When you get a car stereo receiver, a subwoofer and an amplifier for the subwoofer, one of the first thoughts you may have running through your mind is: how do I connect my amplifier to my car? This process will take some time but can easily be done in your driveway or garage. The most important thing is that you make sure you have the supplies needed to connect the amplifier properly so that your stereo sounds its best.
Instructions
1. Disconnect your car battery. You will need to do this in order to connect the amplifier but you should also disconnect power any time you are going to do any wiring in your car.
2. Make sure you measure the length needed to run your power wire from battery to amplifier. Be sure to take into account how the wire is going to be hidden and directed when calculating the length.
3. Cut the power wire no more than one foot from an end. Strip all four of the wire ends approximately 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch from the end--stripping slightly more on one end of the one foot section.
4. Drill a small hole in the heat shield of your car so that the power wire and protective covering barely fit through. This hole should be made as closely as possible to the plastic paneling moving from the dashboard along the doors to the back of the inside of the car. This hole should be on the side of the car that the battery is located on.
5. Loosen the paneling around the doors enough to fit the power wire underneath. This should only require a Phillips screwdriver.
6. Feed the long section of the power wire from under the hood, through the hole you drilled, under the paneling to the back of the car. Once the wire has been placed under the paneling all the way to the back seat, feed the wire under the backseats to an opening to the trunk--there will be small gaps behind the seat where you can feed it to the trunk.
7. Connect an RCA audio cable to the pre-amp output on your stereo receiver. Use subwoofer output if your receiver has it; otherwise use the rear output--they should be labeled, or check the manual. Where the RCA comes out the back of the center console, run it under the carpet either by pulling the carpet down and placing it behind or by cutting a small hole in the carpet directly below your console and running it that way. Feed the wire through to the paneling opposite the side that your power wire is running under. Loosen the paneling on that side and run the RCA under that paneling.
8. Connect a very thin remote wire--any wire that can carry a charge will work--to the blue remote wire on the back of your receiver. You can twist the exposed ends together and secure with electric tape as this connection has no bearing on your sound quality. Feed the wire alongside the RCA to the trunk.
9. Connect the loose end of the long power wire under the hood to the fuse box. You simply need to insert the end into one of the connections on the fuse box and tighten the screw to secure it. Make sure that the fuse is not in the box after this step and make sure the heat covering is on the wire all the way to where it goes through the heat shield.
10. Connect the shorter exposed end of the one foot power wire to the other connection on the fuse box.
11. Crimp the ring terminal onto the remaining exposed end under the hood. Make certain the crimp is done well because this will be directly attached to the power.
12. Connect the RCA ends to your amplifier. Connect the red to the red and white to the white.
13. Connect the power and remote wires to the amplifier. The ends will be screwed into the terminals--on most amps on the opposite side from the RCA connections.
14. Strip the ends of the ground wire. Connect one end to the ground terminal next to the remote terminal on the amplifier. Solder the other end to the trunk frame by pulling back the carpet. If you don't want to solder, you can locate a nut sticking out on the trunk frame. Attach a ring terminal to the end of the ground wire and loosen the nut to place the ring over the bolt. Re-secure the nut and the wire is grounded.
15. Connect one speaker wire to the positive speaker terminal on the amplifier and one to the negative. Simply strip a small amount of the plastic casing from each end and secure them in the terminals by tightening the screws. Attach the other ends to the corresponding terminals on your subwoofer.
16. Attach the terminal ring under the hood to the positive terminal on the battery--not the battery post. Simply loosen the terminal nut and slide the ring over the bolt and reattach the nut. You will need to purchase a terminal extension for a side post battery. After purchasing the extension, you will follow the same process of loosening the nut on the end and sliding the ring over the bolt.
17.Reattach the battery. Always connect the positive terminal first to avoid sparks and potential damage to your car. After connecting the positive, connect the negative. Test your car's power to make sure it is functioning properly before completing the next step.
18. Insert the fuse into the fuse box. Do this while the car is turned off. Turn on the car and inspect your amplifier to make sure it is functioning properly.
19. Tighten all paneling, close the trunk and close the hood. Make sure all scrap wires and tools are placed so that they don't run the risk of coming into contact with live wires.
Tags: power wire, under hood, connect amplifier, over bolt, ring over, ring over bolt