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Car amp installation

C

chrisms

Diamond Member
Has anyone here ever installed a car amp by themselves? Was it hard?

Or if you got it done by a professional, about how much did it cost?
 
almost as easy as putting together a computer. Ill be putting another amp in my car this weekend🙂 just bought my system today. Ive done 100+ installs
 
Was it hard?
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About the hardest part was drilling through the firewall so the power cable could be run from the battery to the amp. Actually, it wasn't that hard ... but, rather stressful as I was praying that I didn't hit any wires or brake lines. :Q :Q :Q

 
Yep, done it in about 4 cars, easy as...providing you know what you're doing.

Actually about to do it tonight or tomorrow in another car 🙂 Only 1 amp this time, there's a stock amp in the car for the normal speakers, just need the amp for the 12" JBL sub 🙂


Confused
 
The parts that suck are routing the wires, and having to crawl into your trunk and whatnot. Kinda annoying. Not *difficult*, just a bit of a pain.
 
I've done it twice myself (well, more like once with a dual amp kit and two amps) and paid best buy $50 to do it 6 years ago. If you can figure out a way to route the power wire (you see a good path and can release any trim needed) and can find a good path through the firewall (I found a rubber grommit that I could remove, drill the hole in, thread the wire on, and then put the grommit back into place) then it's really a piece of cake.

Of course, if you really have no idea what you're doing with electrical current and haven't put the time in to read some of the guides (crutchfield makes an amp install guide that's ok... there's plenty of on-line info where people kind of walk you through it) then you may want to pay someone because there is the potential to zap your hardware, set fire to your car, or otherwise immobilize your car (anti-theft power loss stuff).
 
hopefully will be putting a amp in my car soon, will be using a professional to do the drilling through the firewall, the rest i will do. i've done older cars and there was always a way to get the power wire in with out drilling, unfortunately not so in my current car. i helped a friend do his, i told him to hold on a sec as i was lookin for a good spot to start at, then all of a sudden i hear the drill start up and hear him say do u see it. hahhahah he went right into the front right wheel well then up into the engine compartment ahhahahhahahaha.
 
Where do you connect the positive to? I did this years ago and I just stuck it right under the main battery connector - is that where an amp power cord typically goes or is there a power source somewhere else along the line? I'll be doing it in a week or so.

I can't see myself being bothered to drill any holes in the firewall and when I did this years ago on both a subaru justy and a nissan access I know for a fact we didn't drill any holes, but to be honest I can't remember how the hell we ran the power cord to the battery. We obviously found a hole somewhere...Oh I think I remember, we opened the door and just ran it up under the hood, so I suppose a little bit of wire may have been showing but I can't quite recall...

WHere's a good spot to go through the FW if I decide to drill it?

Also BIG QUESTION how the hell do you secure a sub box in the trunk of a typical car? I want to minimize permanent fixtures like drilling and what not. Should I get a bunch of velcro stickies for the trunk or what? I heard about somebody who drilled into their gas tank before 😉
 
Originally posted by: Tetsuo
Easy, just read the instructions
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lol, none of the amps i have come with instructions.
Maybe one of those amps you get at pep boys....
If you have a small clue do it yourself, if you dont have any clue get a pro to do it.
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Where do you connect the positive to? I did this years ago and I just stuck it right under the main battery connector - is that where an amp power cord typically goes or is there a power source somewhere else along the line? I'll be doing it in a week or so.

I can't see myself being bothered to drill any holes in the firewall and when I did this years ago on both a subaru justy and a nissan access I know for a fact we didn't drill any holes, but to be honest I can't remember how the hell we ran the power cord to the battery. We obviously found a hole somewhere...Oh I think I remember, we opened the door and just ran it up under the hood, so I suppose a little bit of wire may have been showing but I can't quite recall...

WHere's a good spot to go through the FW if I decide to drill it?

Also BIG QUESTION how the hell do you secure a sub box in the trunk of a typical car? I want to minimize permanent fixtures like drilling and what not. Should I get a bunch of velcro stickies for the trunk or what? I heard about somebody who drilled into their gas tank before 😉
Click to expand...

drop the tools, wires and audio stuff.........this isnt a job for u, get a pro or someone that knows what they are doin
 
Originally posted by: captains
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Where do you connect the positive to? I did this years ago and I just stuck it right under the main battery connector - is that where an amp power cord typically goes or is there a power source somewhere else along the line? I'll be doing it in a week or so.

