Audio System Hook-up
- Thread starter jeg0024
- Start date
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- 2002 mazda protege
ok here it goes,
1. disconnect battery
2. run about a foot of power wire from the battery to the fuse holder (that should come with the kit) and then the rest of the wire from the fuse holder through the firewall (which is were you put the foglight wire) under all the door sills until trunk. (keep the fuse out of the fuse holder until the end!!!)
3. take the aftermarket radio out and plug in the rca wires into the back of the radio where it says out, front, or subwoofer. and then run those down the right side of the car (just like the power wire on other side of the car) to the trunk. (!!!!you want to keep them away from each other so they don't cause noise distortion!!!!)
4. now take the remote wire (which is just plain wire) and wire it into the wiring harness labeled remote. (it is usually always blue!!!) and run that down the car with the rca cables. (remote wire turns on and off your amp when the headunit goes out so it doesn't drain you battery.)
5. next is the ground wire, with about 2-3 feet of wire you want the ground wire to reach the amp (wherever it is located). find a place in the trunk the you can drill and put a screw in, or find an existing screw and use that to ground the amp. where ever you put the ground wire, take some sand paper and sand away the paint until bare metal so you will get a good ground and there will be no problems or distortion.
6. now hook up the ground, remote, power, rca cables on the correct labels on the amp. then put your fuse in the fuse holder, connect the battery and you are done.
7. last step is to tune the amp. you will see gain on the amp thats where you want to adjust the amp to your needs. (some people think this is the power of the amp and they turn it all the way up and eventually blow the subs, amp, or both.) what you want to do is set all your settings like you like them on the radio, and then crack you stereo to where you would listen to it the loudest all the time, then you will turn the gain up slowly until you do not hear any distortion in the subs.
hope this helps, and you can do it!!!!!!
1. disconnect battery
2. run about a foot of power wire from the battery to the fuse holder (that should come with the kit) and then the rest of the wire from the fuse holder through the firewall (which is were you put the foglight wire) under all the door sills until trunk. (keep the fuse out of the fuse holder until the end!!!)
3. take the aftermarket radio out and plug in the rca wires into the back of the radio where it says out, front, or subwoofer. and then run those down the right side of the car (just like the power wire on other side of the car) to the trunk. (!!!!you want to keep them away from each other so they don't cause noise distortion!!!!)
4. now take the remote wire (which is just plain wire) and wire it into the wiring harness labeled remote. (it is usually always blue!!!) and run that down the car with the rca cables. (remote wire turns on and off your amp when the headunit goes out so it doesn't drain you battery.)
5. next is the ground wire, with about 2-3 feet of wire you want the ground wire to reach the amp (wherever it is located). find a place in the trunk the you can drill and put a screw in, or find an existing screw and use that to ground the amp. where ever you put the ground wire, take some sand paper and sand away the paint until bare metal so you will get a good ground and there will be no problems or distortion.
6. now hook up the ground, remote, power, rca cables on the correct labels on the amp. then put your fuse in the fuse holder, connect the battery and you are done.
7. last step is to tune the amp. you will see gain on the amp thats where you want to adjust the amp to your needs. (some people think this is the power of the amp and they turn it all the way up and eventually blow the subs, amp, or both.) what you want to do is set all your settings like you like them on the radio, and then crack you stereo to where you would listen to it the loudest all the time, then you will turn the gain up slowly until you do not hear any distortion in the subs.
hope this helps, and you can do it!!!!!!
mickeyreategui said:
good writeup for amp wiring install. another note on the remote wire, sometimes it is labeled as the power antenna remote also.
for grounding, I used the bolt going to the plate that holds the back side of the rear seat. It is right under the carpet behind the seat. probably a 17mm bolt, iirc.
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- 2002 mazda protege
doing the wire harness and radio bracket is as easy as following the directions.
Yeah I was wondering about the wiring harness, my bro said theres like 10 wires or so that you have to cut and strip and hook up to the new plug to fit the back of the new hu. Im heading over to the flea market early in the morning to atleast see if they have the stuff, if they do im gonna have them look and tell me how much and if its too much im just gonna do it myself.
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- 2002 mazda protege
you don't have to cut anything. that is what the wiring harness is for. you plug one end of it to the factory harness and the other end to the new radio you have.
Yeah, I figured it out today about the harness. I end up with two plugs(one for the radio and one for the car) with a mess of wires inbetween! lol I bought the wiring harness, dash kit, and amp wire kit for $50 this morning. As for your list ive done all but number 3, im going to work soon and I figured id put the harness together tonight so in the morning I can just swap the radios out. Do I really need the RCA wires going down the other side of the car? Ive already ran them down the driver side with the power cord, would be a pain in the ass to move them to the other side but would do so if you think its needed. The only place I had wires showing was in the back between the door sill and the bottom of the back seat, only about an inch or so showing. I havent checked yet because I havent taken my old radio out but whats the easiest way to run the RCA wires and the remote wire up behind the radio to hook them up? And my box takes up most of my trunk, any ideas on where to mount the amp? Ill have pics up by tomorrow night for sure, thanks!
mickeyreategui said:
Well right now my harness has a plug for the HU and a plug for an F-350, so im going to have to cut those wires off and connect the ones from the mazda harness I bought this morning. There were no instructions with the harness but im sure I could look it up online, the wires on the harness are labled but the ones from the radio arent. Id rather be right then go with best matching colors on the wires. Ill check online when I get home late late tonight and try to hook them up.
