The longer you spend in the car audio, the more chance you have of installing the components yourself. In this basic guide, I will tell you about certain tools and components that you will need to install a car audio amplifier.
Amplifiers can be a bit tricky to install. They require the removal of the internal panels and also the routing of cables from the front of the car to the rear or wherever the car audio amplifier is mounted.
After purchasing your car audio amplifier, you will need to purchase an amplifier wiring kit. These kits usually contain:
* One power cord (big red wire)
* In-line fuse holder
* RCA set
* a long, thin cable (mainly in blue color) called a remote control
* some speaker cables and various cable connectors and cable loom
These kits also come in various sizes or gauges, the most common being 8-gauge and 4-gauge kits. The lower the number, the larger the wire. 4 gauge kits will be sufficient to handle amplifiers up to about 600-1200 watts.
Once you have your car audio amplifier and amplifier wiring kit, now it’s time to take a look under the hood and locate the battery. Once you have located the battery, it is best to unhook the battery during installation so as not to short out anything while you are working. Look around the firewall area on the side where the battery is located and check to see if there is any kind of hole leading into your vehicle that the power cord can pass through. If you can’t find an easily accessible hole, you may need to drill one yourself. If you have to drill one yourself, it is best to make a small hole at the beginning so as not to damage any wires in the area. Gradually enlarge the hole with some kind of stepped bit. Once the hole is made, use rubber grommets to make sure the hole is sealed and the metal edges do not cut into the power cord.
Now that the power cable is routed through the firewall, it’s time to start removing the internal panels for the entire vehicle cable installation. During this process, you will run 3 wires to the location of the car amplifier. Generally, the amplifier will be in the trunk / hatch area. The first wire will be a red wire (which is the power wire you used from the vehicle’s battery). Next will be a set of RCAs, and the final wire will be the thin blue wire we call a remote. In some kits, the remote cable can be integrated into the RCAs. The RCAs are the ones that send the sound or signal to the amplifier and then amplify it through the speakers. A rule that I generally use when laying cables is to separate the power and the RCAs by passing the power cable on one side and the RCAs on the other. If not done correctly, there is a possibility that you may generate some engine noise from the speakers. The RCAs will connect to the output on the back of the radio, on some CD players there will be a set of ‘subwoofer out’ RCA jacks giving you more control over the sound quality. Next is the remote wire (usually the thin blue wire) this is the wire that sends the signal to the amplifier to turn it on when the radio is on. This cable hooks onto the remote cable on the back of the CD player. Don’t worry if the cables are too long during this phase of the process, they can easily be trimmed once you find where you want the amp to sit.
Once you’ve run the cables, you can set up your cabinet and amp where it will eventually be permanently installed to have a reference on how much cable you’ll need to trim. You will also be able to set where your land will go at this time; usually a body mass somewhere within a foot of your amp will suffice. Once you’ve located a suitable spot, use some sandpaper to clean the area of any paint so you have a solid connection to the body of the vehicle. Now you can connect all the cables to the amplifier and subwoofers and hide any excess cables to make your setup look more professional.
The final phase is to connect the power cable to the battery and install the inline fuse protector. With everything finished, it is time to turn on your system and make all the adjustments to the levels that you consider suitable for the type of sound quality you want.