I just got a new Pioneer headunit and I am looking to hook up a sub. My friend gave me his out of Firebird with all of the necessary wiring. There is an amp bolted on to the back of the subwoofer. I really have no idea how to hook it up, but I'd rather try it myself then pay someone $75+ to do it. I have included pictures, so hopefully you guys can help me out.

 

More pictures

 

oh dear. If you think only one wire needs to go to the sub you are in trouble. You need to read up a lot mor in just even simple speaker wiring than that. You would be WAY bette off paying $75 to get it done for you. Im warning you, you are about to bite off more than you can chew.

 

Here are wiring diagrams to get you started.

https://www.hondacivicforum.com/m_93609/tm.htm

 

I agree with remmy here... sort of.

Obviously you need to obtain a better understanding of how dc electronics work. There always has to be a power source (+) and a negative ground (-). Therefore anything that's hooked up to dc power MUST have 2 wires and 2 connections.

Civics are some of the easiest cars to wire subs up in. There's tons of useable gromets in the firewall to run your power wire through.

First things first run your power wire through the firewall... from the outside in. Even tho it seems easier to get to from the inside your fuse has to be in the engine bay and that won't fit through the grommet. Then run the wire under the kickpanel through the car and under the back seat into the trunk.

The rca connectors plug into the back of your head unit. You might have 2 wires coming out with rca connectors already that say 'sub out' plug into those if you have them. If not you should have rca ports on the HU. Doesn't matter which way you connect them they'll work either way. Run those on the opposite side of the car the same way you ran the power wire.

Next you need to find a good ground point. Somewhere on the chassis. A real good place is the bolts that hold the back seat backrest. Take one of those bolts off and use the eye connector that should be on your ground wire to put the bolt through then bolt that back in. You don't have to use that but its a good spot. Any pretty solid metal area will work.

You also need to run a remote wire. Should be like 16g or 18g wire that looks like speaker wire. Run that from the blue wire coming from your HU. Then run it next to your power wire.. Not your rca.

(By the way make sure that your battery's ground wire is disconected during all of your connecting or you could blow a fuse or worse yet give yourself a hefty shock.)

When you have all your wires run hook them up to your amp. Then hook up some speaker wire from your speaker out ports on the amp and int the connectors on the box.. + to + and - to -. I'm not even gunna explain bridging right now tho. So just do it that way. Whe you have all that hooked up.. Hook up your power wire to your battery. Then reconnect your ground wire on your battery turn on the music and feel the bump.

Anybody feel free to interject if yu feel that I gave the wrong procedure or if I left something out.

Hope this helped out. Let us know how it goes.

 

nice explanation billy, that helped me out too! good luck with your sub hook up man[8D]

 

Thanks guys for the help. It was all helpful.
Only one thing and then I think I'll be set.

Instead of running the remote wire to the HU, am I able to run it to a switch and then run the switch to the + of the battery?

 

You could, but forget to turn it off one night and wake to find a dead battery.

It just makes more sense to run it to a power source thats ACC activated. You can still run a switch, but don't run it straight to the battery, find a wire, even your cig lighter power will work, that only has power when the key is turned on.

 

Okay, for the cig lighter there is a black and yellow. I would need to strip the yellow one and use that, correct? Also, to strip it would I need to disconnect the battery?

 

I am not looking at my manual atm, but I would only assume that the black would be ground and yellow power. You can look in your fuse box down under the dash, find the cig. lighter fuse, and pull it before splicing into the wire, if you don't want to take the battery cables off. Then when you get the wire run where you want it and switched properly, just plug the fuse back in. If theres a short somewhere it will pop, then you know you did something wrong and need to check it out.

If you switch it, make sure to ground the switch well to something under the dash. There are all kinds of screws under there that touch metal, something tight would be ideal.