DIY: Amp Wiring 2k1civic coupe
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You pull up the carpet where that velcro spot is, if you look there is a rubber grommet right next to the velcro that runs into the engine bay through the firewall, this is where you should run the wire. I have a 2k1 EX Coupe and that is exactly where my power wire ran.
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Rep Power: 0 Originally posted by tmd438
Do i connect the + power line directly to the car battery ?
i got a 300 watt amp and alpine type S sub
do i need any capacitor in order to run the sub safely?
Do i connect the + power line directly to the car battery ?
i got a 300 watt amp and alpine type S sub
do i need any capacitor in order to run the sub safely?
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From: New York, US
Rep Power: 0 Yes, you need a fuse right off the battery. Genereally within 18" of the battery. Generally this fuse should be equal to or a little above the total of all the amps in the system. Your Sony has two 30 amp fuses. Any fuse from 60 to 100 amps would work fine for you. If you get that kit it will have a fuse holder and fuse included just for this purpose (ATC in-line fuse holder).
Heres the one that is included w/ the kit I believe: http://www.scosche.com/efx/products/fuses/P8FH.asp
The purpose of this is to protect you if anything goes wrong. Thats why the closer the the battery the better (thats the within 18" part). Does it happen often if ever, no. I personally have never had a problem. But if you did it could save your car from an exploding battery, wiring meltdown, and the car catching on fire.
I did see it happen w/ my brother once. He put in his first stereo and routed in the power wire. Fired it all up and the system was just a bumpin (four JL 10" on a MTX amp). So then he goes for a cruise and go show it off. He pulls in the parkin lot and presses the e-brake pedal (truck was standard and needed to be running cause the amp used so much power). Well f course he wasn't so careful in the wire placement up under the dash. That brake pedal cut the wire casing and grounded it out quicker than he knew what happened. Nice big shower of sparks, it was scary. Thank god the fuse blew right away, shut the whole system down quick, and saved us. He felt like an *** and we were done for the night. Try finding a 60amp fuse 10PM at night in a small town.
Good luck.
I still say get that package. Its gots everything to do it right...... might even have directions.
Heres the one that is included w/ the kit I believe: http://www.scosche.com/efx/products/fuses/P8FH.asp
The purpose of this is to protect you if anything goes wrong. Thats why the closer the the battery the better (thats the within 18" part). Does it happen often if ever, no. I personally have never had a problem. But if you did it could save your car from an exploding battery, wiring meltdown, and the car catching on fire.
I did see it happen w/ my brother once. He put in his first stereo and routed in the power wire. Fired it all up and the system was just a bumpin (four JL 10" on a MTX amp). So then he goes for a cruise and go show it off. He pulls in the parkin lot and presses the e-brake pedal (truck was standard and needed to be running cause the amp used so much power). Well f course he wasn't so careful in the wire placement up under the dash. That brake pedal cut the wire casing and grounded it out quicker than he knew what happened. Nice big shower of sparks, it was scary. Thank god the fuse blew right away, shut the whole system down quick, and saved us. He felt like an *** and we were done for the night. Try finding a 60amp fuse 10PM at night in a small town.
Good luck.
I still say get that package. Its gots everything to do it right...... might even have directions.
i did that too. Worked out just fine. I got my amp all wired up, but have one problem; there's no sound. The amp power light is on, so the power aspect is good, but there is absolutely no sound coming from the subs. I fooled around with all the switched on the back, which did nothing, so it has to be a connection somewhere. Any hints on the most likely suspects? I really don't want to have to unbolt my sub box and take it apart....so I hope it isn't in there. Thanks.
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Rep Power: 0 Do you have another speaker you can plug in to eliminate the sub and wiring inside? Also make sure your RCA connections are good and that the RCA cable works. Its pretty simple really, there is only 1 in and 1 out, so do some process of elimination. Try different cables, different speakers, you could try also a different source if you have a portable cd player with line-out outputs and just keep the volume really low to see if its your headunit. Just eliminate everything till you find the culprit.
i have a high to low converter hooked up to wires spliced off the rear speakers, so that might be it. I'm not sure if the + and - are hooked up correctly on the right one; would that affect the sound like this? I'll see if I can get some speakers to test, thats a good idea.
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Rep Power: 0 its a good chance its the line out converter. I've had troubles with those in the past. What brand did you buy because the quality of those can also make a difference in your sound. I used some sosche ones before that picked up a LOT of noise and caused really bad alternator whine, replacing those fixed a few problems for me so that could be it as well.
its a rockford fosgate. My amp has speaker-level inputs, so the first thing I'll probably try is to use those instead of the external one and see if that works. If that works, I can return like $45 of stuff (hopefully).
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From: bay area, california
Rep Power: 339 you install it like any amplifier. ground the - terminal, and wire the + terminal to your distribution block.
the two important specifications are capacitance and electrical series resistance. capacitance is relatively simple to understand, the higher the capacitance, the higher potential charge storage. the ESR is the speed at which that charge can be delivered.
Did you know your cell phone has several one farad capacitors in it? they wouldnt work very well for audio usage, their ESR is way too big! one way to lower ht eESR is done through some sort of engineering that I dont understand, but its manifested through the size of the capacitor. so you can *kind of* get an idea of ESR by phisical size. two capacitors of the same capacitance but of difference sizes *should* be indicative of which has a lower ESR. ESR is usually not advertized in big letters on the box like capacitance is.
realistically, any capacitor designed for audio use will work, and the higher capacitance, the better. I have a two farad capacitor, and when it was in my car, I never had any light dimming. ever
the two important specifications are capacitance and electrical series resistance. capacitance is relatively simple to understand, the higher the capacitance, the higher potential charge storage. the ESR is the speed at which that charge can be delivered.
