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Noob wiring help

DUK13Y

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Hey guys. I'm a massive noob when it comes to wiring. Well more the 'how to get back to the head unit' bit. I'm thinking of doing a boot install in a few months and its going to have:
2 amps either in a false floor or mounted at the back in a ~3" separation, put on show with two windows or 1 big window and neons/leds to light
and
12" woofers in custom fibreglass enclosures mounted facing the cabin behind the tail light. Like these but not as deep.

All will be trimmed in faux leather with some underlay to keep it soft. Now my nooby questions are:
How do I get the wiring from the Headunit to the amps, and then to the speakers?
What sort of wire do I need?
How do I get back to the battery?
Should I just pay someone to do it for me?

Thanks in advance
 

sweefu

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Hey mate.
1. From the headunit you will need to run RCA leads that plug into the back of the head unit and into the amplifier, and a remote cable which is a tiny thin cable, the RCA's are similar to the ones you plug your dvd player into the tv with.
2/3. RCA's, Remote cable, earth cable and power cable.
Power cable runs from the battery, through the firewall into the cabin, and then into the boot, usually the best, neatest way is it run it under the carpet and the rear seat into the boot. You really shuld run an inline fuse too, mounted as close to the battery as possible. these come with pre made wiring kits
4. Its really up to you. I can offer all my help if you want to do it yourself though it would be best to post one in your sectoin, to tell you easy ways to do it.
At my local autobarn they charge $110 per amp and $85 for a headunit.. about 60 dollars per pair of speakers and maby e $40ish for a sub. you'd be looking for more than $500 just for install, no boxes fiberglassing etc.
Hope this helps mate,
Goodluck :Thumbsup:
 

bezz

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In order to run amps in a vy/vz you will need to do one of the following: Replace the headunit with an an aftermarket one, modify the original head unit to give it rca outputs, or run a line level convertor. The first two options require you to run rca cables from the head unit to the boot as well as a remote wire. So that's your first dilemma.

To run power you will need a good size power cable running from the battery, through the firewall and under the carpet to the boot. This also needs to be fused as close to the battery as possible. You will probably need a distribution block to split the power cable into a couple of runs depending on how many amps you plan on running. Finally you'll need a good earthing spot to attach the grounds to.

If you plan on running speakers from the amps you will also need to run speaker cable from the boot to the doors/parcel shelf. Running new cable through the doors is a bit of a bitch (not as hard as on a vt tho!)

So for example the wiring you would require to run 2 amps (say a 4x50w and a 500w mono), 4 speakers, 2 subs and an aftermarket head unit are as follows:

Power cable: 5m of at least 4ga, with an inline fuse holder and fuse for ~100a

Distribution block: 1x4ga -> 4x8ga (get a fused distro block as you are going from a larger gauge to multiple smaller ones)

More power cable: a few metres of 8ga to run from the distro to your amps and from the amps to ground

Speaker cable: 10m of ~14ga or something. Run from your amps to your speakers throughout the car

Speaker cable: a couple metres of a bit thicker speaker cable to run to your subs.

RCA's: 2x5m cables.. run from your head unit to your amp. Also you need a remote wire, this can be very think as little current runs through. The remote wire simply allows the head unit to signal the amps to switch on.

That's all the wiring sorted. Bearing in mind the sizes will change depending on what gear you choose. Later on you will need to think about how you want to wire your subs to get the best output. This again depends on what subs you choose.

Once you get your head around it car audio is pretty straightforward.
 

DUK13Y

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Ok thanks guys. For about $500 just for the install, I'll do it myself. I'm going to swap to this head unit which has 2 RCA outputs. I'm only going to run the 2 monoblock amps to drive the subs. I'm leaving the rest of the system stock for now as the new head unit will give 4x50w as opposed to the weak factory system, so that should suffice.

I'm thinking of using these subs both to be run off these amps individually. So that should give it a fair bit of poke right? I'm not looking for over the top bass just sorta a 60:40 bass:mid/high range. So basically the bass is rather obvious but not doof doof. How do I go about installing a CAT10 too so I can keep my wheel controls?

Ok, so for absolute car audio for dummies...
1: I remove stock head unit and take a photo of back for reference purposes
2: Plug in new head unit and plug in new RCA + remote cables in the back
3: Run new RCA's + remote through the glovebox and into the carpet (how do I do this?)
4: Get RCA's + remote behind rear seat (once again how?)
5: Plug RCA's + remote into amps
6: Run inline-fused power cable from battery through firewall (where's a good spot?)
7: Run power through carpet and back seat (same as passenger side with the RCA's?)
8: Run power cable into a distro block
9: Run two separate power cables from distro into amps
10: Run thick speaker wire to subs
11: Test?
12: If all works fine, put head unit into dash housing and job done

Please correct me on anything wrong or missing. As you can probably tell, I have no experience with this but I'm sure it can't be too hard. As I want to mount my amps in a ~3" boot separation with neon lights, would this affect the wiring layout? Can I just run the neons off the amp's positive and negative terminals? I intend on running at least 4, maybe even 6-10. Also, while I'm at it, how would I wire the neons up to the boot light, so they would come on when I open the boot?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions but I really don't want to pay someone else to do it and I need to know what I'm doing before I go tearing up carpet and shorting wires.

