I just recently purchased a 4 channel amp, 2 component speakers, and 2 rear speakers. I'm fairly confident I could instal this into my car with the right wires however I am not sure exacly what those are. I have looked into kits, but I'm not sure what kit to get, what gauge wires to get, or what is better than the other.
The amp pushes 675watts, the component maxes at 350w and the rear speaker maxes at 275.
What wires, and components do i need to get my system up and running.
I have a 2000 civic lx if this helps.

OK Ive been installing systems for 14 years and 10 professionally , saying that i'm telling you right now don't go cheap on wires
if you want tell me what car audio stores are around you and i can get you part numbers and how much they should be so when you walk in you give them a SKU number/s and they will pull them for you hahah i got connections

1) go buy a 2 amp 4 gauge amp kit ( it should have 2 sets of RCA's , a 4 gauge wire, remote wire , 80 amp fusees and 100 feet of speaker wire )

if you cant buy a complete kit then do this

1) buy 17 feet of 4 gauge hot wire ( it comes in red , blue or silver ,color doesnt matter ) 17 feet might be long but try soldering a 4 gauge extension [:-] you might need the extra feet depending on your placement of amp/s

2)you will also need ground cable that's 4 gauge just find out where the amp is going to be then measure how many feet from the best ground source and then buy that many feet

3) buy 2 17 feet RCA's ( Monster cable makes real good ones they make a solid 4channel RCA so yo don't have a extra cable running and its cleaner . Tsunami , Rockford Fosgate , Street Wire , JL Audio are also some good ones )

4) get 16 gauge speaker wire ( same brands as above make them ) 100 feet is good enough

5)you will need a fuse block for the hot wire coming from the battery get a 4 gauge AGU fuse block and AGU fuses , the fuses should be 80 amp .

6) you also need ring terminals you need one for the hot wire then you need one for the ground cable 4 gauge rings

7) remote wire its just 16 or 18 gauge wire that's usually blue in color it turns your amp on

Hold on before you start installing if you already know this cool if not here we go

1)when running the RCA and hot wire make sure that there on opposite sides of the car EXAMPLE ( if the hot wire is on the driver side then run the RCA on the passenger side towards the rear
2) when grounding DO NOT USE A FACTERY HOLE OR BOLT meaning don't undo the bolt that holds your seat belt on and put your ground there , make your own ground and remove all paint from the ground area
3)make sure that the AGU fuse holder is about 12 inchs away from the positive battery terminal
4) mount your crossovers that come with the components in the door if you can , it will eliminate you running wires in the door ( mount them away from running water from when it rains ) now if you want 100% good quality of sound then run speaker wires from the amp to inside your door to the crossover - or another way which is 45 mins shorter is to run wire to the kick panels and then use the stock honda speacker wire

FYI some component speakers are bulky because of the magnet if you run into this you will need a 6 1/2 spacer for the fronts Metra makes them

OK that's a bit for now message me back if you need wire colors or how to take the door panel off - good luck

First let me say thanks. Your post was very detailed and helps a lot.
I live in roswell, ga. As far as the stores around me uh. best buy, circuit city, hi fi buys. Thats about it, but I wouldn't mind taken a 30 min drive to another place if it ment cheaper cost.

From what you posted, you had said that I needed a 2 amp 4 gauge amp kit. I found a rockford one at best buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7662237&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat30100050007&id=1134701342243

I have a friend who works at best buy and could hook me up, but im sure that it would still be pritty pricy.
Do you know of any places which sell the same kits at cheaper price?

And if not, what about a 8 gauge amp kit? Would that not be a good idea?

Your welcome

a 8 gauge amp kit would work but i would strongly prefer 4 gauge if it was my car , think of it this way say later on you want a bigger amp or another amp on top of what you have , you don't have to swap the wires out the 4guage will hold. the 4 gauge will provide allot of power when your amp needs it

OK the amp kit in the link you sent does work but here's a better and less expensive one

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7662246&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat30100050007&id=1134701342298
(((if your friend wants a SKU for this its 7662246)))

with this amp kit the only thing left is a extra set of RCA's and you save yourself 25$
((( they didn't have the SKUs online to show for the RCA's just ask for 17 foot oxygen free RCA )))

so your total without a hook up is 99.99 + 15.99 = 115.98
the link you sent was $139.99 and had stuff you didn't need


