anyone good w/ installing car audio?

Discussion in 'Modifications & DIY how-to' started by ShaneSTI, Nov 14, 2005.

  1. ShaneSTI

    ShaneSTI Active Member

    thinking of upgrading my head unit, front/rear door speakers w/ pioneer. also prolly going to get xm radio, and need to hook up my infinity bass link sub. already have the bass link. priced everything at crutchfield and its lookin pretty good. anyone here good with installing? maybe on a weekend....dinner would be on me.;)
     
  2. Superdude

    Superdude Active Member

    i second that. i have a kenwood hu and 15" sub to put in from my old car. also, i need to try and squeeze 6.5" in the front doors. i'll buy the beer.
    don't mean to steal your thread, shane, just thought maybe we can make a day/evening of it. also, we can hammer out some group photo ideas.
     
  3. ShaneSTI

    ShaneSTI Active Member

    no worries Randy!;) the biggest thing that intimidates me is pulling off panels, and running wires.
    as far as group photo ideas...we'll have to think of some before hand cause i don't arrive in ATL until the 9th Dec...2 days before the group photo.
    so anyone here wanna help Randy and I? beer is on him, and dinner on me!;)
     
  4. RamblinWRX

    RamblinWRX Member

    i just did my car computer install this past weekend, and the dash is in fact very easily dismantled, all the seats and stuff can be taken out with a ratchet and 9/16" socket. Trim pieces all pop out with a flat head screw driver. I ran the power wire through the brake grommet then over to the left and under the door sills, rest of the stuff just go under the carpet and under the center console.
     
  5. lostinthewoods

    lostinthewoods Frisco Tx Baller

    pictures ramblin pictures
     
  6. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

    Look under your pedal box; there are a bunch of little grommets that various lines run through. Pick one, cut an X in the middle and run your wire. He ran his along the driver's side, I'm guessing you can pull the trim pieces and carpet up and run the wire underneath.
     
  7. miloman

    miloman Retired Admin

    pics please
     
  8. Alex

    Alex Community Founder Staff Member

    i did my audio...in the snow :D

    it isnt that difficult, the doors just make this horrible popping noise like you're not only breaking your door panels, but your neighbor's as well.
     
  9. RamblinWRX

    RamblinWRX Member

    ill take some pics of the install thursday to put up in my blog , i have some free time then. sorry for the threadjack.
     
  10. Mad Mallard

    Mad Mallard the mad mallard

    the only thing i'd be nervous about is the door panels. how easy?
     
  11. RamblinWRX

    RamblinWRX Member

  12. socrates42

    socrates42 Member

    its not a hard install at all, like ramblin said, make sure you get the spacers/mount kits from IAP and you all set.
     
  13. ShaneSTI

    ShaneSTI Active Member

    so would anyone be willing to help me if and when i order my stuff? thanks in advance.
     
  14. bigb996

    bigb996 teh Wannabe Mod

    iam doing 50% sales 50%install at best buy now so i might could hook ya up with a little side install time when ya get back here shane. I can do both of you guys if you like. The h/u is very simple the speakers are very simple, the system is, and so is xm.
     
  15. rolling_trip

    rolling_trip Active Member

    as i told you before i would help, we should be able to knock it all out in a half a day. just give me a call when you want to do it
     
  16. ShaneSTI

    ShaneSTI Active Member

    thanks chris, and brian for wanting to help! chris...still gotta put the bass link in that i bought from you 8 months ago!lol along w/ a h/u, door speakers, and xm.
     
  17. rolling_trip

    rolling_trip Active Member

    we can do it, plus we can bring it in to my shop at work that is heated if you want
     
  18. ShaneSTI

    ShaneSTI Active Member

    i'm down. i'll let you know...thanx bro.
     
  19. wrxin8or

    wrxin8or Mullitt Staff Member

    hijack

    Anyone gonna want to help me out after christmas time?

    Hopefully I am gonna get some stuff for christmas, like a 10" and a h/u

    /hijack
     
  20. E-Mol

    E-Mol Member

    I would also recommend that when you order your power cables, have both a battery and ground cable of the same length i.e. ground your amps, crossovers etc to Batt - terminal. What the install kits tell that yur ground cable should be as short as possible and grounded to the chassis is UTTER CRAP!! That is where u get all sorts of hiss, hum and whine problems from noise pickup. The impedance that yur wires provide is much much much less than what u gets from the chassis.
     
  21. ShaneSTI

    ShaneSTI Active Member

    interesting...that is a first.
     
  22. FTZ

    FTZ ^.^

    I have never heard that before. I was told that ground should never be more than 6 inches to a foot. Ground should be a thick gauge similar or the same as power. Hiss will come from running your RCA cables anywhere near power cables. Always run power down one side of car, and RCAs down the opposite and that should reduce/eliminate alternator hiss. Chassis makes a fine grounding point as long as you strip all paint around the area to make a good clean connection.
     
  23. miloman

    miloman Retired Admin

    thick wire offers less resistance than the metal chassis
     
  24. Trey

    Trey Active Member



    Quoted for truth. That is what works best as proven by countless installers/ engineers.

    DO NOT run your ground back to your battery.

    If you car has noise, it's from something else.
     
  25. Trey

    Trey Active Member


    A 0 gauge wire doesn't offer less resistance than a metal chassis with more surface area.
     
  26. RamblinWRX

    RamblinWRX Member

    the ground wire will pick up more resistance and emf interference the longer it is because it's not the negative terminal of the battery(it's just a capacitor) that is your ground, the chassis is your ground, remember the big 3?(negative terminal battery-alternator-chassis).