I can't see myself being bothered to drill any holes in the firewall and when I did this years ago on both a subaru justy and a nissan access I know for a fact we didn't drill any holes, but to be honest I can't remember how the hell we ran the power cord to the battery. We obviously found a hole somewhere...Oh I think I remember, we opened the door and just ran it up under the hood, so I suppose a little bit of wire may have been showing but I can't quite recall...

WHere's a good spot to go through the FW if I decide to drill it?

Also BIG QUESTION how the hell do you secure a sub box in the trunk of a typical car? I want to minimize permanent fixtures like drilling and what not. Should I get a bunch of velcro stickies for the trunk or what? I heard about somebody who drilled into their gas tank before 😉
Click to expand...

drop the tools, wires and audio stuff.........this isnt a job for u, get a pro or someone that knows what they are doin
Click to expand...

rolleye.gif
Whatever. I'm not trying to wire the ignition system on the space shuttle. Most car audio installations are very easy, and that is why so many "professionals" are 18 year olds looking for beer money. Just because I have a couple of questions doesn't mean I can't do it. A child is capable of it if they know thew few steps involved.
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Where do you connect the positive to? I did this years ago and I just stuck it right under the main battery connector - is that where an amp power cord typically goes or is there a power source somewhere else along the line? I'll be doing it in a week or so.

I can't see myself being bothered to drill any holes in the firewall and when I did this years ago on both a subaru justy and a nissan access I know for a fact we didn't drill any holes, but to be honest I can't remember how the hell we ran the power cord to the battery. We obviously found a hole somewhere...Oh I think I remember, we opened the door and just ran it up under the hood, so I suppose a little bit of wire may have been showing but I can't quite recall...

WHere's a good spot to go through the FW if I decide to drill it?

Also BIG QUESTION how the hell do you secure a sub box in the trunk of a typical car? I want to minimize permanent fixtures like drilling and what not. Should I get a bunch of velcro stickies for the trunk or what? I heard about somebody who drilled into their gas tank before 😉
Click to expand...

Connect the positive to the battery. I would highly recommend getting a fused connector to go onto the battery terminal.

As for the negative, put it to a bare bit of metal in the boot, the body/chassis of the car will all be grounded anyway 🙂

For the remote turn-on on the amp, you will need to run a cable from either your accessory line (that turns on when the key is turned) or from a specific "remote" feed from the back of the stereo. This you can get from the fuse box or back of the stereo.

You will probably be able to find at least a few rubber grommits in the firewall where the rest of your wiring goes, there should be enough space in at least one of them to pass the power cable for the amp through.

I suppose something like velcro should be able to hold the sub box down, just get some strong stuff...not the type of stuff on kid's shoes 😉 I haven't had any problems with my sub boxes rolling/sliding around in the boot, the sub is quite often heavy enough to prevent the box moving too far anyway 🙂


Confused
 
ROFL - "boot", I had to check where you were from 😉 I was right 😀

Thanks - also the instructions say to have the power line at least 6 inches separated from the rca line going from the amp to the sub. I was thinking of putting them on different sides of the car. Is that really necessary?
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
ROFL - "boot", I had to check where you were from 😉 I was right 😀

Thanks - also the instructions say to have the power line at least 6 inches separated from the rca line going from the amp to the sub. I was thinking of putting them on different sides of the car. Is that really necessary?
Click to expand...

Heh, i was going to put "trunk", but couldn't be bothered 🙂

I've run the power cable down the same side of the car as the RCA cables, there's not any noise that *I* could tell, however someone with a better setup and better ears may be able to! Of course it doesn't really help as the car manufacturers seem to run power cables down both sides of the car anyway!

In my first car, I would get "whhrrr whiirrrr, whhrrr whiirrrr, whhrrr whiirrrr" through the stereo when I put the rear windscreen wiper on, because the power for that was running down the same side of the car. A ground loop isolator fixed that, however it was yet another component in the stereo system!


Garry
 
I had a pro do it for me. He wired in my amp to the battery, installed the woofer in the trunk, the remote by the driver's seat, changed all 4 door speakers and ran all the wires. I paid him $150.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
I had a pro do it for me. He wired in my amp to the battery, installed the woofer in the trunk, the remote by the driver's seat, changed all 4 door speakers and ran all the wires. I paid him $150.
Click to expand...

How does that doggy like it there in the boot?


Confused
 
I believe my headunit has a pre-amp output and I'm presuming a remote hookup to the back. In cases where this is not an option (old setup for instance) I believe that you can cut the wires to any speakers and run them into the rca inputs on the amp, but what about the remote - how would you set the amp to be turned on, even if the headunit isn't telling it to turn on?
 
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