*********or do it this way***********

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7662228&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat30100050007&id=1134701342188
(((if your friend wants a SKU for this its 7662228)))
you also need two sets of RCA's that are 25$ a pair and speaker wire that's 16.99$
((( they didn't have the SKUs online to show for the RCA's just ask for 17 foot oxygen free RCA)))


so your total without a hook up is 59.99 + 25 + 25 + 16.99 =126.98
the link you sent was $139.99 and had stuff you didn't need

when your friend hooks you up just remember one thing there is allot of mark up on amp kits so the discount is bigger sometimes 40-60 bucks off but any of the links i sent or evan the one you sent will work -

I think I will get the http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7662228&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat30100050007&id=1134701342188
from best buy, and purchase 2 sets of oxygen free rca cables. My friend already has speakerwire he said he could spare, and he says it's of good quality.

I have seen some kits which include the battery circuit breaker, but not the connection to the battery. I'm asuming this kit includes that connection.
Ok, well since I now know what I need, and I think I could probibly get tomarrow do you think you would be able to help me remove the door pannels. Also my front speakers are components and was wondering if you knew a good place to put them, or if you know any retailer that sells external tweeter mounts. And maybe a good location for the tweeter crossovers.

Thanks again for your help, it has been of great insight.

good choice

this amp kit doesnt have a circuit breaker it has a Maxi Fuse ATC, by the color its a 80amp which is fine for your application

first question before we dissemble you door is it 2dr or 4dr

the fuse should be 1-2 feet from positive battery terminal, you made a mistake in your post. but very detailed and you know what your talking about.

I have a 4 door 2000 civic lx. Ok, well I am glad to see that I am fine on the connection to the battery. :D

which one of those are good for this amp?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7730137&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03086&id=1140392384101

That actually is the amp I have, and will be connecting shortley.

Ahh you made me think on that one pad one

2 feet ????? negative ghost Ryder

MECP evan says the fuse should be 12 to 18 inches from the post i suggested 12 inches because of the civics small battery

you can go to MECP.com to verify it

ORIGINAL: ef4life

the fuse should be 1-2 feet from positive battery terminal, you made a mistake in your post. but very detailed and you know what your talking about.

any of them will do just fine just depends on how much money you want to spend but the same for his amp will do for yours

dukat03 in your first post you said the fuse should be 12 feet away, i was simply stating you made a mistake and should be no more than 1-2 feet away.

haha, ya, ya did saw 12 ft. but i didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. I think it' spritty safe to say he ment inches.

So... do you think you might be able to help me out with the doors? Cuase that would be awsome.

Hahaha yea i did, dang OK it was late and a long post but good looking out
ORIGINAL: ef4life

dukat03 in your first post you said the fuse should be 12 feet away, i was simply stating you made a mistake and should be no more than 1-2 feet away.

hope this works for you

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IF YOU WANT TO PULL THE DOOR OFF PART

on some civics depending on month of the car , the speaker grill needs to be removed and the screws that are hidden are behind it

when you pull all the screws and wires snap the door panel apart from the door beging from bottom to top .

pull up on the door to release it from the window seal and its off

Thanks, the Picture diagram helps a lot. When you say drill a hole for the tweeters "flush mount" what do you mean by that?

FLUSHED AND NOT FLUSHED

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i have components too. is it better to flush mount or not?

oh and i found this on cardomain.com, http://www.cardomain.com/item/KIC05CK44 .

flush mounting doesnt help the tweeters perform better it just makes them look better in the locations so yes flush mount them

and that amp kit is good for 4 gauge its a clean set up

Aight. I got my wires and need a little more help. How do I get around the firewall, and would it be best to run the battery through the driverside firewall along with the RCA cables, or should I run it through the passenger side.

do you have a standard or automatic , the only reason i ask is because when the car doesnt have a clutch there's a nice spot where you can run wires you most likely have to drill for and make your own hole but its a good location , most Honda's your year have a grommet that's located around the brake booster

its a rubber grommet and i would also recommend there ,if you can locate this grommet then use it

make sure if you drill or use this grommet that you seal it with silicone

run the wires on the opposite side of the hot wire , you don't want a chance of "engine whine " its where your alternator causes a A/C ripple and it runs through your hot wire and sends its signal from the hot wire to the RCA's which pass audio signals to your amp STAY AWAY FROM THIS PROBLEM AS MUCH AS POSSIABLE

