Dual Amp System Install
 

So I will be doing a dual amp install soon in my 2000 civic ex. I will be mounting both amps in the trunk maybe mounted to the box. I will be running 3 pairs of RCA's for subs and all four speakers.

For the speaker wiring, I can tap into the aftermarket car harness for the front speakers and run it back to the trunk to the amp... and for the rears, i can just run wires from rear speakers in trunk right to the 4 channel amp correct?

Please let me know. Just want to make sure I'm correct.

Also the panels on both sides that have to be taken off to run the wires, they are all clips correct?

and I'm thinking of running 4ga power wire and remote wire on drivers side and then 3 pairs of rca and 2 pairs of speaker wires on the passenger side.

Sound good?

Thanks in advance.

-Nick

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

You don't have an aftermarket headunit?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

What made you think that? Of course I have an aftermarket headunit.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

What I'm getting confused about is what you said here:
Are you talking about the RCA Cables? or the actual speaker wiring?
Because if you're talking about RCA cables, you run it from the back of the HU to the amp.
& If you're talking about running speaker wires from amp, to tap into OEM speaker wires that go to the speakers....Why not wire the speaker wires directly to the speakers itself?

Not exactly sure what you're trying to say

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

I know that I must run RCA's from back of HU to the amp. I'm aware of that completely.

I dont want to wire the speakers wires directly to the speakers because thats alot more work.

I would like to just splice into the aftermarket car harness speaker wires for the fronts and just run wires from rear speakers right to the amp.

That would work fine, correct?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

True, it's a lot more work, and it will work...

But it's not something I would recommend doing, you're running assumed maybe 12 gauge speaker wire into probably a 18 or less gauge wire, it sorta of bottlenecks the power, making your rear speakers a lot louder and powerful than your fronts

And depending on how much power your amp is putting to your speakers, it may be a huge difference.

Just my 2C

And yes, everything else is good, power wire on one side, RCA on the other, and they are all plastic clips
4gauge is good for power if you're under 1000watts

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

I will be doing this installation very soon within a week. Just waiting to get the 2 amplifiers. Can someone tell me a good place to mount both amplifiers in a 2000 4 door civic ex

Thanks in advance,

Nick R

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

bump please

I am getting a kicker 11zx1000.1 and a kicker 11zx350.4

need help on mounting ideas

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

I would either mount them both under the passenger seat, and the drivers seat

Or I would mount them behind the rear seats inside the trunk

Up to you

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

So I installed both amps yesterday and mounted them to the back of the rear seats and did two separate grounds, one to each amp, grounded them right below where the amps are mounted on the metal, used the ring terminals, a bolt and a washer and bolt it to the metal.

I now have alternator whine, its not absolutely horrible, but it really bothers me.

8ga power, 4ga power and remote all ran on the drivers side, and all the rcas and speaker wires ran on the passenger side.

any ideas?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

Both amps are mounted behind the rear seats screwed into the back of the rear seat. Today on my drive home, the amps got extremely hot and the speakers sound shut off on my hour drive home at about 75 degrees outside. I got home popped the trunk and i could barely touch the amp. It was scorching hot. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

For the alternator noise, there can be several problems and solutions. I would start by changing the grounds. Try grounding the amps together. Also change the ground on the head unit. After that you will have to try noise filters and such.

As for the amps getting hot, again several possible reasons. First, are they wired correctly? Are you running a 2 ohm load on a 4 ohm stable amp? Is there air flow around the amps. Mounting sideways makes it a little harder for an amp to cool. Are they fan cooled? Is the fan working? Were you cranking the volume for an extended period of time? What size speaker wire did you use?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

My amp is a four channel kicker 350.4. it is 4-ohm stable. with the stereo system off I check the ohm's at each speaker via speaker terminals on the amp.

The front speakers read between 3.9-4.2 ohms
The rear speakers read between 3.0-3.2 ohms

All four speakers are 4-ohms and the amp is 4-ohm stable.

The rear speaker wires are ran from the amp directly to each rear speaker.(16 ga)
The front speaker wires are ran from the headunit harness back to the amplifier.(factory 18ga into 16 ga wire back to the amp)

Is something wrong here?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

Told ya...
The resistance is off in the fronts, wire them directly to the amp

As for the heat...Not much you can do unless you drove around with the seat down, that's why I opted to remove the rear 6x9 entirely to induce airflow into the trunk

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

Wait resistance is off in the front, how?

As stated in above post
The front speakers read between 3.9-4.2 ohms
The rear speakers read between 3.0-3.2 ohms

The speakers are suppose to get a reading of about 4 ohms, correct?

