I bought a Fosgate amp in '03, used this in my IS300 until 2 months ago when I bought my 350. At which point I pulled all the equipment out of the 300 and installed it in the 350. I used the same shop and same exact equipment. 2 days ago my amp stopped working, the shop told me it was fried. I was reading around and in a Fosgate installation manual it says "mounting of our amplifiers upside down to the rear deck does not provide adequate cooling space and is strongly not recommended.. This is the exact location they mounted the amp in my 350. My question is, is this the reason my amp failed? Any imput is appreciated as I will be going to that shop tomorrow to have a talk

 

It could be. The amp's internals might be melted from the heat. The shop should have known better, especially when the amp uses passive cooling (I'm assuming sine you didn't state wither the amp has a fan or not).

Does the amp power up?
Is anything shorted out? Are any of the speaker wires touching metal?
Are the fuses ok? Double check the remote and power wires with a test light.
Are the amp's gains/bass boost (if available) set correctly?

 

I would bring your install manual with you when you go to talk to them. Any reputable install shop would know that mounting an amp upside down isnt a good idea. I would definately say that the excess heat caused by mounting your amp upside down contributed to its failure.

 

I checked all the fuses, the one under the hood in the power wire was fried, I replaced it and it still did not work. The power wire with new fuse was sending power per a gauge meter and the RCA's were sending a signal, the amp just wasn't doing anything to the subs, as for the gain controls, they are the same as they were the 1st day it was installed.. I know it's done for, I just want to know if I should make a big deal with them about the amp location, and the possible result

 

Like I said before, they should have known better. Heat-sink doesn't work if its upside down and no fans are present.
You should go to the shop and ask them, it couldn't hurt. I wouldn't have them install anything else IMO.

 

yeah, there are very few amps that can be mounted upside down. JL's being one of the only ones that will work like that. Fosgate stuff can be very tempermental if installed wrong.

 

If it's an amp that works on convection cooling (no fan), mounting it upside-down causes it to "catch" the heat it self-generates and accumulate it - not good.
I'd still be surprised that a Fosgate amp fried itself.

 

i wouldn't

 

Well, if you still have warranty on the amp then you can just call up fosgate and they'll make u send in that one and they will send you a new one. But since your shop installed the amp for you and you didn't do a thing, they are reliable for it. Since they are a professional shop, they should have known better. Anyway to check to see if the amp is fried or not, turn on your car and see lights comes on, on your amp. Check the power cable to see if its still in contact with your battery. Check the ground wire. See if live sparks are still good on the power cable. If you don't have warranty left on your amp, open it and see if it is burnt.

Last time when i had my amp and it was fried. I called power acustic and they made me paid 75 bucks for a new circuit board, which was not bad at all, considering what i paid for the amp. So just call up and see what the deal is. But If i were you, i would go back to the shop and make them pay. They should have known better