent, right? Well, what I didn't realize was that when I opened the trunk, water leaked from under my spoiler and down the side of the hatch and into the trunk, and all over my Kohler XM/7676 600 watt amp. I opened the trunk to throw the towels back in after I was done, closed it and started the car up. Immediatley I noticed something was wrong because my subs weren't pushing any bass. I quickly flipped the switch I just recently installed to cut the power to the amp(boy am I glad I installed that!) I got back out and opened the trunk and right away noticed the problem when even more water dumped into the trunk and all over my amp. I sulked home and pulled the amp out of the car and opened it up to find water all over the circuit board and chips. I started to dry it off with Qtips and a small hair dryer and called my brother, the audio expert. His words were very unkind. He basically told me I was out of luck, that the only thing I could try was to let it dry out and try it in the car again. He said there was a small chance I didn't fry it. So, two long drawn out hours later, I dragged myself out to my car and began to reinstall my amp. About 20 minutes later I was shocked to find out that it was ok! Man was I relieved.
One of the reasons I am telling this story is to find out if I am the only DSM owner with this problem. Does anyone else have a leaking problem when opening the trunk? If so, I need to know how I can fix it, either that or I have to move my amp to a safer place.
If any of you ever have a chance to buy a Kohler amp, don't pass it up. They sound excellent and they are tough!

Josh

[Redsand187]

Yeah, you can definatly tell if a amp is fried, you can smell it and when you open it up, it looks like the remains of one big ass BBQ :)

[talon_jon]

Do you have a 1G? Seal up the hole where the rear wiper motor goes through the hatch. That's where mine was leaking.

[jayntguru]

Water doesn't hurt electronics at all, except for mechanical devises, such as relays. I used to do component level PCB repair, and we would literally stick boards in the dishwasher. It's common, and doesn't hurt them.


I wouldn't do this with an audio amp because it has relays on it (mechanical).


Drying it is important, we would blow the boards dry, then let them sit out for a full 48 hours before we powered them back up.

-Jay

[MikeyTsi]

Originally posted by jayntguru
Water doesn't hurt electronics at all, except for mechanical devises, such as relays. I used to do component level PCB repair, and we would literally stick boards in the dishwasher. It's common, and doesn't hurt them.


Unless you're running current through them at the time. Pure water itself doesn't conduct electricity, but the stuff IN the water will, and it can cause shorts in the circuit board, which can blow it.