Here’s one from the archives. Way back, someone asked me to take a look at an amp that had suddenly stopped working. The amp/receiver in question was a NAD T752 and spent its life in this person’s garage, which they claimed had suddenly stopped working. Opening the cover revealed a rather disturbing sight. One of the 12000uF 80v Samxon filter caps had blown its top and sprayed electrolytic fluid all over the place. I have seen capacitors fail catastrophically, but have never witnessed such a large quantity of electrolyte in a liquid form. It was literally puddled up underneath the capacitors when I desoldered them. The PCBs cleaned up nicely and I was able to find some nice Cornell Dubilier which dropped right in with almost matching specs.
