A guy on another forum just posted pics of his buddies car that burned down because he did a half-assed job with his car stereo wiring.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jonath...pJ05BB0c82MhxP

I can't stress enough how STUPID it is to cut corners and get lazy with your wiring.

 

what did he do to half-*** it...was it his HU than he did the half-assed job on??

 

I'll go out on a limb and bet he used very small gauge wire running to the amp(s).

I've seen it happen before.

 

Looks like the headunit, though it's possible he could've ran an amp power wire under the center console. Either way, he obviously didn't fuse the car properly and/or shield his connections.

 

I was just going to start a post on here about this. Just got a unit in that started a car fire because of improper install (maybe the same one).
Improper install CAN damage your equipment.
Improper install CAN start a fire.
Improper install CAN make you look like a... (needed a third CAN so things look even)
DON'T "twist and tape"
DON'T use wire nuts in a car. (what started this one)
DON'T use scotch locks (most of the time).
DO use fuses.
DO use grommets.
DO use the proper size wire.

 

Even if you fuse things you can wind up torching your car. Think about the massive fuse size that people use because of their big amps. 60 amp, 80 amp, 100 amp fuses. 100 amps is enough power to barbecue an elephant. If you get a chafed wire because you were too stupid to use a grommet, or if you're using too small of a wire, you can start a fire without even blowing the fuse.

 

another case of someone that thought they knew what they were doing when they hooked up thier stereo .......man that sucks to see any car go up in flames because of improper installation of a RADIO!!!!!...

and to think places like circuit city will install your stereo for free when you purchase it ....

 

But they have insurance if that happens, and you can prove their install did it, they pay. That's where I come in. I'd rather someone go the one of the big box stores then install a unit using the twist and tape method.
And about fuses. They're like condoms, they may not save you 100% the time, but still a good idea to use one.

 

well just dont run bare wires behind the dash, expose power wires etc, use too small wires then reccomended, etc etc... I think if your too stupid to cover up your wires and use fuses then you shouldnt be installing it in the first place and probably deserve to have your car burn to the ground.

Not to say me running my power through my door isnt foolish but its held up like that for 2 years in my bird and 1 year in my cutlass. Its not rubbing against sharp things and is covered in tubing also. I will eventually run a hole through the firewall with a grommet but Im lazy...

Nate

 

thats what i was trying to say i would rather have one of them install if you dont know how to do it the proper way

 

You'd be surprised how many people are too stupid to use a grommet when running wire through their firewall.

You'd be surprised how many people are too stupid to use fuses.

You probably wouldn't be surprised how many people are too stupid to run the wire THROUGH the firewall instead of around the door jam.

 

That's exactly what I mean by fusing properly. It irks me to no end when I see someone type in a post "I kept blowing a fuse, so I put in a bigger one..."

 

lol yeah thatll always fix the problem wont it ....... LOL

 

if you select the right fuse for your wiring there shouldn't be a problem, right? someone earlier was saying something about 100 amps being enough to fry an elephant... that may be true, but the fuse blows instantly, since when a wire grounds itself, much more than 100 amps tries to flow through... this doesn't leave much elephant-frying time...

 

Ah, Honda....

Looks like it might be a HU like everyone else said, but I think it could also possibly be the point where the amp wire goes through the firewall... maybe there was no grommet or something..just a thought..

 

same thing happened to a friend of mine. he wanted me to install his stereo for him so i said a wiring kit will be $40 CDN for the proper one and ill install everything for 4 litres of chocolate milk

he went out and had some other amateur friend do it that owed him money cause he was too cheap to buy me chocolate milk and materials.

long story short the other guys used non fused 12 or 16 awg power and ground wire.

yadda yadda yadda his truck burnt down

 

Hey Scrap, the problem is fuses DON'T blow instantly. Also with a small gage wire going back to the trunk the wire could burn up with MUCH less then 100A. Also with smaller wire you can get enough voltage drop (from higher resistance) from the front of the car to the back for the car that the fuse may not blow at all. In the mean time the power wire is now a heating element.

 

are you serious 12 or 16 gage POWER wire? OMG...People like this shouldnt have car audio stuff at all.

Nate

 

WRONG! This is the point I'm trying to make that people keep overlooking. A fuse doesn't guarantee safety.