Thanks for the help so far and for all future answers
 

bezz

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Ok thanks guys. For about $500 just for the install, I'll do it myself. I'm going to swap to this head unit which has 2 RCA outputs. I'm only going to run the 2 monoblock amps to drive the subs. I'm leaving the rest of the system stock for now as the new head unit will give 4x50w as opposed to the weak factory system, so that should suffice.
Try 4x15w... 4x50w is the max value. Pretty much means nothing.

DUK13Y said:
I'm thinking of using these subs both to be run off these amps individually. So that should give it a fair bit of poke right? I'm not looking for over the top bass just sorta a 60:40 bass:mid/high range. So basically the bass is rather obvious but not doof doof. How do I go about installing a CAT10 too so I can keep my wheel controls?
I wouldnt bother running two amps there mate. Those two subs will run fine off a single kenwood amp. The solution is to wire them in parallel. Remember wiring light bulbs in parallel and series in high school? Same deal here. Two 4 ohm subs wired in parallel will present a 2 ohm load for the amp.

Also just quietly I'd probably look at different options before settling on that combination of amps and subs, 'cheap and nasty' springs to mind.

DUK13Y said:
Ok, so for absolute car audio for dummies...
1: I remove stock head unit and take a photo of back for reference purposes
2: Plug in new head unit and plug in new RCA + remote cables in the back
3: Run new RCA's + remote through the glovebox and into the carpet (how do I do this?)
4: Get RCA's + remote behind rear seat (once again how?)
5: Plug RCA's + remote into amps
6: Run inline-fused power cable from battery through firewall (where's a good spot?)
7: Run power through carpet and back seat (same as passenger side with the RCA's?)
8: Run power cable into a distro block
9: Run two separate power cables from distro into amps
10: Run thick speaker wire to subs
11: Test?
12: If all works fine, put head unit into dash housing and job done
1.skip this
2.You will need to buy a loom adaptor. $22.95 at autobarn (after hearing this price I made my own)
3. You can take a side panel off that exposes the a gap to run the RCAs through. 3 screws ;)
4. You need to run the rca's up along the floor near the doors. You will need to remove the trim here too. Then you need to take the back seat out (at least the bottom).
5. yep
6. Clutch grommet. Remove a few pieces in the driver's footwell and you should find it. A bit tricky to see at first. You'll prob need to take out the grommet to cut a hole in it. Also remember to secure your power cable properly in the engine bay.
7. Run power down driver's side and rca down passenger.
8. check
9. check
10. Yes but you need to ensure you are presenting correct load to the amp. We can help you out with this.
11. Start with gain on min and slowly bring it up. Careful not to clip the signal (you can learn about this later).
12. Along with reassembling the rest of the car you have ripped apart.

DUK13Y said:
Please correct me on anything wrong or missing. As you can probably tell, I have no experience with this but I'm sure it can't be too hard. As I want to mount my amps in a ~3" boot separation with neon lights, would this affect the wiring layout? Can I just run the neons off the amp's positive and negative terminals? I intend on running at least 4, maybe even 6-10. Also, while I'm at it, how would I wire the neons up to the boot light, so they would come on when I open the boot?

It would be best if you at least had someone working on it with you with some experience. You should be able to use preexisting boot light wiring for neons, or go from the distro block.

DUK13Y said:
Sorry for the bombardment of questions but I really don't want to pay someone else to do it and I need to know what I'm doing before I go tearing up carpet and shorting wires.

Thanks for the help so far and for all future answers

You still have a lot of research to do!

Do I get a prize for answering all the questions? :whistling
 

DUK13Y

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That is extremely helpful. Thank you so much. Unfortunately there is no prize this time but play again next round for a chance.

Would you suggest changing my amp or sub choice? or both? I'm not really looking to spend over $1250 for the whole system and that includes the $600 head unit.

Thanks again.
 

bezz

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For that price range I would sacrifice having two subs for one and buy some slightly better quality gear. Remember you need to factorr in wiring and accessory costs. Just going on the website you listed... at the very least look at one of these for a good bang for buck sub along with that kenwood amp.

Or if you wanna go the next level up I'd look at something like this and run it off something like this. That combination lacks a bit of power though.

There's endless combinations out there. I would check out a few car audio stores (not jb hifi) and see what they recommend. In Sydney try FHRX Studios, or you could ask Ryda.
 
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DUK13Y

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Thanks mate. What if I just ditch the sub idea and swap for some 6x9's in the rear shelf, then run them off a decent 2 channel amp? They provide decent low end right?
 

bezz

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Personally I much prefer the sound of a sub.. and I don't like how 6x9s draw the sound to the back of the car either.
 
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