audio system

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

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.

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).

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

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.

http://images6.theimagehosting.com/000_0403.9d6.th.JPG (http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=000_0403.9d6.JPG)
http://images6.theimagehosting.com/000_0404.th.JPG (http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=000_0404.JPG)

http://images6.theimagehosting.com/000_0405.th.JPG (http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=000_0405.JPG)

http://images6.theimagehosting.com/000_0406.th.JPG (http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=000_0406.JPG)

Hope this helps and good luck!!!

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?

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.

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.