audio system

[badassfocus1101]

2004 sebring LX(4dr)


ok well i want to install a system in my car but i cant figure out a way to run my power wire. ( 0 gauge )

the only way i have found would be to connect to possitive jump start terminal,run down the bottom of the car and zip tie to the fuel lines,drill a hole in the truck and run it up to my amp.....

would that be a bad idea?
should i wrap my power wire in something? like electrical tape?

and when i stretch my power cord out...it looks to be about 2 foot shhort. would it be bad if i took a 1inch peice of copper tubing and stuck my 0ga in 1 end and a 2-3 foot peice of 4 ga in the other side solderd them in the tube and wrapped with electical tape? then ran the 4 gauge to my amp? its a POWER ACOUSTIK 1920 WATT 2 ch

[acampinoob]

What I actually did with mine is I drilled a hole next to the brake booster. There is a spot to the right of the brake booster that goes to the back of the dashboard and doesn't really have any wires to drill through. From there, I ran it thorough that hole in the firewall, down the firewall, and I ran my cable to the rear of the car by sticking the wire under the carpet. If you run the wire under the carpet, make sure you put it in a corner and you run your signal cable on the opposite side of the car, otherwise you will get interference and it will sound like crap. So just drill a hole in the firewall to the right of the brake booster, run it down the firewall, and run it under the carpet to your trunk or wherever.

[acampinoob]

And about your wire idea, I think it is a bad idea to bring it down to a single four gauge wire because that will create a lot of resistance, and therefore heat. It also creates a bottleneck in your power. If you put that four gauge wire in there, you might as well run 4 gauge the whole wire and both of us know that won't work. If you really are stingy, you could run maybe 3 strands of the 4 gauge wire together (in parallel) from the 0 gauge wire. But that is a half-assed job that will look like crap. I reccommend doing it right and buying another 2 feet of 0 gauge wire. Oh, and you don't need to wrap the power wire in anything except where it is exposed (where you solder it).

[badassfocus1101]

alright thanks man....but hey u gotta admitt....the soldering thing was a brillaint idea...lol. i look where u was saying about drilling the hole...cant exactly narrow it down to the exact point, if u could would u please takes some pics of yours so i can see how its done.. thanks man

[acampinoob]

Here are the images. My grommot that keeps the wire from grounding out (where I drilled the hole) is wearing out, but it is VERY IMPORTANT, otherwise you could ground it out and blow fuses later.








Hope this helps and good luck!!!

[badassfocus1101]

what year is ur car dude? caz mine dont look anything like that....and looks like running 4 ga wire... could i use 4 gauge for mine?

[acampinoob]

This is actually a 1997 Sebring LXi Coupe, but the concept is still the same. I would just look under the dash for a spot with no wires and drill a hole and you can still probably run it under the carpet. Send me pics of what you are working with and we'll see what we can do. I would suggest looking for wires that go through the firewall and taking it from there. As for running the cable under the car, I don't think that is a great idea. There it is subjected to the elements, heat (from the exhaust pipe), and just general dirt and gravel. The wire is a lot less beat up over time if it is just wired inside the car.

[Tubby3120]

I doubt you should run the wire outside of the car for the reasons mentioned above + if you happened to bottom out on somthing you risk clipping the wire and tugging it out of the connections on the amp...leaving a live power wire rolling around in the trunk of your car sparking and all that good stuff.