My car is an automatic. I looked under the dash and saw a hole in the firewall with several wires going through it. It was behind the break pedal as u stated. There is also a hole in the firewall on the passenger side just under the glove compartment with wires going through. Do you think this would be a big enough fit for me to run the amp wire with the exisiting wires? or do you think I would need to drill a new hole. The existing hole looks as if it would be a tight fit, but i was unaware if maybe it stretched or if it was bigger than what I was actually seeing. Some people have told me to use a coat hanger.

don't run the hot wires with the other wire if you have to use a uni bit to drill a hole if you don't have a uni bit ( picture shown below ) then use a drill bit BUT BE CARE FULL WHEN USEUNG A DRILLBIT because it has a spiral and once its in the hole it will crab the drill from you and run in ,

when drilling make sure you have clearance and if your going to drill from in the car out make sure that you don't hit your brake booster and and wires on the other end --common knowledge but you always want to be cautious--

if your going to use the existing hole make sure that you buy silicone you can buy from home depot , walmart or auto zone , use the silicone to seal the wire so water doesnt get in , and make sure that the wire has some clearance when you run it through


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also use loom for your wire ,loom will keep heat off the wires and will hide the wire when its under the hood and make it look OEM

you can buy it from walmart , auto zone or home depot

if you want colored loom ( blue , red etc ) auto zone will have them as well

but black looks professional

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Thanks for the advice. I know you said to cover the wires with the lume, but lets say that I don't. If i were to run the powercable through the exisiting firewall, and onto the battery. Do you think I will be ok?

sure it will be fine....for now later on in the future you ll have problems like it warping from heat or changing color . if you run the wire through the existing wiring grommet , that's fine as well , just remember to silicone the wire around the grommet

ill always suggest a clean install , not only does it make it look good but it will perform good as well.

This is just a quick update. I have never installed a car audio system before, or so much as disconnected a car battery but I successfully installed my amp, and two rear speakers along with hiding the wires. I plan on installing the two front component speakers a little later when i have the time. Overall it took me about 4 and a half hours to make my connections. I think thats pritty solid considering I did it on my own. All I used to help me out was this form, a website, and a couple calls to expirienced friends for a few tips. One thing I have noticed and im not sure if it's my speakers, amp or head unit is whenever I have the volume at zero, I can hear a slight hiss comming from speakers. This may be becuase of the amped up volume but I was simply wondering if this was normal. maybe I have the gain turned up too high on the amp?

that noise can be 3 main things

-engine noise
-radiated noise
-cold solder joint

now all these are needle in a haystack , there could be many things that cause all of these , the noise might not be from your system at all it could be from a bad car stereo to a bad battery interfering with your system

FIRST thing you need to do is find out what type of noise it is . real simple turn on your car ( have the engine running) increase horse power by revving your car up to 2K to 5K then listen to the speakers and see if you can hear the whine , you will basically hear your RPM noise increase and decrees through your speaker--that's engine whine

SECOND cars engine is off , turn the radio down and then hit your hazard lights then turn signal and finally hit your brake , what your listing for is a popping sound out of your speakers every time something happens -- this is radiated noise

THRID cold solder , well that's going to be in the amp one you get step 1 and 2 you can determined if its a cold solder if it is cold solder the amp has to be sent out , but don't worry about that for now maybe its engine whine which is a easy fix

it also might be that your gain is turned up high

let me know what you hear and then i will explain how to fix it

I did ur tests. IT's not engine noise. It's not radiated noise. It most likley is gain. Eitherway im not worried bout it. I am very happy with how everything is set up. I got my front speakers in today with my own tweeter mounts. I didn't go flush mount, instead of screwed them into a triangular pieace in the corner of my window. IT looks great. In the process I did manage to break one of hte clips however it's nothing that some krazy glue can't take care of. I had to do a quite a lot of cutting on my doors to get my speaker to fit well enough to where I could put my stock cover on it but it looks nice. I tried spacers and those didn't work, either way all I have to do now is hide a few more wires and screw my amp somewhere on my car.

I"l post pics when it's all done.

welcome to the installation world

i cant wait to do mine. congrats on settin up your system.

Well It rained for the first time in a week since I instaleld my sytem, and to be sure I opened my doors to see if any water got in. Sure enough, water got inside, asmall litlte puddle. The crossover got wet, the wires, and the back of the speaker. As of now I have disconnected my front speakers and left them out to dry. I don't think any harm has come to the cross over or the speaker as I know they are made to get wet, at lesat a little.

