Just wondering where anyone has successfully grounded an amp in their camaro. I have a 89 rs in the middle of an audio upgrade and I can't seem to find a good ground for my amp.

First I installed my new deck bout 2 weeks ago ($80 clarion pro audio deck from ebay) into the stock location (with the filler plate). Hooked everything up and it works really good (used stock ground, stock wires everything). No static or any weird noises ... no background noises or blips when you start the car/hit throttle. Convinced the deck install is good.

Time to hook up my amp for the subs. Amp is a California Pro (cheapo amp) 200rms x2 @ 2ohms. Ran a set of RCA's around the passenger side all the way to the trunk, Ran Power, Remote start around the drivers side (since I know its not good to run RCA's right next to power). Removed all the trim in the trunk. Saw an alright spot to ground the amp under the hatch pull down motor on the floor. Sanded it all down and bolted it. Hooked up the RCA's, started the car and turned the deck on. The ground was bad, really bad background noise. Looked on the drivers side of the trunk for another ground spot. Saw a piece of metal sticking out .. looked like it might run to the frame. Sanded that down and got the same ammount of background noise. Now I was pissed cuz it took over an hour to get nowhere. I needed to find a good ground, so I decided to do the best ground I knew, Bolt it to the back of the seats. Cut 7 feet of 8 guage and ran to the back bolt of the passenger seat. Now I know ground shouldnt be longer than 2 feet but I needed to test it. Anyway, bolted it to the seat bolt and still got really bad background noise when I started the car. Left the car on, unhooked the RCA's and it was fine (no background noise) ... so I know its a problem with the amp.

Where have you guys successfully grounded your amps??? I'm almost to the point of drilling the trunk, running straight to the frame itself, bolting it and caulking it .. but thats so much trouble ... can anyone recommend a good spot inside the car???

 

Where is the amp going first of all? I put my amps on an amp rack mounted on the hump over the gas tank. I put all my grounds on the hump in between the two back seats. Just pulled the carpet back, drilled a 1/4 inch hole, scrapped away any paint and bolted them down. Never any problems. Also you want to try to keep amp grounds to not more than 18 inches. My .02.

 

at this point, I don't think bad ground is the problem. is the amp case touching metal anywhere ? Are the rca's (exposed metal part) touching metal anywhere ? Does the noise increase when you turn the gain up ? Or stay the same ? Also , does the noise increase when you turn the volume up or stay the same ?

mike

 

The first thing, obviously, is to figure out what is causing your noise. It's either your receiver, rca cables, amp, speaker wire, or speakers.

Buy some RCA cables from radio shack, and create some muting plugs with them. You do this by cuting the RCA cable in half, then taking the cut end, striping the 2 wires, and tying them together. You could also solder them. Make as many as you need, and plug them into the RCA inputs of your amp. This will give the amp a zero volt input. Turn your car on, stereo on, headlights on. Is the noise still there? If yes, then the problem exists downstream..either the amp, speaker wire, or speakers. If the noise does not exist, then it's either your receiver or RCA cables.

If the noise does not exist with the above test, buy some female - female plugs, so you can take your muting plugs and now plug them into the RCA cables at the front of your car. DO NOT plug them into your deck itself, but the cables running into your amp. With this test, you have obviously plugged in your RCA cables back into the inputs of your amp(s). Does the noise exist? If so, then the RCA cables are the problem. If the noise does not exist, then the deck is the problem.

If your narrow it down to your deck, try running the deck, and only the deck, off of a spare car battery, even a motorcycle battery.

By using the above methods, you can systematically eliminate components instead of just guessing "if your ground is bad", or if your RCA's are picking up anything where they are routed at.

Also, no shielded RCA cables. Use UTP, unshielded twisted pair.

Let us know how is goes.

 

Cool idea Omar I never heard of that idea before!

 

I tried with a brand new set (again) of RCA's and grounded the amp to the frame of the car (yeah i drilled, sanded, and bolted 2 feet hehe). leave the RCA's unhooked from the deck and it sounds great with the car on or off. hook the RCA's up and now when the car is off there is no static but when you turn it on the static noise blips with the throttle. the static does not get louder when I turn the volume up. no speakers are hooked up to the amp .. the static comes from the rear speakers (cuz the amp is hooked to the rear preamp outs). the amp is installed in the trunk hatch area under the box. i know its better to give the amp airflow but this is ghetto sounds. the amp is not touching any metal anywhere. i think its a bad amp honesty, i have an old 100rmsx2 in my closet that i know works, i'm going to try that one next for ****s. thanks for the help guys!!

 

Yeah big guy you might wanna use the process of elimination to see whats goin on, try component after component, mix & match, do whatcha gotta do, I remember the first time I bought an amp last year for the 'RS. It was a piece of junk, it didn't work cuz I bought it from some dude at a flee market. Waste of 58 bux. Well, I bought an Orion Cobalt 150.2, runs STRONG, coupled to my 8 inch tube. Anyways, Get the amp tested if you have to, thats what I did for the 58 dollar crapper, and it failed, out of four channels, 2 didn't work, one worked half juice, and one worked full, what the heck happened to that amp, somebody throw it off a bridge? Well, good luck, try the process of elimination.

 

I cleaned off the the boltsthat hold my back latch on. i took off the plastic trim and hid everything behind it.

 

Although this thread is probably expired, I grounded my amp above where the spare tire is. If you take that plastic panel off, there's a piece of vertical metal parallel to the rear panel, which I drilled through and bolted to.

- Mike