Let's take my car for example. I have a 100 amp breaker, then 2 AWG wire going back to a distribution box in the hatch. I need this much breaker because my amps draw a tremendous amount of current. Actually, my breaker trips before my amps reach full power, but that's another story. I should have a 120 amp breaker.

But anyway... I have 100 amps of current available before the breaker will trip. If I had a small wire (say 10 AWG) I could probably melt it and start a fire before the 100 amp breaker would trip. Likewise, if my wire chafed through because I didn't use a grommet, I could have a fireworks show (and subsequent fire) without popping the breaker.

It is imperative that you use proper wiring, and proper installation techniques IN ADDITION to proper fusing.

 

interesting, I wonder how many amps would transfer to the chassis if it rubbed a hole in the insulation?

I bet 20 amps is more than enough to start a fire.

Also, do our cars come with a grommet already installed above the gas pedal under the edge of the carpet? If not, then I guess best buy did that for me a long time ago... I'm glad I didn't have to drill that hole, but now it's lookin like I may need to make the hole bigger..

I bought this fosgate 4-guage power wire from bestbuy, and now I come to find that its not really 4-guage... because my friend has some 4-guage welding cabling, and we compared it and the actual metal part of the wire is MUCH larger on the 4-guage welding cable (plus I compared it to some cable at a car audio shop too)... my 4-guage wire fits into a rockford fosgate fuse block that is meant for an 8 guage.... which is strange...

I think they just added some thicker insulation and called it a day... but that' not necessarily bad, because the thicker the insulation, the less likely it is to get snagged on something... and actually rip through

 

lol these crack me up. this girl i used to bang saw me one day and asked if i still did systems (just for friends) i said i guess i could. so i sold her my entire system out of my cavalier. 2 rf punches, bandpass box, infinity components and around (i know its not actual) 2200 watts worth of amps, and 2 1 farad caps.

i was very busy and trying to get her car done on the side. i got the bandpass in and started making panels for the components (2002 saturn sc2) then i started working weekends too. she got pissed and had a "freind who knew better than me what to do" install it. first thing he did was tell her she overpayed. i sold her everything for $500 including install price. (as said she was a friend) so she gets pissed. after he installs it she turned it on and all the wires melted to the pcm. oh it was funny. then she gets the wiring fixed and takes it to another guy to do wiring and a new ground. her car catches fire again when he drilled a hole in the gas tank making a new ground. then she takes it to a local stereo shop. they told her you dont need the caps. this time she is driving and loses her lights and hits a pole.

bottom line is: "professional shops" arent always professionals working that day, take your time, make sure the wiring, fuses, and way you route your wiring do not interfere with anything
oh and bring a fire extinguisher or a bag of marshmallows

 

LOL, good story. It would've been helpful if the shop told her she doesn't need the caps but needs a bigger alternator! I think ScrapMaker knows all about crappy "professional" installs.

 

yeah, i've seen the lack of grommits. i worked for a mechanic who's been working with cars for nearly 30 yrs. when i checked out his rear-mounted battery, there were no grommits. the ground wire was already chafed through, the power cant be too far behind.

 

Just to irk you....

I did just that. I put in a RF Punch 100 DSM and if I cranked it with a 30 amp fuse, it would blow. I ended up needing a 60 amp fuse.

So what if I did it the right way and used an amp meter to find out the smallest fuse I could get away with.

 

Jim, you've got a PM!

 

100 amps 12V DC thats a crap load of power, i had no idea some systems are drawing that kinda power.. wouldn't that end up welding the cable to the body if it grounded out?

 

mmmmm I love crappy "professional" installs... gimme gimme gimmee

 

with all of this talk on fuses I would like to throw my 2 cents in...I am pretty involved in the cart audio world and I go to alot of small shows and see cars with "hooked up"systems, and for some reason, kids think the the bigger the fuse the better...Its a real horrible idea...but fuses arent a bad thing when used properly...
For my SQ ...Stang... though, I am running a 0 gauge that runs to a distro block that powers 3 amps running over 2000 watts during a competition...I used to use fuses when i only had one 5 channel amp, but now that I am running so much more power and the 0 gauge, I switched to using a circut breaker...It really works well, and i never have to worry about replacing fuses...

 

yea i was thinking about going with a breaker aswell but decided against it

ive got a 300 amp in my 0 awg power wire and a 200 amp in between my dist. block and my sub amp

 

I have a novel idea... not to be a smart ***.
I wished for a small system for my b-day and xmas( about a month apart) if i get it im installing teh system myself.


how about you guys put a new topic and sticky it for the proper way to install a system ( h/u, speaks, sub, and amp). tips and whatever.

