How to install amplifier?

[td[_2_]]

How do I go about running the wires from the back to the front? I
have a 1998 toyota camry and I dont know how to get the RCA cables to
the back of the head unit, or how to hide any of the cables (power,
rca) , do you run these things under the carpet (if so how do you do
that) or under the car to hide

I am basically just lost, please help!

[Matt Ion]

td wrote:
> How do I go about running the wires from the back to the front? I
> have a 1998 toyota camry and I dont know how to get the RCA cables to
> the back of the head unit, or how to hide any of the cables (power,
> rca) , do you run these things under the carpet (if so how do you do
> that) or under the car to hide
>
> I am basically just lost, please help!

DON'T run them outside the car! Take up the plastic trim along the
bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
wires.

Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet
in the firewall to run it through (the wire needs to be protected from
rubbing against the metal). Connect the amp's ground wire to the body
of the car near the amp (scrape the paint off the metal to provide solid
contact).

Don't forget to run a single wire along with the RCAs for the amp's
remote turn-on lead.

[Christopher \Torroid\ Ott]

"Matt Ion" > wrote in message
news:BAvMi.84$Nz6.27@pd7urf2no...
> td wrote:
>> How do I go about running the wires from the back to the front? I
>> have a 1998 toyota camry and I dont know how to get the RCA cables to
>> the back of the head unit, or how to hide any of the cables (power,
>> rca) , do you run these things under the carpet (if so how do you do
>> that) or under the car to hide
>>
>> I am basically just lost, please help!
>
> DON'T run them outside the car! Take up the plastic trim along the
> bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
> wires.
>
> Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet


Of coarse you meant to tell him to run a single power wire to an appropriate
sized circuit breaker or fuse block located very close to the battery. The
other side connecting directly to the battery, thus giving him a fighting
chance to not set his car on fire...


> in the firewall to run it through (the wire needs to be protected from
> rubbing against the metal). Connect the amp's ground wire to the body of
> the car near the amp (scrape the paint off the metal to provide solid
> contact).
>
> Don't forget to run a single wire along with the RCAs for the amp's remote
> turn-on lead.

[MOSFET]

Take up the plastic trim along the
> bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
> wires.
>
> Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet
lead.

I will second this and say that this is how I run all my wires (under that
plastic trim piece that runs along the bottom of the door). It is an
effective way to hide all your wires and is relatively simple to do. They
say you should run your power wires on one side of the car and RCA's on the
other though I have run them together without any noise problems in the
past.

MOSFET

MOSFET
>

[Matt Ion]

Christopher "Torroid" Ott wrote:
> "Matt Ion" > wrote in message
> news:BAvMi.84$Nz6.27@pd7urf2no...
>> td wrote:
>>> How do I go about running the wires from the back to the front? I
>>> have a 1998 toyota camry and I dont know how to get the RCA cables to
>>> the back of the head unit, or how to hide any of the cables (power,
>>> rca) , do you run these things under the carpet (if so how do you do
>>> that) or under the car to hide
>>>
>>> I am basically just lost, please help!
>> DON'T run them outside the car! Take up the plastic trim along the
>> bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
>> wires.
>>
>> Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet
>
>
> Of coarse you meant to tell him to run a single power wire to an appropriate
> sized circuit breaker or fuse block located very close to the battery. The
> other side connecting directly to the battery, thus giving him a fighting
> chance to not set his car on fire...

Uh... yes, I meant to say that :)

[Matt Ion]

MOSFET wrote:
> Take up the plastic trim along the
>> bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
>> wires.
>>
>> Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet
> lead.
>
> I will second this and say that this is how I run all my wires (under that
> plastic trim piece that runs along the bottom of the door). It is an
> effective way to hide all your wires and is relatively simple to do. They
> say you should run your power wires on one side of the car and RCA's on the
> other though I have run them together without any noise problems in the
> past.

Agreed there too - there's a THEORETICAL chance of noise induction
running power and signal side-by-side, but I too have never seen it.

I'm sure John Durbin has books on the subject.

[g]

In article >, "MOSFET" > wrote:
> Take up the plastic trim along the
>> bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
>> wires.
>>
>> Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet
> lead.
>
>I will second this and say that this is how I run all my wires (under that
>plastic trim piece that runs along the bottom of the door). It is an
>effective way to hide all your wires and is relatively simple to do. They
>say you should run your power wires on one side of the car and RCA's on the
>other though I have run them together without any noise problems in the
>past.