I figure I put the doors back wrong, it could also be the small hole I drilled in the side of the door to run the wires, this hole was no bigger than the width of 1 wire. If any of you have any suggestions as to what I may have done, any would help. Thanks.

the crossovers are made to receive a little humidity not water , some can take condensation ,

if you had a puddle of water in your door then the panel was not put in place right , did you make sure when you put the door back that the top of the door slips in the window seal .

any time you make your own hole in the car you have to patch it with silicone or 3M caulk tape ,

for now double check to make sure the crossover and speaker work , once that's done then relocate your crossover if its in the door remove it and put it in the door panel ( on the inside of the panel ) and that will prevent water from coming in

I figured out the problem. The water is comming through the windows seal. I did put my pannel back twice, so that the seal is the first one that goes on, and to me it seems as if it is a perfect fit. However everytime I put it back in what i consider (the right way) water still goes through. I tested this by taking a hose, and puting it on my window, and i looked in teh door pannel to see if the water was comming from above. It was. The hole I made in the door had no effect, so it is strickly the seal at the window.

Any suggestions on how to fix this, I Have already reset my door mount 3 times, each apearing to fit. I know i didn't break the window seal. What can I do?

you ll need a new outside seal , its got fibers on the inside to give the window play when moving up and down but it wears after some time . the weather around your area makes a difference to , you can get it from Honda or the website below

http://cpwstore.carpartswholesale.com/buy.php?make_text=honda&ml=cvc-ex4-002&model_text=civic&year=2000&part_name=weatherst rip&brand_name=replacement&repcat=true&s=1

Aw damit man. I hate spendin money lol. Tell me this. How did I fk up my seal? Was it me, or is it that it's old. I know u can't give me a straight answer considering u didn't take the door pannel off. But seroiusly, what did I do lol!

there's nothing you could have done , the seal that's on the out side of the car just stays there during the pulling off of the inside door panel it doesent get effected at all by whats going onin the inside of the car (( it would be like saying after you put your backpack in the rear of the car you noticed 10 miles to the gallon less ))

it depends on where you live and how you treat the car

was the car in wreak before ? if so then they might have not fixed it right
are you in cold weather? if so then the cold gets to panels of cars , just look at a car from up north or east , they get rust on them and weak plastic parts
are you in warm or hot weather? if so then heat kills

if you take care of your car like waxing it , washing it , and maintaining it ( for example a bird craps on your car and you clean it before it gets dry ) then your car panel's will betaking care of ,

i worked on this guys car in the bay one time it was a 1970 challenger and it was in cherry shape from the 70s because it was one owner and it was taken care of , i pulled the panels very carefully because they might crack , its a old care , didn't evan have to the panels still had flex in them .

So do u think maybe that water got in my doors before I even took the pannels off?

I have a 00 civic ex and the speaker grille pops right off. A small screwdriver between the grille and door and your golden. There shouldnt be any removing of the door panel.

You have to cut the basket out of the door pannel on a 00 civic lx becuase aftermarket spekaers wont' fit otherwise. Spacers wont' work becuase the design is not completley circular. So ya, u have to take off the pannels.

you can install the basket , spacers or Even speakers without taking the door panels off it might require extra hands but you can do it , the professional way is to take the door panel off that will cause it not to bend or scratch .

and to answer your question " So do u think maybe that water got in my doors before I even took the panels off? "

yes , there's noting you could have done unless you applied allot of bend to the door and i mean allot of bend , which i don't think you had to at all

Ok, well I re took of my door pannels and put them back on, this time the right way, I even had a friend confirm it. Well it rained and a tiny little bit of water ran along the inside of the pannel. I don't think this is enough to cause any harm to the speaker however water could get on the crossover, so what If I did this for a solution. What if i put my crossovers inside my car and just ran them to the speakers in my doors. That way no component or wire will be on the bottom of the pannel where water can get it. Keep in mind the amount of water is rediculously miniscule. Think it could work?

So, I know it's 5 months since my last post, but I had to finish up this forum. I replaced my front window seals and that fixed the water leak problem. I have since then put my front speakers back in, and pu the speaker grills back on. I set up the input volume on my amp correctly, and I now enjoy excelent premium audio. I got the amplifier mounted to my back seat so everything is set up and installed. Thanks so much for everyones help.

p.s. I never wanna have to do this again. ha.

You never did add pics.......

i ment to, i actually had the pictures months ago when i started this thread but they have since gotten deleted. if u want i can take pictures of the speakers in my car.