Should I rewire my car

[southpoleman69 10+ year member]

My car has been wired for a system for roughly 6 years, and was originally wired for a w3 with a 250/1. Since then I've upgraded the subs and amp constantly. I just had my first set of components put in in January, my cavalier didn't have stock tweeters, so I never bought comps but got a set for Xmas. In any case, the present is a soundstream rubicon 1600.1, a 12 dc lvl 4, and my cousin just sold me his kicker 200.4 for 15 bucks. My question is should I rewire the power at least so I can add the 4 channel? I doubt I'm going to have enough wire for my mono plus a district block into the 4 channel. I've never ran a 4 channel and don't know what I'm doing as far as hooking up my components, and can't tune the amps properly with no shop around me that does it the proper way. So I guess would it make sense to rewire? Second, is there anybody near Lancaster pa who woul want to hang out for a few hours and help me out with gains and wiring? I'd pay of course. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

If you mean for power wire, if you don't already have some 1/0g in there I would pick up some Knu KCA 1/0 to go to the back of the car. It's cheap and works great. From the back, use a fused distro block to send a 4g wire to your rubicon and an 8g to the kicker.

 

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

Cadence and Audio Technix also have good deals on wire as well.

If you have never upgraded your power/ground or done the big 3...then yes it is time to upgrade/update your wiring.

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

^ Precisely.

I'm also interested in what CURRENT power wire you have in there....

And the speaker amps sets up the exact same way as a sub amp. Set the gains with a DMM.

For information on how to set the speakers gains, search google for "Setting amplifier gains with a DMM" and choose 1 of the 23534656 results that work best for you.

 

[southpoleman69 10+ year member]

Right now it's 4 gauge tsunami. The whole way back with no big 3. The problem I'm having with setting gains is I can't locate a dmm, oddly enough, and I'm still somewhat confused by it. Also as far as wiring the speakers to an amp I have no clue wtf I'm doing there

 

[sexy 10+ year member]

Get everything in place like you want it to be mounted all speakers in place run all the speaker wires back to the amps just don’t hook up the wires.

When you have all that done then drive the car to someone who can help.

I know there are shops close to Lancaster that can help.

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

Well I'd step up to some 1/0 wiring as Kangaroux suggested. And the speaker amps hook up the same as the sub, what part of it is confusing you?

 

[southpoleman69 10+ year member]

I guess what really confuses me about it is how to run the wires back up to the doors? I'm not sure why it confuses me, lol, but it does.

Yes there's shops around Lancaster, any that are reputable and that I trust? No. I barely get one day off a week, and that's saying it's en entire day. It's almost easier and better for me to find somebody who wants to help out rather than take it to a crap shop

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

You don't really need to wire them up through the doors. It's a nice step to take if you're putting in a nice system, but not always necessary. When I started I just ran my speaker wire from my amp.... back to the factory harness at the headunit, and connected there. Instead of connected the factory harness to the radio harness, connect the factory speaker wires to the new ones you just ran.

 

[dappa5 10+ year member]

yes

 

[southpoleman69 10+ year member]

You don't really need to wire them up through the doors. It's a nice step to take if you're putting in a nice system, but not always necessary. When I started I just ran my speaker wire from my amp.... back to the factory harness at the headunit, and connected there. Instead of connected the factory harness to the radio harness, connect the factory speaker wires to the new ones you just ran.

This makes much more sense. Lol. Well I'm going to keep looking for anyone thats down to help me out for a day cuz it'd be cool to really actually learn it while doing it.

 

[focused313 10+ year member]

This makes much more sense. Lol. Well I'm going to keep looking for anyone thats down to help me out for a day cuz it'd be cool to really actually learn it while doing it.

yup, what he said is exactly what I did. In my first car though, I ran new runs all the way to the speaker directly. It wasn't really that hard. If you think about it, just take all the interior panels off by the doors, then follow the harness or cluster of wires that are fed into the door already. Pop that grommet off if you have to and go right thru with those wires. Now I see why some of the car audio shops just take everything out of the car and sit it to the side. Being able to run all the wires, zip/tape/shield them up, then put the seats and stuff back in can go way quicker than tucking around stuff.

 

[focused313 10+ year member]

This makes much more sense. Lol. Well I'm going to keep looking for anyone thats down to help me out for a day cuz it'd be cool to really actually learn it while doing it.

yup, what he said is exactly what I did. In my first car though, I ran new runs all the way to the speaker directly. It wasn't really that hard. If you think about it, just take all the interior panels off by the doors, then follow the harness or cluster of wires that are fed into the door already. Pop that grommet off if you have to and go right thru with those wires. Now I see why some of the car audio shops just take everything out of the car and sit it to the side. Being able to run all the wires, zip/tape/shield them up, then put the seats and stuff back in can go way quicker than tucking around stuff.

 

[southpoleman69 10+ year member]

so adding a 4 channel amp i need 4 channel rcas even if i wire only my components? or should i wire my components and my 6x9?

 

[stl_314 10+ year member]

How I do it is behind the radio twist wires for th right side front and bavk together, then do left side, that way you can use the rear speaker power wire as your front and all u have to do is run your rear.power now...

Anf it does not hav ed yh o be 4channel rcas but u will want 2 sets of rca's