I guess I'm old, i always think of the METAL trim piece at the bottom of the
door. I can't see any problem using multiple wires to create a flatter cross
section for power wiring. I wired up three 12 gauge plus wires, each with
its own fuse in my truck.

greg

[g]

In article >, (G) wrote:
>In article >, "MOSFET"
> > wrote:
>> Take up the plastic trim along the
>>> bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
>>> wires.
>>>
>>> Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet
>> lead.
>>
>>I will second this and say that this is how I run all my wires (under that
>>plastic trim piece that runs along the bottom of the door). It is an
>>effective way to hide all your wires and is relatively simple to do. They
>>say you should run your power wires on one side of the car and RCA's on the
>>other though I have run them together without any noise problems in the
>>past.
>
>I guess I'm old, i always think of the METAL trim piece at the bottom of the
>door. I can't see any problem using multiple wires to create a flatter cross
>section for power wiring. I wired up three 12 gauge plus wires, each with
>its own fuse in my truck.

I guess I do see the problem now. Its best not to do that.

greg

[Matt Ion]

G wrote:
> In article >, (G) wrote:
>> In article >, "MOSFET"
>> > wrote:
>>> Take up the plastic trim along the
>>>> bottoms of the doors, and you can pull the carpet back enough to run the
>>>> wires.
>>>>
>>>> Run a single power wire directly to the battery; find a rubber grommet
>>> lead.
>>>
>>> I will second this and say that this is how I run all my wires (under that
>>> plastic trim piece that runs along the bottom of the door). It is an
>>> effective way to hide all your wires and is relatively simple to do. They
>>> say you should run your power wires on one side of the car and RCA's on the
>>> other though I have run them together without any noise problems in the
>>> past.
>> I guess I'm old, i always think of the METAL trim piece at the bottom of the
>> door. I can't see any problem using multiple wires to create a flatter cross
>> section for power wiring. I wired up three 12 gauge plus wires, each with
>> its own fuse in my truck.
>
> I guess I do see the problem now. Its best not to do that.

IN THEORY there should be no problem with that, other than maybe cost...

[Matt Ion]

G wrote:

>>>> I guess I'm old, i always think of the METAL trim piece at the bottom of the
>>>> door. I can't see any problem using multiple wires to create a flatter cross
>>>> section for power wiring. I wired up three 12 gauge plus wires, each with
>>>> its own fuse in my truck.
>>> I guess I do see the problem now. Its best not to do that.
>> IN THEORY there should be no problem with that, other than maybe cost...
>>
>
> The problem I saw, and only in a rare case, a partial short causing that wire
> fuse to blow, then the end of the wire sees the voltage from the other
> wires, which in my case will have twice the amperage being able to come in
> from the back side. I have a 20 amp fuse on each leg, so the wire with the
> short will be fused with 40 amps after the primary fuse fails feeding that
> leg, so that wire could get extra hot. Not a likely scenereo.

Yes, but if you had a 20A fuse on each leg, one shorting and blowing
that fuse would put more load on the others, which would in turn blow
their fuses long before the wire heated up excessively.

[td[_2_]]

Thanks everyone for the replies and help

Does anyone know of a good step by step sites to help me in this
installation process? Like does the fuse need to be in the car or can
it hang in the engine area under the hood?

[Matt Ion]

td wrote:
> Thanks everyone for the replies and help
>
> Does anyone know of a good step by step sites to help me in this
> installation process? Like does the fuse need to be in the car or can
> it hang in the engine area under the hood?

The fuse MUST be under the hood, and should be as close as possible to
the battery. This fuse serves ONE purporse: to protect your CAR. The
idea is, if the wire shorts to the body anywhere along the route (like,
where it goes through the firewall), that fuse will blow before the wire
sets your carpet on fire.

Here's a good site to start one: http://www.bcae1.com/

[Mariachi]

If you running an amp that produces greater than 300 Watts of RMS
power, I suggest use a 4 Gauge power wire, with a 2 or 3 Gauge ground
wire. 4 Gauge ground wire is fine as long as it is short. Ground
wires should be no more than 1 1/2 feet in length.

When screwing on the connections, make sure there is absolutely no
rust or paint whatsoever. Once you sanded it down perfectly, put an
anti-rust agent on the connections (I use WD-40). Make the connection
is super tight (but without stripping anything).

