How to: Hook up SUBS in your car.

INTRO

Ok, in this blog I am going to teach you how to hook up a basic subwoofer system in your vehicle. I don’t know about newer models of cars though, the newest year I have ever hooked one up in was a 2001. If your car is newer my advice is to just have Best Buy do it.

GETTING READY

Ok, first I will list the necessary equipment and parts. You will need; an aftermarket CD deck, a subwoofer in an enclosed box, an amplifier, a wire harness kit for your deck, a deck adapter kit to fit the new deck where the stock one was, and a complete system wiring kit including a power wire, speaker wire, AUX wires, remote wire, and a ground wire. You can find all of these at Best Buy.

DECK INSTALL

Ok, first things first, putting the new deck in. To remove the stock deck you have to pull the dashboard cover off and you should see the screws holding in place. Get the screws out and pull the deck out, then unplug the stock wires and the antenna. Now you have to put together the deck adapter kit. There should be a manual for it which is coded by vehicle make and year, find your vehicle and put it together as shown. Next you get to the super fun part, splicing all the wires from the new deck to the wire harness kit you just bought. Its color coded, pretty self explanatory. Just make sure you splice the remote wire from the sub wiring kit to the remote wire on the deck otherwise the amp will not turn on. Then plug in the auxiliary cables from the sub wiring kit directly to the back of the head unit. Then, tape the AUX cables and the remote wire and run them to where your system will be. Now just put the dashboard back on and if you did everything right, it the deck should light up and work with your speakers.

SUB/AMP INSTALL

Ok, if you want your amp mounted on your sub box now is the time to get that done. Once the amp and subs are in place where you want them you have to run the power wire to the battery. Unplug the positive battery terminal and reattach with power wire in it. Do this with the fuse already in the fuse holder. Now once again run this wire along the floor of your vehicle to the trunk or wherever the subs are. Now with the ground wire, find a good place to ground within reach of the amp and ground it. Now you should be ready to fire up the amp. First hook up ground wire to the ground terminal on the amp so you don’t fry it. Then the power wire, remote wire, and AUX wires. Now attach the speaker wires to the positive and negative terminals on the box and then also match it to the amp.

GO MAKE SOME NOISE

Ok if everything was done correctly when you fire up your car you should hear the rumble of the subs and when a song comes on they should work! If not just read through these steps again and make sure you didn’t forget anything. Now all that’s left to do is tune the amp according to how you want it to sound. Once you get it down you can start doing crazy custom stuff like this: