Amp Power cable routing?

[Shu 10+ year member]

Anyone run the amp power (4 guage) cable under the vehicle instead of through the vehicle to the amp?

Also, how far away do you have to keep this size wire away from factory wire harnesses?

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[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

you can run it along the frame. may want to wrap so looming around it to protect it from getting severed

 

[dleccord 5,000+ posts]

why do you have to keep the power wire away from the oem harness?

 

[Shu 10+ year member]

why do you have to keep the power wire away from the oem harness?

I am getting noise in my system. I ran the power cable right across a harness that contains my cruise control wiring and now when the cruise is activated, I get a noise through the speakers. I am assuming it is from the power cable since that is the only thing that gets near the cruise control wiring.

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

I am getting noise in my system. I ran the power cable right across a harness that contains my cruise control wiring and now when the cruise is activated, I get a noise through the speakers. I am assuming it is from the power cable since that is the only thing that gets near the cruise control wiring.

never heard of noise getting induced through the power cable. try new grounds on your headunit, or ground your rca's or re-ground the amp

 

[Shu 10+ year member]

I have grounded everything about 20 different ways. All good grounds, and even all the way back to the battery. I have grounded the amp directly to the frame too. I have grounded the head unit to the frame and all the way back to the amp. None stopped this noise. Head Unit is stock. Not using RCA's. I have routed my input wires from head unit to amp via Speedwire 9 which has TONS of covering and on the opposite side of the vehicle as the power wire. I just assume that since the only wire anywhere near my cruise control wiring is the power wire, that it was causing the problem.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

It's probably caused by noise introduced through the HU not through the amp power wire. The power supply in the amp has filter caps to keep noise from coming in that way. It isn't going to make it into the signal path through the amp power wire. Disconnect the signal wires from the amp and go for a drive. Engage the cruise. If you still have noise then I was wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[Shu 10+ year member]

Well I figured it out. The cause of the whining was from the high level (speaker level) inputs. I bought some Stinger line converters and ran RCA plugs back to the amp and BINGO, no more whining, humming or anything even with the cruise on. The sound is even clearer too. Never again will I try to use the high level inputs....newbie lesson learned. But hey, I got a lot of experience in trying to eliminate a open loop ground that didn't exist