If you still are not getting enough power, you may want to replace
your main chassis wire (the big wire that comes off the negative
terminal of your battery and connects to your car chassis) with a 0,
1, or 2 gauge wire.

If your amp(s) demand more power, then you might have to replace your
battery and alternator (and most likely the wires that come from the
alternator to the battery).

Power capacitors are over-hyped... don't buy one unless you really
need to.

[Captain Howdy[_3_]]

A whole post full of dumb **** advice. You just made everyone here that much
dumber.


In article . com>, Mariachi
> wrote:
>If you running an amp that produces greater than 300 Watts of RMS
>power, I suggest use a 4 Gauge power wire, with a 2 or 3 Gauge ground
>wire. 4 Gauge ground wire is fine as long as it is short. Ground
>wires should be no more than 1 1/2 feet in length.

4 guage for 300 watts is over kill but wont hurt anything. You don't need to
run a bigger guage wire for ground, (where does this **** come from?) In fact
the shorter the ground wire the smaller the guage is needed.

>
>When screwing on the connections, make sure there is absolutely no
>rust or paint whatsoever. Once you sanded it down perfectly, put an
>anti-rust agent on the connections (I use WD-40). Make the connection
>is super tight (but without stripping anything).

WD-40 is a anti-rust agent?

>
>If you still are not getting enough power, you may want to replace
>your main chassis wire (the big wire that comes off the negative
>terminal of your battery and connects to your car chassis) with a 0,
>1, or 2 gauge wire.

0 guage ? LOL
>
>If your amp(s) demand more power, then you might have to replace your
>battery and alternator (and most likely the wires that come from the
>alternator to the battery).

Why would you need to replace the battery?
>
>Power capacitors are over-hyped... don't buy one unless you really
>need to.
>
>

[Matt Ion]

Mariachi wrote:

> Why not replace the battery? If you listen to your stereo when your
> car is off, then a better battery would allow you to listen to your
> music longer (or perhaps you could possibly install two batteries in
> parallel). If you want your stock battery to go dead while you are
> listening to your music with your subs on, then be my guest.
> Otherwise, you will need a better battery.

There's no point simply adding another battery in parallel though; your
system won't drain one and then the other, it will just drain them both
equally.

If you're going to add a battery especially for your sound system, use a
battery isolator, such as is commonly used in RVs. This will prevent
your system from draining your main battery *at all*, so you never have
to worry about being stranded.

[Mariachi]

On Oct 4, 9:05 pm, Matt Ion > wrote:
> Mariachi wrote:
> > Why not replace the battery? If you listen to your stereo when your
> > car is off, then a better battery would allow you to listen to your
> > music longer (or perhaps you could possibly install two batteries in
> > parallel). If you want your stock battery to go dead while you are
> > listening to your music with your subs on, then be my guest.
> > Otherwise, you will need a better battery.
>
> There's no point simply adding another battery in parallel though; your
> system won't drain one and then the other, it will just drain them both
> equally.
>
> If you're going to add a battery especially for your sound system, use a
> battery isolator, such as is commonly used in RVs. This will prevent
> your system from draining your main battery *at all*, so you never have
> to worry about being stranded.

True, parallel batteries just increase the chemical potential energy,
so you have more energy storage; although it still drains your main
battery, just slower. If current drain from one battery equals 10 A,
then the same current drain would divide equally among the two
batteries with a current drain of 5 A per battery (assuming they have
the same internal resistance).

[Captain Howdy[_3_]]

Since this has been replied to already, I'm gonna leave the poor guy alone.

In article <95gNi.274$oI4.193@pd7urf1no>, Matt Ion >
wrote:
>Mariachi wrote:
>
>> Why not replace the battery? If you listen to your stereo when your
>> car is off, then a better battery would allow you to listen to your
>> music longer (or perhaps you could possibly install two batteries in
>> parallel). If you want your stock battery to go dead while you are
>> listening to your music with your subs on, then be my guest.
>> Otherwise, you will need a better battery.
>

[Mariachi]

On Oct 5, 11:28 pm, (Captain Howdy) wrote:
> Since this has been replied to already, I'm gonna leave the poor guy alone.

Yes, thank you. You can leave me alone.

[Captain Howdy[_3_]]

Okay then I will.

