system overhual time???
 

Hey, so i recently bought my 97 lx, and it came fully wired, not correctly mind you.

so ok, it has 4 10" free air subs in the back dash, needs to be set in correctly and carpeted.

power cable is running through passenger door panel:mad:

has 3 sets preamp rca cables nicely hidden, im gonna take one set out!

has 2 seperate ground cables in 2 different locations!

ok, so you know the wiring setup, heres the kicker. installed an mtx thunder amp to power 2 of the subs, the setup sounds good (not great) in acc mode not running and on tuner mode on the deck, when i put a cd on you can here the laser searching the disc in the subs, and the sound quality is less than good. i know its not the deck because i had systems on it in my last car and never had this problem. when i start the car and turn the system on all you can here from the subs is a medium pitch squeel, loud enough to muffle the music to the point you cannot hear it.

im going to relocate the power cable and ground cables, then change the rca cables to another set thats already installed.

any information on locations for the power cable including best place to run through the firewall, and ground locations would be qreatly appreciated

also any tips and hints would also be appreciated, also what do you think would be the best way to seal the rear deck, and make it a bit more flush to the body...

thanks.
J

i would imagine that if it has two grounds then it at one time had two amps. the locations being different are probably because the amps were in two different locations. not really anything wrong with that. the subs picking up the noise from the deck, i know nothing about. as far as running the power cable find a gromet to go through. most hondas that I have seen have one behind the strut tower on the same side as the battery and also one above the brake pedal. those would be two good places. not quite sure what you mean by seal the rear deck and make it flush. what are you trying to flush it too? what are you trying to seal? do you mean building a box in the trunk to enclose the subs?

edit: in order to put 4 subs in the deck it would take a lot of modification. why they chose to run the wire through the door is beyond me but there is a good chance that if someone spent that much time and energy to modiy the car like that they may have had at least some idea of what they were doing. you say they subs were wired wrong. How were they wired wrong? were they series or parrellel or a mix? I am a bit confused of how they would be wired wrong. it would be hard to wire them wrong it would just put different impedances on the amps.

hey thanks for the fast reply,

i bought the car as it is now, the previous owner ripped out the rear deck, cut it all up etc, then fabricated a new one with 4 10" sub spaces,he did decent job making it but the deck is too long so the rear seat wont lock into place with the latch on the body, it sits about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch higher than the body, so its a bit lifted and loose, i know it will fit a little better once i trim it down and carpet it, but i need it to sit flat as possible and hopefully seal it up for better sound response.

i was also thinking about adding regular speakers and tweeters if i can fit them in, and connect them to the rear speaker outputs but thats for another day. maybe i can fit shallow speakers in the rear pillar covers?

as for the ground cables, im going to set up a central location for possible ground loop issues incase i get a second amp.

ok, so i moved the wiring and remounted the amp, the noise is still being persistant, so i looked at my service manual, and i noticed a fuse missing under the hood, fuse 16 - rear defog/noise condenser, im thinking this noise condenser thing may be the culprit? i dunno what it does but it has no power to it at the momment, so ill throw a fuse in and test it out

you need to ground the head unit to the chassis. you have a ground loop caused by too much resistance between grounds.

sounds like whoever did that work shouldn't be working on cars. i wouldn't trust anything. i'd start by removing the seats and console and carpet to get a look at the car metal. then start there, running the wire correctly while inspecting every inch. redo the rear deck, if trimming and sealing is all you need - i recommend decoupling the baffle using non-hardening modeling clay with a layer of deadener over top for a seal. you could silicone then bolt the thing down, but silicone stinks for weeks.

power wire pass through on firewall above the gas pedal, toward the inside of the master cylinder. use a grommet.

pics of this would greatly help! we're here to help!

leave all three RCA's. might as well.

don't put any speakers in the rear deck with those subs. they'll be destroyed by the pressure.

redo the front speakers with good components and get an amp on them pronto. :)

i happen to have a 3-way component set for sale...
http://www.caraudio.com/forums/speak...ra-xovers.html

yea, i can take pics. i cannot remove the seats and all right now as im injured, but i will. first off the power cable is way to small and short, especially for 4 subs. im going to get 4 guage wiring. im going to check for bad ground points throughout the car although ive experienced bad grouds in the past causing a shock when you touch metal, and also get that noise condenser going as i believe it sorta acts as a ground loop isolator someway deadining engine noise in on board electronics. i will also ground the head unit to chassis. as far as getting a look at the metal under the carpet what should i be looking for? im going to run the rca's down the middle instead of near the doors, and run the power cable on the other side of the mid console also away from other wiring

well, you'll get to see if anything else was cut and you'll have full access to everything. for me, it's usually step one. get feeling better. stripping a car requires a healthy body and two working hands. i can have my Accord carpet out in about 30-45 minutes, includes front and rear seats, center console, and front/rear sill and bottom side trim. 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm sockets are all that's required.

Hey, so I grounded the head unit to chassis, and the amp still makes this horrible sound while running, I've never been stumped on issues like this, any ideas

what head unit? pioneer head units have noise issues that are solved by touching a ground wire to an RCA shield.

where is the amp gain set at?