Where the f%$! do I put the ground?

[Mattman00969 10+ year member]

Hey guys, I really need some help here. I've got an amp set up in a Subaru Impreza and I need to know where the best place, or a place at all, I can put the ground. I've tried to connect it to the latch for the trunk to see if it would work, but it didn't. I also tried to hook it up to the main bolts of one of the seatbelts, but that didn't quite work either. When I hooked it up to the bolt on the seatbelt, the power LED flashed for a brief second, but that was it. It never flashed again afterwords.

Where can i connect the ground so that I can get a good connection?

Please help, this has been an issue for me for 2 weeks and I don't have the $$$ to take it in to anyone.

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[Aurorav8 10+ year member]

I take it you can't find an unpainted surface to drill into and ground it? If there is no unpainted surface near your amp find a painted part of the chasis and grind the paint off of it....as long as it isn't visible and ground it there.

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

It's a pity you gotta scrape off the really cool mica blue, but dnag, what has to be done has to be done.

Seatbelt bolt MIGHT work if you scrape a good deal of paint off it. It's not gonna be easy getting to narrow spaces. Your hard work WILL pay off though. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[bri487 5,000+ posts]

lift up the carpet in the trunk or cargo area. not very ofter do they paint under there. that is where all of my grounds are in all my cars.

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

what kind of car do you have? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

I've yet to see a car that doesn't have paint in the trunk. Even the cheapest mincars here have painted trunk panels. They acutally dip the whole frame in paint. How can it not be painted?

 

[Mattman00969 10+ year member]

I already tried the seatbelt bolt, and I removed all the paint around it. I only got the power LED to flash, and that's as good as I can get it to do.

I also have tried to connect the ground to other places in the trunk area, removing paint, but they didn't work either.

Today I tried to hook my ground up to my friends car's ground that he uses for his amp, and the protection light comes on immediatly. I'm not sure if this is because the ground is not in the same vehicle, or if I have something hooked up wrong.

Thanks for all your help, but can I get any more suggestions as to what why I don't get power to my amp?

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

If you really wanted to test your amp out, you should've dragged the ground to your battery's negative post.

If that works, and you really can't get a place to hook your ground too, then be a man about it. Drill a new hole, being careful not to hit anything behind it. Spare tire well usually works.Disconnect your battery, scrape enough paint off the are (both indie and outside), bolt on ground lead (solder if you're the extra careful type), reconnect battery.

 

[namster44 10+ year member]

is your amp working properly? Doesn't sound like it.....

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by namster44 is your amp working properly? Doesn't sound like it.....

well, I don't think getting power from one batt, then grounding on another vehicle sound right...

 

[Mattman00969 10+ year member]

I agree that connecting the ground to another vehicle is pretty wrong, I just did it to see if the amp would power up at all. The amp was working properly 2 weeks ago when I took it out of my old car, so unless something happened within those 2 weeks, my amp should be working properly.

It's not that I don't want to drill a hole in my car, it's just that I don't want to go through drilling a hole and have it not work. that's what has been happening all along, I just needed some advise as to where I could connect it to get a proper ground. I'm going to try the spare tire well, and if that doesn't work then I will probably cry...but just a little.

Good advise as to connecting the ground wire directly to the negative battery terminal, didn't think of that one...I'll probably try that first before attempting any drilling, just in case the amp is faulty.