    Ground loops happen whenever two components such as the in dash receiver and amp are grounded to two seperate locations and the 2 paths make an antenna of sorts that picks up all kinds of whiny noises. This will also happen if you ground to a thin piece of sheet metal like the plate in your trunk floor. As long as you strip all the paint off your grounding point(i like under the rear seat bolts) and pick a spot that's attached to the heavy metal it'll sound great.

    Also alot of people will mistake what they think is ground loop noise for running their signal wires along side their power wire as wrx fan stated. remember electromagnetics? 2 wires in parallel induce current in each other. If you have to cross wires, do it at exactly 90 degrees.

    if you have noise check out crutchfield's handy guide on their site to eliminate noise(it's got a flow chart).

    trey's right too R=rho*lengthwire/cross section area. Divide by a large cross section, like the chassis, and you get a smaller resistance. But also think about this, rho=1.8E-8 for copper * 5 meters/.02m^2. That's 50 microohms. this is utterly insignificant. hell, the resistance of 30 guage wire is .1 ohms a foot. so...bottom line, noise = other stuff.
     
  27. bigb996

    bigb996 teh Wannabe Mod

    I always make my ground somewere near the amp when i am installing at work. Running to the battery is just a bad idea. Still run your power though.

    If you are doing a 4channel amp and a 2 channel or monoblock you MUST run the rcas + remote down the passenger side and the power down the drivers or you WILL get the whine, engine noise.

    Anywayz i have installed door speakers in wrxs, and stis a lot latly and i can do all 4 in about 30 minutes flat. If you want to not hack into the factory wiring i recommend doing speaker harnesses. Our cars take the Import/Mitsubishi ones. Why i do not know. If you get them they are in a green package at best buy. They will run you 12 bucks for all 4. Our cars also take the 90s model subaru wiring harness for the radio. Well atleast mine did.
     
  28. Superdude

    Superdude Active Member

    i did it at the install day. other than grounding to a metal plate that had foam between it and the rest of the car, i've had no problems. i did run power down the driver's side and signals cables down the passengers (pure luck!)
    it is pretty damn easy. and yeah, wiring harness for a 05 is the same as the '99-up.
     
  29. miloman

    miloman Retired Admin

    so y do people install grounding kits under their hoods?
     
  30. flip

    flip Member

    To ground the engine better. Not the amp.
     
  31. miloman

    miloman Retired Admin

    the engine is already connected to the chassis... so wires are better when used to ground the engine but not as good when used to ground the amp?
     
  32. E-Mol

    E-Mol Member

    I think this debate is going to go on forever. Its just best to say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
     
  33. Trey

    Trey Active Member

    Yes the engine IS attached to the chassis, with rubber motor mounts. ;)

    There is usually one puny ground strap. (as seen in the pic, look at the valve cover and that tiny wire on the right is it)

    [​IMG]

    The grounding kits equalize resistance and voltage between the different engine components and their ground points so that the engine gets improved idle and drivability. Does it make that much of a difference, I would say no.
     
  34. FTZ

    FTZ ^.^

    Everyone is entitled to thier own opinion, but go to any Car Audio Retailer and they will tell you to never run the ground more than a foot.

    The Engine is already grounded with some maybe 14 or 16 gauge wire. It is insufficient for the amount of current flowing thru the electrical system. Well not necessarily insufficient, but can just be improved. So you install a grounding kit that leaves the 14 or 16 gauge wire, and add to that several more, better grounding points with a thicker gauge wire, usually around 8 gauge.
     
  35. Trey

    Trey Active Member


    I agree, for myself, I trust the opinion of the engineers that developed the products. The owners manual will detail that an amp should be grounded to the chassis and will also mention not to lengthen the cable. :)
     
  36. oucatch21

    oucatch21 Member


    Being an avid audio guy i disagree... most of the impendance comes from annyhting with power ran to it.

    For all intensive purposes on our cars you should run your power and remote power for your amp down the driver side of the car, and run both the rca's and the speaker wire back up the passenger side (running the rcas/speaker wire next to the power wire will cause interferance except with the most high quality rca's, running them up the center console will do the same as the cables will pick up interferance from the drivetrain, although this effect is not as sever as running them next to power wires).
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2006
  37. oucatch21

    oucatch21 Member

    :420: sorry thats what you get for a wake and bake :420:

    hehe i just saw the post that i quoted... and didnt see that there had been a long debate already...
     
  38. miloman

    miloman Retired Admin

    all u guys have valid arguments... go ahead and use a short ground :)
     
  39. MarkM2016GTI

    MarkM2016GTI Supporting Member

    Brian, I may be coming by Best Buy if I get the XM Satellite radio installed. How much does that normally cost to install?.


    Mark
     
  40. Secreto

    Secreto New Member

    what's up. actually yeah i could give you a hand man. there is nothing stock as far as audio in my car. i have jvc KD-AVX1, infinity 6 1/2 and 5 1/4 component speakers. 2 10 inch kicker comp vr subs, kenwood 1700wt. mono block, legacy 4 chl, 1200wt amp. monster cable, tsunami, 1.5 farad cap, matching blue lighting with switchs, throughout, 2 seperate audio in center console. ps2, and rear camera. next.. driver and passenger monitors. let me know if u guys need some help or just suggestions. thanks
    secreto
     
  41. Superdude

    Superdude Active Member

    yeah, check out this thread and let me know what you think, please.
    http://www.wrxatlanta.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5127
     

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