Doit myself or pay $50
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Registered User
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 369
From: Litchfield, NH
Car Info: 03 yellow WRX stage 1
Doit myself or pay $50
i gotta get an amp but i already have my dual 12s to put in my trunk. i dont wanan mess up anything or havin wires showing in my 03WRX. is there a walkthrough i can read or sumthin to install my setup? should i not use more than a certain wattage? i think i may use a 2chx400w amp.
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 243
From: Boston
Car Info: 2004 Black Wrx
Do it yourself. Stereo work is really pretty easy, just a little unnerving the first time you start pulling stuff apart. Just keep track of what your removing and stay organized. But as far as wires go, unscrew your sill panel (the moulding over the door opening on the floor next to your seat). Feed all the wires under that and screw it back in. You'll never have a problem that way. IMO it just doesnt pay to have someone else tearing through your car, even for another $25. That amp should be fine.
Thread Starter
Registered User
iTrader: (-1)
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 369
From: Litchfield, NH
Car Info: 03 yellow WRX stage 1
are there any walkthroughs? how do i get the power from battery to the trunk? or does the power come from the cdplayer? do i have to take the dash off to get behind cdplayer? i have stock 6cd disc changer in 03wrx. thers gotta be a walkthrough sumwhere.. thanx all!
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 243
From: Boston
Car Info: 2004 Black Wrx
I believe power will just come through your stereo. You need to pull off the radio bezel and then slide out the head unit. Almost everything with stereos is color coated for your convienence. Its sorta stressful at first when youve never done stereos before. But honestly its much easier than you think. Did your equipment come with general instructions? Like I said previously, wiring everything under the door sills will make it clean.
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The power for the amp will come from your battery, the wire can be run through the firewall (there are other wires running through it, I just pryed a hole with a screwdriver through the rubber around the existing wire and fed my power through there). there will be other wires from your head unit, namely the remote starter (makes sure the amp is only on when your car is on) and coax cables. if you have an aftermarket head unit, there should be a place you can hook up the remote starter plus pre-amp outputs for the coaxes. if you still have the factory head unit i dont think it has either, which means you need to find some other way of letting the amp know when the car is on, which means tapping into the fuse box, clock, cigarette lighter, etc, anything that only gets power (12V) when the car is on. it isnt hard to do, just a little more inconvienent. you also need to either get an amp with line-in inputs (where you just feed speaker wire to them) or get a line-to-coax converter (i think you can get them from radio shack). you can get an amp wiring kit at any place that sells car audio stuff (make sure its rated for the size of your amp) and its got general instructions for installation. there are other threads that identify which fuse to tape the remote starter to, i havent done it yet on my wrx, so i dont know the exact one. i was 16 when i installed my first complete stereo setup (HU, amp, sub and speakers all around), had absolutely no experience with this crap, and it turned out working like a champ. hope this helps.
andrew
andrew
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one more thing, if you buy your amp from crutchfield, they have great technical advice, they have installation instructions for just about every kind of car sold in the US, plus the people they have working for them know their stuff, helped me out big time. they are a little more expensive then most other places, but the technical expertise was well worth it for me.
andrew
andrew
Registered User
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 213
From: NOVA
Car Info: 2002 Black RS
Listen to Myeres. Hes got it down to a science.
The only other advice i have is when ur actually connecting all your wires into the amp where the screw down, don't just throw them in there, sometimes you can get a bad connection if they come lose or you run risk of shorts. Try putting metal wire clips on the end, you can get them at home depot for real cheap, and if you have acess to soter melt it to the clip. Otherwise just use plyers and clap them around the wire real tight.
The only other advice i have is when ur actually connecting all your wires into the amp where the screw down, don't just throw them in there, sometimes you can get a bad connection if they come lose or you run risk of shorts. Try putting metal wire clips on the end, you can get them at home depot for real cheap, and if you have acess to soter melt it to the clip. Otherwise just use plyers and clap them around the wire real tight.
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 167
From: Los Angeles
Car Info: 1999 OBS
What kind of subs do you have? Whats the specs? Like rms wattage? You should get an amp that close to the recommended rms power of the subs. Are you really sure their only charging $50 for installing your amp in your trunk? That's what they charge for installing speakers in the doors here in L.A. I think $50 is worth it for that job. If your gonna do it yourself, you can get your amp kit (wires), interconnect cables and amp online, it's
much cheaper. You can also find books on car audio installs or maybe check the libraries if they have it.
For info in basic sound audio check this site out
http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm
Link to subaru install
http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/sho...p?threadid=157
much cheaper. You can also find books on car audio installs or maybe check the libraries if they have it.
For info in basic sound audio check this site out
http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm
Link to subaru install
http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/sho...p?threadid=157
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 555
From: Bethlum, PA
Car Info: silver 2.5 tr 2006MT wrx
what the hell, this got all screwed up, down the left side of the car, run the rca's down the right side of the car (NO ALTERNATOR WHINE), keep them as far apart as possible. get a switch, and switch the remote wire going to the amp that is powering the sub, so you can turn it off and on,it is nice if you have people in the back and want to hear them and the radio. best buy has a set of monster cable rca's, that come with a remote wire with them, it is in the home adio section. get the longer ones if you canlike 20 ft or 8m it is better to have more then come up an inch short. have fun.
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got a quick one, will the power cables interfere with the speaker cables? do i need to run them down the same side as the coax then across under the carpet to the doors on the other side? they are gonna be coming from the trunk, so if i dont have to go under the carpet and seats, i'd rather not. also, how much interference is it gonna be? and considering im not going for competition, will any interference be that noticable?
thanks, meyers
thanks, meyers
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