Amp wiring ?

[Ryan_C]

Looking into the hatch from the rear?

[jdkoos]

Thanks GuySmiley and and Gadget01: I pulled out that foam piece and when I realized that I'd probably need to remove the battery cover, at that moment it seemed easier to just run the 12v power cable up through the fire wall to the battery in the engine bay, since I already had the side tore apart from running the RCAs, remote wire, and bass-adjust signal wire.

So I didn't end up tapping in to the white wire afterall.

[GuySmily]

I decided the same thing - I'm just going to run a wire from the battery.

Where's a good spot to run 4ga through the firewall? I know there's a post somewhere but I can't find it.

[jdkoos]

I ran 10 gauge through a hole that already existed on the passenger side firewall where a small rubber drain tube goes through, you should be able to spot the tube from the outside if you look down there. I had to mess up the seal a little so I put some silicone caulking around it on the outside after I got the 10 gauge pulled as far as I wanted. Seemed to work pretty well and I couldn't find an easier route short of drilling a new hole.

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[GuySmily]

Seems a little too small to fit my 4ga wire through. I might try the big grommet that goes through the driver side footwell/fender.

edit- Cancel that - seems like a pain. How about running through the orange HV tunnel under the car. Would that be a bad idea?

I might have to give up and cut my own hole.

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In other news, I got my amplifier mounted. Might add a fan or two between the bars, just to make sure things stay cool.



Came out looking pretty good, considering I used a steak knife. Crooked, but who cares.


T-nuts to hold the amp in place


Had to get a little creative with one of the mounts.

[jdkoos]

Nice work. Looks pretty good so far. Where will you put the subject, assuming you're installing one? I had my amp+sub single unit slid over to the right if you're standing at the back looking in and I cut out some of the carpet stuff-holder insert thing so I could access the controls. But then on a sharp right turn it slid out, but now I leave it out sitting facing up in the carpet stuff-holder because it gives me the best bass.

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[GuySmily]

Thanks, I'm pretty proud of how it came out. The amp was the PERFECT size. It's a Soundstream Picasso Nano PN4.520D, will be pushing 320W to my sub - quite a bit of power considering its miniscule size.

As for the sub, I got one of Expertfabricator's boxes:
New Shoebox sub design

[GuySmily]

Managed to fit the 4ga wire through a grommet by the driver's "kick panel" (if we had one). It's the same grommet that the DC-DC wire goes through. Comes out here, behind the fender liner (inside the fender). I had to cut the electrical tape from this side to expose the grommet opening. Then, I took a 2' piece of wire hanger, attached the 4ga wire to one end, and threaded the other end through the grommet. Some plain old water makes the job a LOT easier. Don't forget to tape everything back up afterwards to make sure you get a waterproof seal at the grommet.


I fed the wire up beside the clutch master cylinder, so they're sharing the same cutout. (The wire is in split loom tubing now). None of the stock wires go this way - they all follow the fender and end up behind the headlight.


I managed to jam the 4ga wire into the stock battery terminal cover, though you can see it's stressing the rubber a little bit.

[GuySmily]

Inside the car, I ran my 4ga wire underneath the channel that holds the DC-DC wire. Honda left a perfect empty space between the plastic channel and the carpet cushion/insulation.


Fits perfectly - no ugly bulge when you put the carpet back in place, and it exits in the same carpet cutout as the DC-DC wire.


From there, I just followed the same path as the DC-DC wire to make sure it didn't interfere with the styrofoam block that goes beside the IMA box.


Exits in the perfect place for my amplifier, which is mounted in the CD changer location.

[Terrh]

That's the wiring I ran from. Sorry I didn't realize you had replied to this and you're done now anyway.

The DC-DC converter is 70A but more importantly on the other end of that wire is the battery. Why run an extra cable the length of the car for nothing! Wiring it up from there lets the DC-DC feed the amp and your battery deals with the rest. My AMP tucked in under the battery tray/above the spare tire nicely. I assume it's still there because everything still works, but I haven't seen it in a year.