The front speakers are the one's getting a reading of 4-ohms which are wired from factory speaker wire behind headunit to 16ga ran to the amp.

The rear speakers are getting about a 3.0 ohm reading and they are wired directly to the amplifier

That does'nt make sense to me?

P.S.- I also deliver food twice a week and for four hours straight both amps were bumping and we're fine and amps didnt turn off for four straight hours and now all of a sudden, last night my subwoofer blew but i think its only because i had it for about 6 years. and then today this 4 channel amp thing happens with overheating and shutting off.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1953/ampsmounted.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

Sorry, Read wrong

Looks in the pix like u dont have a distribution block...
How did you hook it up?

Btw, your amps may have auto cutoff when your battery voltage drops below a safe operating level, If you could, I would run the amps while in a garage, and monitor the battery level

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

No problem about you reading it wrong. So are the ohm levels I told you okay then i'm assuming?

And I ran a 4ga and an 8ga power line from the battery. (each with its own fuse) Then a 4 gauge ground and an 8 gauge ground from each amp then tied together and grounded to metal with a ring terminal.

The crazy thing that confuses me is that I've been running it the same way for almost 3 weeks now and drive around for four hours straight delivering food twice a week and nothing ever turned off at all. Then Monday Night my sub woofer blows and started smoking (pretty sure it was just done and enough for it, 6 years of taking a beating), then yesterday (Tuesday), my four channel kicker amp overheats and starts shutting off on the hour drive home from work.

Probably just a coincidence but kind of fishy.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

You were probably clipping your subs which lead to it's self destruction

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

So can you tell me some things that can help me to fix this? Like i said its been running the same way for over 3 weeks with no problem

then monday night subwoofer blew, then yesterday four channel overheated (scorching hot) shut down by itself.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

Not sure what the exact problem is

But the proper way to run the wires is run 1 fused 4ga wire from battery to rear, into a distribution block, which splits into 2 8ga wires into the amps.
Same with grounds, 1 4ga into dis block, split into 8ga or have it both 8ga grounded in seperate locations
Then have the speaker wires go directly to the speakers themselves

Also, you'd need to tune your amps to minimize clipping

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

So the way I said I ran it above, won't work correctly?

And I will tune the amps to minimize clipping. The four channel has already been tuned perfectly.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

The way you wired it will work, just extra wire not needed. One 4 gauge wire is plenty for both amps. Your speakers are wired fine. No need to rewire them unless you want to. It is better if you do have them wired directly but you don't have enough power to really matter.
Honestly, you either are playing it way too loud for the system to handle, or you have a short or just a bad amp. It is triggering the thermo-switch because of the heat. Usually an amp will only get that hot if the load is to low, the wiring is too small or the amp has no airflow. Your load sounds fine, the wiring is fine.
I go back to how loud were you playing it and for how long when it shut down?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

I've been playing it at the same volume since I put it in 3 weeks ago.

I'm also now wondering since my sub blew on Monday night and started smoking, if my other amp *sub amp* actually caused it to blow but I would of thought the sub amp would of shut itself off just like the 4 channel did when it overheated. Now I'm afraid to even connect another sub to the sub amp.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

the overheating may be due to mounting orientation. does your amp have a cooling fan? if so, where are the vents located?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

Kicker said the amps do not have fans inside them, which I feel like is a bad idea, just the heat sinks.

i was looking online at cooling fans.

Could I mount this between the two amps to help cool down both amps or what?

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_5283_PAC-CF-1.html

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

that's a lot of money for not much airflow. just pick up a 120mm cheap computer fan. it will be 12v.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

The reason I wanted something like the above link, is so I could mount in between both amplifiers and provide some cooling for both amps rather then getting like 4 120mm computer fan and attaching them to the sides of the amps and looking straight up ugly.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

that's your call. i'd rather go with 1 cheap fan for $5.

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

1 cheap fan like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dynatron-DF12122...item588a4a67dc

And also, the thing is as you can see by my picture of my amp setup, I have two kicker amplifiers, 1 1000w mono and 1 350w 4 channel. Was'nt sure if one cheap small fan like that would be enough!!??

One fan for all of those and where would i mount it based on my picture of how the amps are mounted.

Thanks in advance.

Also: after looking up amp cooling fans on ebay i also come across this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Car-Amplifier-3-...item5ae0b8fc02

How come this one and the above one you told me to look up seems to have such a large difference in CFM?

Re: Dual Amp System Install
 

These would be enough for both amps based on my setup in the picture?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Set-2-BRUSHLESS-...item43a736dda7