well, i was driving for about an hour(going 70) with my system on basic listening, nothing excessive, and all the sudden the HU just turned off and the mph meter moved. then 2 seconds later everything went back to normal. this happened a few times actually, never done that before. I think it may be because i had the directed at 1 ohm(and again it was just average listening). It fairly worm when u touched it. Or could it be the alt having a problem seeing that the mph thing moved up a few mph then when back to normal in a few seconds. Nothing happened driving wise or anything. what ya think? i was kinda scared, woke me up lol
could be the alternator. you can have it tested for free at any autozone or advance auto parts.
amplifiers are supposed to get warm. that's why the case is called a heat sink. the byproduct of amplifying the signal input to the high voltage output is ... heat!
Also, the mpg meter thingie.. it's called a "speedometer."
if the alternator was damaged from excessive current draw at high volumes, it will start to act up at random times, and your description is classic for a bad alternator.
often with modern cars when the alternator goes, the ignition system acts up, car stalls or runs very roughly, gauge cluster goes bonkers, especially when it's a digital dash display, pretty much anything electrical in the car starts acting really weirdly. Shortly after that, the alternator dies completely, then when the battery gets drained, the car is dead in the water.