audio system and smoking dash

[Shantox]

Hi guys,
Sorry if this is in the wrong section but i am kinda in a panic. I installed an amp akd subwoofer in my '08 Camry SE. On friday night everything was installed and powering on with no problems. I had made all connections except for tapping into my rear speaker wires for use of the high (speaker level) inputs. I want to keep the factory head unit but have never cared for line out converters so i made certain to order an amplifier with a built in converter. Anyways to get to the point ... On saturday morning I went out and tapped into the rear speaker leads and connected to the amp. Cranked up the car and all of a sudden no power to radio. I checked thw radio fuses and radio2 was blown so I replaced with an identical 7.5A fuse. Cranked car up again. Radio had no power again but this time the rpm's stumbled for second, then a puff of smoke from behind the dash. I turned off the car, pulled out the key and quickly disconnected the battery cables. Then after checking fuses (none were blown this time) it seems as if the smoke was from my ignition switch. I say this because now anything that requires the ignition to be in accessory oe run positions does not work. Starter will not engage. The door ajar light and the door ding sound stay on like it thinks the door is open and key in the ignition. I uninstalled everything to see if it would help ... It did not. So i called my dealer who sent a tow truck and gave me a loaner umtil they get it fixed. Any idea on what may have happened? The manager at dealership said the the camry can be very fickle with electronics but promised me it would be taken of. I just bought the car a week ago as a certified preowned. I would like to add that I have been installing car audio/video, custom lighting and other gadgets for more than 20 years. I am also a certified electronics engineer and i had a copy of my wiring diagram which was provided by Crutchfield. The diagram seemed extremely accurate. So I am 100% positive that I did not miswire anything. The problem arose after simply tapping in to the speaker leads. If anyone has any idea what could have caused this pleae tell me as I do not want to go through this again. Sorry for the lengthy post! Hoping the dealer will fix it under the warranty like they promised to do when i picked up a loaner. Thanks in advance!

[touringcamry]

If you tapped into the rear speaker connection in parallel, that could have lowered the impedance on the rear speaker circuits. This lowered impedance would increase the current and power beyond the design of the amp in the radio.

[Shantox]

Originally Posted by touringcamry

If you tapped into the rear speaker connection in parallel, that could have lowered the impedance on the rear speaker circuits. This lowered impedance would increase the current and power beyond the design of the amp in the radio.

Bingo! I did run them in parallel (+ to + and - to - on each channel) as this is how the diagram with the amp illustrated. I know how impedance works and cannot believe that I did not take a moment to rethink a standard diagram for an aftermarket item. Thanks a ton!

Banging my head with a hammer now lol!

[touringcamry]

I'm not saying that was the case, but it is certainly a possibility.

I looked up a couple amps and their hi-level input spec just says <100 Ohms or something like that. If it were 80 ohms, it would drop that circuit down to 3.8 Ohms, which doesn't seem like it should kill the amp. I mean that is only 5%. Not knowing the spec on your amp though, it's hard to say if that was the cause.

[Donald E. George]

One thing you can always count on,Murphy is alive and well.Regards