So i hooked up my amp myself, It works and all, but the way i hooked it up was just attached the power wire to the head units power wire, so its kina splitting the power wire into 2....am I losing power by doing this? or am i good to go?

thanx:lala:

-curtis

 

This depends largely on the power of the amp, but it's not the best idea. The power wire running to the headunit is too thin to power the amp and the headunit. In a mild situation, you'll have less than great sound coming out of the speakers attached to that amp and you'll blow fuses fairly often. In a severe situation, you'll burn your car to the ground. You should do it the right way. Run a 4ga or stronger wire, fused a few inches from the battery, straight to the amp, and use the same size wire to ground to the frame.

 

sounds good man, but what type of fuse am i looking at, any specific one? also, the amp has a fuse in it, so do i still need one?. But for sure tommorow Im gonna go pick some wire up and do this the right way

AND for the head unit the wire that needs to be hot when you put the car into accesory, i did the same thing there, will that one be alright?

thanx again

 

The fuse will come built in-line with the wire if you buy a kit. Stop by any place that sells car audio and you'll see what it is. The amp fuses are for protecting the amp, the wire fuse is for preventing a fire in case the wire shorts out somewhere along the car, so it should be within a few inches of the battery.

The wire on the amp that turns it on is usually blue and connects to a specific wire on the headunit itself. It works just fine if connected to an ACC line, the only difference being that the amp won't turn off if you decide to turn off the radio with the car on.

 

thanx for your help man, the only thing, those kits for running a wire with a fuse already attached (amp hook up kit i think?) arent usually the cheapest things that I have seen. So just wondering if i can wire in one of those fuse holders and use the corresponding fuse that i would need?

 

no do it right and spend $40 adn get the kit.. mine came with RCAs, 12awg wire, 16awg remote wire, 4awg ground and power, and 4awg inline fuse holder

 

yeah i know i would like to do it right but Im a 17 yeard old in high school, paying insurance on a camaro, ask any other young guy like me, its not easy. Thats why i wanted to work my way around that but yeah i guess i will just leave it as is right now and save (try)

 

whoa whoa whoa, lets not get out of hand here, i'm in the same boat, 20 years old, and i'm sick of paying 4x the price to get "stereo grade" stuff, you're basically paying for the fancy brand name on the cables.. (and the wires usually have thinner insulation, and thinner but more strands so it's more flexible, but after you install it, flexibility isn't an issure..)
What I did, (and what I recommend), is drop by a welding supply place, in my case Princess auto, and buy some welding grade wire, I got 1AWG for $1/foot canadian, you could probably get 4AWG for around $.70 there a foot, which certainly beats $4/foot at a stereo (*****) shop. Then buy some RCA cables, quality counts there, unless you already have them...
you can get those at the stereo shop, some have a 20AWG wire seperating the two RCA's, that's for your remote on. (blue wire on deck usually.)
for the fuse you want it within 18" of the battery, for safety sake, and competition rules, personally I ran without one for about a year, my amp caught on fire once, but not sure if those were related ( had a dual battery system too...)
oh, the fuse you can get a $50 gold plated, plastic covered fancy piece from the stereo shop... or at my Local canadian tire I can get a maxi fuse up to 150A for $8... I'm not too worried about getting a ton of water on it, that's why I have a HOOD.

if you're looking for a professional looking install, buy the kit, if you want it to work, just mix and match, you'll learn more.

oh and one little last thing, they 4AWG is only needed if your amp is pulling big power, 8AWG is usually fine, the way to determine that is by checking the fuses on the amp, that determines your max amp load (basically)... I'd say if it's over 30A or so use 8AWG, but most people might saw 20A...
-J

 

just noticed you're in calgary too, small world eh?
What quadrant?

 

THANKYOU FOR THAT......whew...that makes things a bit more comforting that I dont need to go spend my extra money (very little) on a bunch of expensive sterao stuff. My RCA cables are from canadian tire though They were around 8 bucks. But what I was thinking, for christmas I got from a a friend 20 bucks from a&b sound, if they have that one wire I need, maybe I will just go for that.