In article m>, Mariachi
> wrote:
>On Oct 5, 11:28 pm, (Captain Howdy) wrote:
>> Since this has been replied to already, I'm gonna leave the poor guy alone.
>
>Yes, thank you. You can leave me alone.
>

[Mariachi]

On Oct 6, 7:50 pm, (Captain Howdy) wrote:
> Okay then I will.
>
> In article m>, Mariachi
>
> > wrote:
> >On Oct 5, 11:28 pm, (Captain Howdy) wrote:
> >> Since this has been replied to already, I'm gonna leave the poor guy alone.
>
> >Yes, thank you. You can leave me alone.

You know, it's okay to act friendly once in a while. :)

[g]

In article <95gNi.274$oI4.193@pd7urf1no>, Matt Ion > wrote:
>Mariachi wrote:
>
>> Why not replace the battery? If you listen to your stereo when your
>> car is off, then a better battery would allow you to listen to your
>> music longer (or perhaps you could possibly install two batteries in
>> parallel). If you want your stock battery to go dead while you are
>> listening to your music with your subs on, then be my guest.
>> Otherwise, you will need a better battery.
>
>There's no point simply adding another battery in parallel though; your
>system won't drain one and then the other, it will just drain them both
>equally.
>
>If you're going to add a battery especially for your sound system, use a
>battery isolator, such as is commonly used in RVs. This will prevent
>your system from draining your main battery *at all*, so you never have
>to worry about being stranded.

Without an isolator, the drain is much easier for the system, and battery life
will increase. When you drain a battery too far, its bad.

greg

[Matt Ion]

G wrote:
> In article <95gNi.274$oI4.193@pd7urf1no>, Matt Ion > wrote:
>> Mariachi wrote:
>>
>>> Why not replace the battery? If you listen to your stereo when your
>>> car is off, then a better battery would allow you to listen to your
>>> music longer (or perhaps you could possibly install two batteries in
>>> parallel). If you want your stock battery to go dead while you are
>>> listening to your music with your subs on, then be my guest.
>>> Otherwise, you will need a better battery.
>> There's no point simply adding another battery in parallel though; your
>> system won't drain one and then the other, it will just drain them both
>> equally.
>>
>> If you're going to add a battery especially for your sound system, use a
>> battery isolator, such as is commonly used in RVs. This will prevent
>> your system from draining your main battery *at all*, so you never have
>> to worry about being stranded.
>
> Without an isolator, the drain is much easier for the system, and battery life
> will increase. When you drain a battery too far, its bad.

When you drain both batteries too far for the car to start, it's worse.

[g]

In article <OXuOi.3281$th2.943@pd7urf3no>, Matt Ion > wrote:
>G wrote:
>> In article <95gNi.274$oI4.193@pd7urf1no>, Matt Ion >
> wrote:
>>> Mariachi wrote:
>>>
>>>> Why not replace the battery? If you listen to your stereo when your
>>>> car is off, then a better battery would allow you to listen to your
>>>> music longer (or perhaps you could possibly install two batteries in
>>>> parallel). If you want your stock battery to go dead while you are
>>>> listening to your music with your subs on, then be my guest.
>>>> Otherwise, you will need a better battery.
>>> There's no point simply adding another battery in parallel though; your
>>> system won't drain one and then the other, it will just drain them both
>>> equally.
>>>
>>> If you're going to add a battery especially for your sound system, use a
>>> battery isolator, such as is commonly used in RVs. This will prevent
>>> your system from draining your main battery *at all*, so you never have
>>> to worry about being stranded.
>>
>> Without an isolator, the drain is much easier for the system, and battery
> life
>> will increase. When you drain a battery too far, its bad.
>
>When you drain both batteries too far for the car to start, it's worse.

Yes, but with two you have twice the reserve, or half the chance of going
too far.

greg

[Captain Howdy[_3_]]

Yeah but, wearing two condoms gives you twice the protection and half the
feeling.

In article >, (G)
wrote:
>In article <OXuOi.3281$th2.943@pd7urf3no>, Matt Ion >
> wrote:
>>G wrote:

>
>Yes, but with two you have twice the reserve, or half the chance of going
>too far.
>
>greg

[b_radsoccer]

Ok first off depending on the size of the system that's getting put in,
the stock battery, alternator, and everything else is sufficient.
Second, if the system is more than 1000 watts a capacitor should
definatly be installed. It will save your alternator, battery, and it
will allow you to listen to music with your subs on for a longer period
of time w/o draining the battery too badly. If you have the problem
that the system is drawing more power than your stock battery and
alternator can handle(very unlikely unless your installing TV's, 4+
subwoofers, 2+ amplifiers, and multiple components) you can install a
battery in your trunk, install an alternator that has twice the output
and hook that alternator up to both batteries. If you want the trunk to
have its own power supply then you can install a battery in the trunk
and get a small electric generator that you can rig up to run off of
and power that battery. I've put multiple systems in my 2000 Toyota
Camry LE, every one of them has been a different power level. If you
want pictures i can take some and post them on here and if you have any
questions feel free to ask.


