amp Q's

[firebirdsmoker]

few questions about amps:

1) whats the best way to get the pos. power wirre to the battery. i have read threads on how to but i wanna here how any1 else has doneit to see if there is a better way...the less labor the better

2) is it possible to put a extra battery in the trunk just for amp to run off of? is this ok or will it damage the amp? how long should the battery last cuz of the constant drain on tha battery?

3) amp wil put out about 300 watts so 4 gauge is the best wire to use right? 10 is too small i kno but is 4 the right size?

Any help is apprechiated

[EgDeViLBoY]

1) When you open your door, on the gorund between the door and the seat is a plastic lining. It is usually held in with screws or snap-screws (pull off). So you can just pull that off, and run it along there. You will probably have to drill a hole in the firewall between the cockpit of the car and the engine, and run it down through the floorboard, and under the back seats.

2) It is very possible, but i think your best bet would be to hook the amp(s) up to a switch, so you can turn them on and off manually, from the comfort of your front seat. Saves on power, and can also make the car look a little better.

3) well, is that max watts? Bestbuy is selling an Amp kit (10 gauge, for up to 300 watts) for $35 USD.

[ACoolGuy]

firebird...sorry about not answering your msg...i have a bad habit of not checking my msgs...anyway...here it goes...
1. there is a way to get the wire in without drilling any hole...i did it..:)..i wish i could send pic's but my car is in the shop due to some stupid lady hitting my door and shattering my window...ill be glad to TRY to explain it if you msg me.
2. you may put a second battery in the trunk using a battery isolator which will 'tie' your two batteries together but if its only 300 watts(whether RMS or max) you wont need the second batt...just maybe a capacitor if anything.
3. on the guage part...your best bet is to go with 8 guage...4 guage is maybe too much..unless of course you plan to add one or more amps in the future...in that case...go with the 4 guage...

msg me if you need more help..

[firebirdsmoker]

the 2 subs i'm runnin run at 175 RMS. the guy at circuit city a 200-300 watt amp would be plenty for the two of them....just to get a mono-block amp and wire in paralell. any objections? a switch is a good idea, never thoght of that...i like it!

[pioneergod]

as for easily installing the amp, well thats for sure.
The grand am is a very easy car to install an amp into. As for using a second battery, i dont suggest it. I know that you want to make it easier on yourself, but the problem is, the amp will remain on at all times if you dont use a remote wire. I can tell you a few tricks for wiring that will make it easy, especialy for your exact model of car.
First of all, you need to run the wire to the battery, to do this you should start by opening the door of your car, the drivers side. Then looking under the dash, above the pedals you will find one small wire going though the firewall of your car. If you open the hood of your car, you will be better able to see the hole. It doesnt look like much because there is a small rubber bushing to keep water out. The bushing is very flexible and you can run your wire though there. Then all that needs to be done is, push the wire from the inside of the car, to the hood of the car. Once you have enough length to get around to the battery, start tucking the wire under the carpet and run it along the edge of the door, right where you step into the car, and run it to the back of the car, either a two door or four door, you will be able to just push the wire behind the back seat, with a little bit of searching with your hand, you will feel the wire from the trunk between the mold of the seat back and the seatback itself. once you have it then your done running the wire. If you wanted to run a switch, thats fine i have nothing against it, but it would be better to just run another seperate wire, 18 ga from either the fusebox on the radio fuse, or from an aftermarket head unit. This will get connected to the remote terminal on the amp. If you want to swich the amp, then you want to put the switch inbetween on this wire. Do NOT switch the power source line. The 12V line should not be interupted, if you do, you will find that your switch will throw sparks at you, which isnt good.

If you want some more help on this, i will be glad to help
just write me at
adamsinstall@yahoo.com

[firebirdsmoker]

that helps a lot man, thanx. i take it than i run the RCA cables down the otherside of the car? i dont think i will run a switch but does any1 know how much drain on the battery there will be with a 300 wat amp?

[pioneergod]

if the amp is running all the time, meaning that you dont have anything running through it, and its just hooked up and on, then you can look to be running under a quarter of an amp for power. If you are using hte amp and your playing it loud, then you can look for the drain to be around 25 amps if the 300 is a max rating. To tell you the truth it all depends on the size of the amp and what type of amp it is. For a easy way to figure drain, look on the amp, there will be a fuse on the amp, whatever that fuse ratting is will be pretty close to what the drain will be on the battery durring full power use. So if its a 30 amp fuse, then it will drain about 25 amps from your battery. Usualy you can take the rating of the fuse and multiply it by .80 and that will be the drain from the battery.
I am guessing your amp has a 20 amp fuse, so it will run about 16 amps while at full power. I hope that helps.

If you tell me the exact type of amp and the fuse amount on the amp i can tell you the amount of drain

[firebirdsmoker]

wont that constant drain on the battery kill it? itsnt the amp still drawing power even when the stereo isnt in use? and if so i wanna kno how long my battery will last cuz i'm considering a second battery and an isolator....

[pioneergod]

just to let you know, when your stereo is shut off, and the amp is shut off, but still connected, it will not drain at all. Even though its hooked up, it is not on. So your not going to have to worry about draining the battery while you have the car off. You just have to make sure that you wire in the remote turn off. If that is wired, then there is no drain while the stereo is off.

[Lost_InSanity27]

how is the best way to connect the Remote Turn Off Wire to 2 Amps? Is it best to have a Seperate wire for each Amp ... or can you use one and Split it (which is what I am doing now)

[matts]

if you only have 2 amps i'd say it'd be alright to run a remote wire to one amp and then run a wire from that amp to the other amp. if you need very much more than that you can damage the remote turn off on the headunit. i know a guy that had about 6 remote wires hooked to his headunit and it quit working.

[pioneergod]

when your working with the remote wire there are a few things to remember. The first thing is make sure it hasd a clean connection. The second thing is to remember that the wire is only feeding a 12V signal to the amps. The purpose of the wire is to create a voltage so that the amp knows to turn on. in some cases you may have multiple amps. If you have more than two amps then you will have to create a relay circuit to include the other amps. This will in turn save the head unit and will still allow the amps to turn on properly.



Adam Davis
95 grand am
740MP pioneer Head
4X6 eclipse
6X9 eclipse
1" eclipse Tweeters
Infinity X-over
California 600.4 amp

10 High X pioneer Sub