By the way I used to live in the SE (applewood) but recentley moved to chestermere. What about you

 

I'm in the northwest, benton/dalhousie edges.
You may want to invest that $20 in a fuse/fuse holder. The power wire (if that's the cable you mean) would be more than that there, and cheaper and in my opinion better to buy at princess auto. (welding wire has MUCH thicker insulation, and if it's meant to stand up to the beating that a welder will give it, it's good enough for my car..)
a canadian tire rca eh? haha, well I live 100yds from a can tire, so unfortunately they are the only place I go to as well... You shouldn't notice a difference with it, just make sure to run it away from your power wire, usually down the center of the car, to avoid interference...
oh yea, and if you want more info in general, (well feel free to ask) but also, this is the best webpage i've ever seen, check the links on the right:
http://www.bcae1.com/

 

just turned 18 here buddy... i dont pay insurance luckily but im pretty sure that $40 isnt gunna break you

 

oh and dont use stiff stuff because flexibility is a consern after install( the car vibrates and as a unibody will flex).

use no less than 16 awg for the remote wire for safety( you'll almost never pull enuff amps to burn up 20awg but if theres a malfunction the draw could jump severly.

definitely get a water proof inline fuse holder that is meant for car audio( like i said my entire wiring kit had all the crap i needed)
if you buy a kit you buy it depending on you wattage rating in RMS so you will get the right gauge wires and fuse( mine is 80amp inline)

water definitly gets under my hood regularly so its worth it to get and mount a water proof holder.


i dont mean to sound like a hard a$$ but i mean this is your car/investment and you want to do it right the first time.... not cheaply

 

SONIX: haha canadian tire is a main supply line being 17 and all hahah. I dont have a job. My allowance (yes at 17 i get allowance) is $120 per month, And guess how much my insurance is.....124 a month And my ever so high cell phone bill of 40-120 $ a month....haha....yeah, I should get a job but its graduating year and I gotta focus more on that. But anyways im gonna check out that site, and attempt to save for a starter kit, might as well considering Im planning on upgrading my system


read my above statement

thanx everyone who replied

 

i kno the no money boat.... thats why most of my high dollar items i finagle into gettting as gifts and i have a job which makes it worse... $400 a month but i give most to ,my moms to help out with rent

 

Well I made a really hard decision, not about the stereo. But I will be selling my baby in march. Its just to much work putting in a 350 and getting the updated ground effects. Already a potential buyer for 3200$ not bad considering i bought for 1400. But once I get a job after i graduate, Its all going to my baby. But thanx for the help guys, Im just gonna do it right I guess, even if it takes me some time to save up the money. Im not worried about it just yet

 

uhm so you are going to sell your car becasue its too hard to put a 350 and too much for newer GroundfX!?!?! doesnt seem logical.

i mean if you had to put money into the car all the time to keep it going id see the point but not for unnceccesary tings... and puting a 350 is not hard if you can pull the motor yourself and put it back...

 

You know what's even more expensive? replacing a camaro that burned to a crisp. Don't screw around with wiring. If you can't afford to wire it right, sell the amp and live with the factory stereo.

 

Sounds logical to me. If he can sell that car for 3200 he could get a decent 91-92 Z28 to work on.

 

ha! That's a pipe dream, hate to break anyones bubble, but up here in Canada things are a bit different.. He's VERY lucky to get that kind of coin for his car, but that doesn't mean a Z-28 would be near that...
A Z-28, 90-92, with wheels on it, a V-8 and some shred of paint still on it goes for upwards of $6k easy.... in any decent shape even more.

That's why I picked up my '82, ratbagged, barely running, hardly any paint, torn up seats, T/A for $1300... (I was lucky, I found out it had 80k,miles on it, WS6, T10 trans....)

TPI f-bodies here are quite hard to find, and when you do find one, expect to pay good $ for it... That's why I use ebay to buy my parts, even with border fees, currency exchange, I can still get a better deal than most stores here...

 

wow..... thats 6k cnd right..... wow. i see the logic in selling his car for 2x what he payed for it but i mean.. he already has it and the reasons he listed for selling it were weird

 

Ok, you think its weird for me to sell my v6 camaro,selling for 3200, keeping in mind I bought it for 1400, then going out and buying a 87 + z28 or IROC with a 350....think about what your saying

Im almost done school, and planning to get a job....do you really think I have the time to go out, BUY a 350, tranny, computer, driveshaft, read end, and all other neccesary things to get it running, and then the time it takes to prepare the 350, take out the v6 and components, drop in the 350 and attempt to get it all working.....If I could do this overnight, yeah maybe I would, But like I said, Im 17, both my parents park in the garage and If I spill any amount of oil I get in **** cause its a brand new house. So lets recap no money, no 350, no parts, no place to work......yeah man it also sounds weird to me......

And I dont know where all of a sudden you all think Im buying a 91-92?? umm no....neever said that, I know a 91-92 is outta my price range but Im selling my car around my bday so I am hoping to get some money for the new one there.

 

yea, that's what my dad always told me,
"why the heck would you go to the trouble of putting in a big motor in a small motor car, when you can just buy one with a big motor in it already??? The factory GM engineers are a lot brighter than you are, and mastered the setup long ago..."

anyway, this thread has really strayed from it's origin of wire sizes, so we may as well let this die alright?

 

calgarians...always want things dead ......pff yup lets kill it

 

oh well... its your car and i do see the point in picking up 2x what you payed for the car.... good luck with anything yu choose