Did you know your cell phone has several one farad capacitors in it? they wouldnt work very well for audio usage, their ESR is way too big! one way to lower ht eESR is done through some sort of engineering that I dont understand, but its manifested through the size of the capacitor. so you can *kind of* get an idea of ESR by phisical size. two capacitors of the same capacitance but of difference sizes *should* be indicative of which has a lower ESR. ESR is usually not advertized in big letters on the box like capacitance is.
realistically, any capacitor designed for audio use will work, and the higher capacitance, the better. I have a two farad capacitor, and when it was in my car, I never had any light dimming. ever
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Rep Power: 339 its not really a factor most of the time, ive noticed. We did that as standard practice at my shop and we didnt get any noise 90% of the time.
but its a definite potential culprit if you happen to have alternator whine.
Road noise is the noise you get from driving. ever notice that a mercedes has a quieter cabin than a gutted civic, both going 70 on the freeway? thats road noise!
but its a definite potential culprit if you happen to have alternator whine.
Road noise is the noise you get from driving. ever notice that a mercedes has a quieter cabin than a gutted civic, both going 70 on the freeway? thats road noise!
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From: Snowy Crappy Central NY
Rep Power: 0 OK, I'm clueless.
I found that grommet, and I *think* I found where it comes out in the engine bay. My questions are:
That grommet is PACKED, I mean no room at all. There's a bundle of wires going through the center hole. There are two side holes as well (smaller).
- Can I go through the holes on the side?
- What are the possibilities of hitting and damaging a wire in that bundle with a coathanger?
- Assuming I wire from the inside out, How am I supposed to grab the wire in the engine bay? It's behind all sorts of crap.
Also, this may have been asked before but I can't read through this thread : How big a fuse do I need if my amp has 2 20A fuses in it already?
...This is a 2003 sedan, dunno if that changes anything.
I found that grommet, and I *think* I found where it comes out in the engine bay. My questions are:
That grommet is PACKED, I mean no room at all. There's a bundle of wires going through the center hole. There are two side holes as well (smaller).
- Can I go through the holes on the side?
- What are the possibilities of hitting and damaging a wire in that bundle with a coathanger?
- Assuming I wire from the inside out, How am I supposed to grab the wire in the engine bay? It's behind all sorts of crap.
Also, this may have been asked before but I can't read through this thread
: How big a fuse do I need if my amp has 2 20A fuses in it already?...This is a 2003 sedan, dunno if that changes anything.
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Rep Power: 0 The grommet in my car wasn't packed at all. I'd be surprised if that changed between models. Be sure you're looking in the right spot. And if you're unsure about where the grommet is in the engine bay you can always get a coat hanger and carefullly push it through and then use it to feed the wire back into the car. Thats what I did to get mine done.
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Rep Power: 0 Hate to bring up old topics but I need some help on running the wires (power rcas, and remote). I have the power through the firewall, is there anything on the passenger side to keep the wire from? As far as running the wires through the car how do you get the trim pieces pulled up by the door and in the rear cabin. The car is a 2k4 coupe ex. Any & all help is greatly appriciated. 
bty: are there any pics of the whole install process, i searched but couldn't really find anything
bty: are there any pics of the whole install process, i searched but couldn't really find anything
Originally posted by greggdogg
OK, I'm clueless.
I found that grommet, and I *think* I found where it comes out in the engine bay. My questions are:
That grommet is PACKED, I mean no room at all. There's a bundle of wires going through the center hole. There are two side holes as well (smaller).
- Can I go through the holes on the side?
- What are the possibilities of hitting and damaging a wire in that bundle with a coathanger?
- Assuming I wire from the inside out, How am I supposed to grab the wire in the engine bay? It's behind all sorts of crap.
Also, this may have been asked before but I can't read through this thread : How big a fuse do I need if my amp has 2 20A fuses in it already?
...This is a 2003 sedan, dunno if that changes anything.
OK, I'm clueless.
I found that grommet, and I *think* I found where it comes out in the engine bay. My questions are:
That grommet is PACKED, I mean no room at all. There's a bundle of wires going through the center hole. There are two side holes as well (smaller).
- Can I go through the holes on the side?
- What are the possibilities of hitting and damaging a wire in that bundle with a coathanger?
- Assuming I wire from the inside out, How am I supposed to grab the wire in the engine bay? It's behind all sorts of crap.
Also, this may have been asked before but I can't read through this thread
: How big a fuse do I need if my amp has 2 20A fuses in it already?...This is a 2003 sedan, dunno if that changes anything.
Originally posted by ComPort X
Hate to bring up old topics but I need some help on running the wires (power rcas, and remote). I have the power through the firewall, is there anything on the passenger side to keep the wire from? As far as running the wires through the car how do you get the trim pieces pulled up by the door and in the rear cabin. The car is a 2k4 coupe ex. Any & all help is greatly appriciated.
bty: are there any pics of the whole install process, i searched but couldn't really find anything
Hate to bring up old topics but I need some help on running the wires (power rcas, and remote). I have the power through the firewall, is there anything on the passenger side to keep the wire from? As far as running the wires through the car how do you get the trim pieces pulled up by the door and in the rear cabin. The car is a 2k4 coupe ex. Any & all help is greatly appriciated.
bty: are there any pics of the whole install process, i searched but couldn't really find anything