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[b_radsoccer[_2_]]

Oh yeah, The 1998 Camry is exactly like mine except for the tailights.
You would be better off running the power cable down the driver side of
the car and the rca cable down the passenger side just to eliminate the
possibility of power noise. If your head unit doesn't have the
capability of remote subs(you can turn off the power going to the
remote turn on wire through the head unit) i would advise you to hook
up the remote turn on wire through a switch. That way you can listen to
music with your car off and with your subs off, and it's a plus if your
city has a sound ordinance then you can shut off your subs when you see
a cop and you don't have to turn down your music. :D


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[[email protected]]

On Oct 31, 7:30 pm, b_radsoccer <b_radsoccer.2zc...@no-
mx.caraudioforum.com> wrote:
> Oh yeah, The 1998 Camry is exactly like mine except for the tailights.
> You would be better off running the power cable down the driver side of
> the car and the rca cable down the passenger side just to eliminate the
> possibility of power noise. If your head unit doesn't have the
> capability of remote subs(you can turn off the power going to the
> remote turn on wire through the head unit) i would advise you to hook
> up the remote turn on wire through a switch. That way you can listen to
> music with your car off and with your subs off, and it's a plus if your
> city has a sound ordinance then you can shut off your subs when you see
> a cop and you don't have to turn down your music. :D
>
> --
> b_radsoccer
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> b_radsoccer's Profile: 53973
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>
> --
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How does a capacitor alone help not drain the battery *to badly*? And
why not just replace the alternator right away? If your system is
drawing more than what your electrical system can handle why not just
fix it at the source? That way when/if you decide to upgrade to tv's,
4+ subs, 2+ amps then all you have to do is maybe replace the battery
or if you want a capacitor. All I have seen or heard of a capacitor
doing is evening out the power spikes that are associated with having
high powered subs. And from what i know it takes awhile for the
capacitor to *recharge* again.

[[email protected]]

On Oct 10, 8:58 pm, (Captain Howdy) wrote:
> Yeah but, wearing two condoms gives you twice the protection and half the
> feeling.
>
> In article >, (G)
> wrote:
>
>
>
> >In article <OXuOi.3281$th2.943@pd7urf3no>, Matt Ion >
> > wrote:
> >>G wrote:
>
> >Yes, but with two you have twice the reserve, or half the chance of going
> >too far.
>
> >greg- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Dont you know your not spose to wear two condomns?? :)

[b_radsoccer[_3_]]

What the capacitor does is that is stores a charge of between 12 and 14
volts that will get used to even out the voltage drain caused by a loud
base note. In a lot of cases when there are many loud base notes that
are repeated for a lengthy period of time(which is the case with many
rap songs) it will pull more voltage from your battery than your
alternator can supply and the capacitor will lower these voltage spikes
enough that your stock alternator will be able to supply enough voltage
to sustain or even recharge the battery during these heavy loads.
Capacitors don't take any time to recharge. At least mine doesn't. You
could replace your stock alternator with a high output alternator if
you wanted to, but you could severely shorten the life of your battery
if you spend lengthy amounts of time with your subs off or turned down
really low. During these periods of time the alternator is supplying
excessive amounts of voltage to a battery that is only using the amount
of voltage that the stock alternator would normally provide or even a
little less if your subs are off. Depending on the capacitor that you
get, you can usually get a cheap to mediochre one for less than the
price of a high output alternator. I'd say that if your system is
running on less than 1000 watts of power then you should be fine
without a capacitor. Depending on the vehicle you could probably get
away with 1200 watts without a capacitor, but that depends on the size
of the alternator that it has stock. The best way to figure out if you
would need a capacitor is to hook up a voltmeter to your battery and
see if the voltage drops below the minimum voltage requirement of the
battery for correct operation of the vehical's components(usually if
the voltage drops below 5).


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