Wiring for subs and amp

[Johnybeas]

If I were to do the typical amp and subs in the trunk, anyone have suggestions on how to run the wires and approximately how much I'd need. Also any idea of how to connect it to the power, direct battery via fuse? please post your ideas or what you you've done.

[AyeJaye]

I did a fused wire direct off the battery, with the amp grounded in the trunk. I ran my wires through the firewall at the main wiring harness point and under the center console and back seat into the trunk. Just make sure you separate the power lead from the remote wire and RCA cable or else you'll get a nasty feedback whine.

[redlightningsvx]

I ran mine pretty hidden i'll try to take some pics tomorrow for you.

[Wikedjuggalo]

Here. I did a write up Maybe this will help
http://www.mediafire.com/?tylmm2w33xw
its too large to attach here but its only 2.23 mbs.

[redlightningsvx]

On mine I ran it off the battery to a fuse with 4 gauge wire. I then ran it through the hole in the engine compartment beside the battery where all of the wires go to, ran it behind the fender liner and into the rubber grommet that goes behind the kick panel.

I then ran it underneath the carpet and bottom rear seat to a splitter that goes from 4 gauge to two 8 gauge outputs behind the trunk liner.

Then from there I ran one cable to the amp underneath the carpet on the backside of the seat and the other cable along the top of the fuel pump to the other side of the trunk liner where I have this.

The wire from that go underneath the back seat carpet to the amp and when it's all done it looks like this nice and clean.

[Francis]

Originally Posted by AyeJaye

Just make sure you separate the power lead from the remote wire and RCA cable or else you'll get a nasty feedback whine.

true dont put these close to each other , i have done this error and it was really bad.

[Johnybeas]

forgive me if it's a dumb question but I'm new to car audio stuff... what is this???

[Black88GTA]

I just got done doing this on Sunday, so it's all very fresh in my head. My hands are still nicked up from it - I haven't even had a chance to fine-tune the system or finish putting all the interior back in yet. But, all the stereo stuff is in there, and it all works.

For wire routing - I drilled a hole just above the accelerator pedal for the power cable, and installed a proper sized grommet to put it through. Was kind of a PITA to get to with the drill though, as the bit kept walking. There is a white plastic shield piece just under the carpet on the far left side (just behind the door sill) that already has some wires under it - I ran the power cable through this, under the rear seat, and up through the carpet. All remaining wires are routed along the sides of the center console / transmission hump area, under the carpet.

I have the amp mounted on the back of the driver's side rear seat using #10 plastic drywall anchors and 1" #10 sheetmetal screws (a suggestion from another member in response to a thread I posted earlier) which worked very well. All of the cables are concealed by the carpet until just before the amp, so you can't really see them. I allowed ample slack in the cable (which rests harmlessly under the rear seat) so that the seat can be folded all the way down - even with the rear cushion removed - without putting tension on any of the wiring, or causing it to pull out.

There is a little metal "lip" just behind the rear seat, which I used for my ground. I like this location because it's completely internal. The paint needs to be sanded off to make a good ground connection - but this leaves the ground area completely unprotected. With the internal ground location, no nasty salt can work its way into the unprotected metal from the outside and rust it out. Plus, this location is right next to my amp, so I was able to keep the ground run nice and short. I only needed to use about 1 - 1.5 feet of ground cable.

Wiring the comps up front was tricky, as I had trouble figuring out where to mount the crossovers. In the end, the driver's side one ended up being mounted to the bottom of a large metal support just to the left of the steering wheel, and the passenger side one is mounted to a removable metal piece bolted to the back of the glove box. To run the door speaker wiring, I removed both ends of the rubber tubes connecting the doors to the car, and used a stiff coat hanger and electrical tape to run the wire through the tubes.

This was just for the speakers - I haven't done a sub in this car. I haven't decided if that's the way I want to go with this car yet.

It's kind of a pain to do all of it - worth it though. Even without tuning anything, my stereo sounds 1000x better than before.

[redlightningsvx]

Originally Posted by Johnybeas

forgive me if it's a dumb question but I'm new to car audio stuff... what is this???

It's like a tunable driver for the 2 main wires for the amp. It lets me tune the bass even better for subs or componant speakers.