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- 2002 mazda protege
you should just take the wiring harness back and get the right one, you don't want to start cutting back there and mess something up and have to replace the oem wiring harness.
the wire showing in the back seat can be fixed by runing it under the carpet and underneat the back seat.
as for the rca and remote wires running together, i just checked mine and i guess its fine because mine are run on the same side. (didn't know because somebody did mine when hooking up my tv's) the only reason i said do it that way is because i've heard that it might cause distortion in the speakers.
for running the rca and remote wire you just have to pull up the carpet and run them underneat until you get them to the front door sill.
as for the amp you could mount it on the back of the seat so you could access it easily and wouldn't get stolen if someone would just rip you box out, they would have to do extra work to get the amp and they are on a time limit usually. here is a pic of how mine looks on the seat.
the wire showing in the back seat can be fixed by runing it under the carpet and underneat the back seat.
as for the rca and remote wires running together, i just checked mine and i guess its fine because mine are run on the same side. (didn't know because somebody did mine when hooking up my tv's) the only reason i said do it that way is because i've heard that it might cause distortion in the speakers.
for running the rca and remote wire you just have to pull up the carpet and run them underneat until you get them to the front door sill.
as for the amp you could mount it on the back of the seat so you could access it easily and wouldn't get stolen if someone would just rip you box out, they would have to do extra work to get the amp and they are on a time limit usually. here is a pic of how mine looks on the seat.
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- 2002 mazda protege
you got all of the stuff for $50!!! i love florida, everything is cheaper down there.
also make sure you have a 4 guage or better power wire and ground (smaller the gauge, bigger the wire) so you don't underpower the amp and blow the fuse all the time.
also when you wire the speakers you could bridge them to get more power running to the subs. you take both + speaker wire and place them in the + sign where is says "bridge +". and then take both - and place them in where it says "bridge -" usually it will say on top of where you put the speaker wire +,- +,- and under that it will have the word "bridge" and have to lines following to only one of the + and one of the -.
after that crank it and adjust your gain so it doesn't distort the subs.
also make sure you have a 4 guage or better power wire and ground (smaller the gauge, bigger the wire) so you don't underpower the amp and blow the fuse all the time.
also when you wire the speakers you could bridge them to get more power running to the subs. you take both + speaker wire and place them in the + sign where is says "bridge +". and then take both - and place them in where it says "bridge -" usually it will say on top of where you put the speaker wire +,- +,- and under that it will have the word "bridge" and have to lines following to only one of the + and one of the -.
after that crank it and adjust your gain so it doesn't distort the subs.
mickeyreategui said:
Maybe a pic would help or maybe I didnt explain it right... I have the correct harness that I bought this morning, the harness is a plug with wires sticking out of it, the plug will go into the stock plug and the wires will be connected to the wires comming out of the new HU. The only thing I was saying was that the HU currently has the F-350 harness on it and I need to replace it with the Mazda one I just got.
You just have to know where to go to get things cheap, in this case it was the flea market, for something else it might be some other place. Its just like knowing you can get 10 cent cheaper gas if you just drive down the road a but further. But I guess while I have a chance to brag, Florida rocks! lol I love winter and spring down here, its so nice.
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- 2002 mazda protege
jeg0024 said:
i hear you, but there is no places really like that here, just best buy and others. but i know how it is, i've been to the magic mall down in tampa and its all like that.
Hey this thing is really starting to piss me off right about now!!! I have everything done and I go to take the stock radio out and it just wont work! I took the side pieces off and used the tool to stick in the holes on the side and I got the right side to lock in and that side of the radio is loose but I can get the tool to hook in on the left side and the radio wont come loose on that side. I was sooo looking foreward to having it all done tonight and now this, ill be taking my car back to where I bought the parts the other day and seeing if they can get the radio out, hopefully.
D-rock240 said:
Yeah, but as I found out later one of the clips were pushed in too far and the things wouldnt catch. Mazda has taken my radio out a few times before to fix the display but never really did anything so thats probably why. I ended up taking it to the place where I bought the wires and stuff and had him take the radio out, it was a pain in the ass so I gave him $10 just to be nice about it. Once I got it home I hooked up the new radio and hooked up the power to the amp. I put in some of my friends cds and it sounded great, except for my front driver side door speaker not working, im gonna check the wires tomorrow. I usually listen to rock music while I drive (system of a down) and I was messing with the radio and I kinda got it right where I want it but there are knobs and stuff on the amp to adjust stuff and I havent messed with that yet, what should they be set on? Thanks, pics up tomorrow for sure, along with my HID blue foglight guards im putting on tomorrow.
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- 2002 mazda protege
congrats!!!
