I've placed an order for a 10" subwoofer, amp and box. I need some advice on where to place the box and amp. Also, I would really appreciate your experiences on running wires, things you've learned, etc. I'm putting this sub into a 2001 Civic, and I can't wait to hear the results.
A billion thanks in advance for your help.
"t" wrote in news:7ejJf.8246$lG.4895@trndny01:
First thing's first. Disconnect the negative battery line.
Depending on your amp and subwoofer specs you may need to consider the gauge of the wire you are running to supply power. 8 gauge is typically fine for most single amp setups. Personally I wouldn't run anything smaller than 8 for a single amp. Most likely you will be putting the amp/speaker in the trunk/hatchback area, and the length of the wire directly coresponds to resistance and heat build-up. The bigger the wire the better. I'd opt for a 4 gauge wire if you can afford it. You can always get a distribution block later to fork several 8 gauge wires to different amps if you want to expand.
Get an inline fuse for the main power line and place it somewhere near the battery terminal. Your amp probably has a fuse but just to be safe put one where it counts. Those extra few dollars could save your entire setup.
There are several ways to run the wire. I'll give you one that I use. First you're going to need to fold back the carpet on the passenger's side. Near the ECU cover there should be some wires going into the engine compartment, and this area is sealed with a rubber seal. You can see it better from the engine compartment. It's a bitch to take the seal off and put it back on because it's really tight in there. So, what I usually do is put a TINY hole in the rubber and force the end of the wire thru it so it expands to the size of the wire. You can always spread a little RTV on it later. I don't bother removing the seal and have to hassle with trying to put it back on. Don't connect the wire to the battery just yet. Also note to be very careful not to cut any of the car wires when you're making the hole. You're going for a tiny hole anyways, so you can use something blunt like an allan key to make the hole.
Now that you have one end of the wire inside the car running from the engine compartment, you can remove the lower side panels (not the door panels) and conceal the wire behind them. They are connected by metal male/female clips and the edges are folded over the framing. If you think you're pulling hard enough to break it or you're bending it a LOT you probably are going to break it.
Run the wire all the way back to the trunk/hatch area. You're going to want to ground the amp to the body of the car. I usually go for a seatbelt bolt hole. If you don't have a hole like this or you want something else, you're going to have to drill and tap a new hole, but I'd be careful back there and avoid puncturing the fuel tank. If you do drill/tap a new hole, make it at least 8mm to 12mm. MAKE SURE YOU SAND THE AREA THAT YOU'RE GROUNDING TO to a bare metal finish to get a good ground connection.
Connect the wires to the amp. Connect the negative wire to the car body somewhere near the amp. USE THE SAME OR LARGER GAUGE WIRE AS THE POSITIVE. Connect the positive wire running from the trunk to the engine compartment to the positive battery terminal. You may need a distribution connector for the batter terminal; or you can go ghetto and braid the end of the wire and put it inside the battery cable connector before you screw it on. After you're all done connecting the amp wires and speaker, you can reconnect the negative battery line.
I'd make sure the amp is secured and screwed down so it doesn't fly around and short one of the connections.
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Oh I almost forgot; don't use the connection wires you get with your subwoofer. They usually supply wire that is way too thin. You'll get an overall better signal if the wire is thicker, like 16 gauge.
And if you hear a strange high-pitch noise that seems to match the frequency of your engine sound, that's the sound of your alternator. If you hear this, you probably have a shitty ground connection. Other causes could be that you're running the wire too close to other power lines or the alternator itself. You may need to experiment with the path of the wire if you have this problem.
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I'm not sure how experienced you are with stereo equipment so I'll just say this for good measure. You said you are getting a subwoofer; just one. A lot of subwoofers have dual voice coils (DVC) and can only be wired for 2 or 8 ohm operation. Most stereo amps cannot support a 2-ohm mono load, so unless you bought a monoblock amp you're probably (99% chance) going to have to wire it for 8ohms. If your sub is a single voice coil 4ohm then you have nothing to worry about. Most stereo amps can safely bridge into a 4ohm mono load. If you do have a DVC sub, see this paper for more info:
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