 

That's what Search is for. The proper way to install a system is dependant on the equipment you buy. Start reading here, it will put you on the right track: the12volt

 

Why not. It's so much fun.
But seriously, there are to many variables. And then your going to get into a debate on wich way to do a particular part of the install is really the "best". And then a debate on the definition of "best".

 

i dont like searching becuz i have to sift thru lotta unrelated stuff most of the time.. and i didnt think of all the diff variables .... and not to be a smartass but i like to stay on a good foot w/ ppl. i get the nswers i need not some ration of schiza

 

Things like the power wire gage will vary on the current draw of the amp and length of wire. Wire routing can vary. How you wire multiple subs will vary dependant in the amp. And then theres still the debate on the "right" way to do things. Should you crimp the connection or solder? Is electrical tape OK to use?
There are some basics. Properly fusing power wires. Don't mount the amp to the box. Don't mount the amp directly to the chassis. Don't plug in the RCAs until the amp is properly grounded. Grounds ARE important. Don't use wire nuts in a car. Don't "twist-and-tape". Use grommets when passing a wire though metal. Don't put a bigger fuse in. Be carful not to pinch wires. You can't bridge the outputs on a HU. Quite moaning about money amdjust put out the $15.00 for a harness. Don't drill without looking........


EDIT: Forgot to mention cars with remote amps (AKA Bose). You'll see the question, "What do I need to install a radio". But they may not mention it's a Bose car.....

 

cool needaz most of this stuff i know already.. its just that pic of the honda that got burned down from inside out becuz of wiring is kinda scary...

oh uh what are wire nuts? and the harness you are talking about ? is taht like the one at pepboiz that is to wire a aftermarket H/U to stock wiring w/o having to cut up stuff?

 

That's exactly the harness I'm referring to. Wire nut are the things you see the home wiring. You twist the wires together and then twist the wire nut over both of them. I see these used in install WAY to often, and 90% they're what caused the problem. Unfortunately damage from improper install is NOT covered under warranty. So when I call the customer to let them know what caused the problem they what to argue with me about it. "But if they use them in a house I can use them in a car, a house is 120V and a car is only 12V." A great example of a little knowledge being a bad thing. The problem with that logic is your house doesn't drive down the road. When was the last time your house hit a pot hole? Wire nut CAN vibrate and shake off.
As with most things the devil's in the details. F' up a install and you CAN burn down your car. When I do a wiring job, no mater if it's a car audio install or turn signals on a bike, I always look for any way that things could go wrong.

 

Well for speaker wires I would say soder(is that how u spell it?) and heat shrink tubing should probably be the best.

Nothing is really full proof anyway... But just dont half *** it and burn your car down. LOL

Nate

 

Solder
"If you don't strive for perfection you'll never get close." "Set the golden ring higher then possible." ***, corporate American brain washing at work.

 

Funny story.

My father almost watched his truck burn to the ground last week for the exact reason I've been preaching about here.

He has a battery-pack car starter that he stores in his truck, and he keeps it plugged into the cig lighter so that it's always fully charged. The dolts who designed this product use an unfused cig plug widget that plugs into the charger. The wire is very tiny, probably 24 AWG or smaller... after all, it's only meant to trickle charge.

Well, as we hopefully all know by now, cig fuses are very large, probably around 30 amps. Something shorted in the cig plug wiring, and a LOT of current passed through the wires. My father went out to use the truck and found the cabin full of smoke. He managed to burn some foam he had behind the seat, along with a couple towels. He also melted part of his ash tray where the cord was touching.

This little tiny wire got very hot and would have started a fire if my father didn't find it when he did, yet the current draw was not enough to blow the 30 amp cig plug fuse. If there was a .5 or 1 amp fuse in the cig plug adapter (like you get with better quality stuff), nothing would have happened.

I'll try to get pics this week. you won't believe the damage this little itty bitty wire did, and if he didn't find it when he did, there's no doubt that the entire truck would have burned up.

 

the malfunction was the outlet itself, or was it the adapter you plugged in?

 

It was the wiring between the cig plug adapter and the battery pack itself. My father tried the AC adapter and it worked ok, so we think it was the cig plug adapter and associated wiring, not the battery pack.

 

Pretty ironic.