ICE How to wire a subwoofer and amplifier in a fiat punto.

Hey my names Alec and this guide is going to quickly show you how to install a car subwoofer.

First of all you need to make sure you have all the right items for this install.

Your basic subwoofer package should contain:

1 Subwoofer Box
1 Subwoofer (either installed in box, or ready for install)
1 Ground Cable (Brown)
1 Power Cable with fuse holder (Red and contains fuse normally)
1 twin set of RCA Cables (Normally 1 red and 1 black/white)
1 Amplifier (Active subwoofers have amp built in on box)
1 High level input (Required if stereo has no Sub Output)

Tools:

10mm Rachet
Basic Screwdriver
Hands (Maybe need a second person for power cable wiring - Optional)
Cable Ties (If needed, yet i never use them)


Thats about it for all you need, seems alot but with the sub packages they generally contain all of the above.

I will post images of all of the items later today when i am home.

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Stage 1 - Setting up
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Step 1) Empty the box and put the subwoofer and amp (if seperate) in the boot of your car.

Step 2) Unravel the power cable and lift bonet so access to the battery can be made.

Using the 10mm rachet undo the power bolt and slot the looped end of the power cable onto the battery screw and redo the bolt tight. Make sure its the end that the black fuse box is near the battery.



Step 3) Using the other end of the power cable which should be on the floor at this stage, locate the whole at the back of the bonet below windowscreen where it has other cables going into.



This is the tricky part which may require 2 people but can be done alone..

You need to push the power cable through giving enough slack so that it drops down. You then need to get into the car (passenger side) and look underneath the dashboard. Pull out the carpit a bit and look up under the dash and you should see the power cable dangling.. This is if it hasnt got stuck.



Thats easier with 2 people as one an feed as the other pulls. Once you have got this, pull the power cable through until there is hardly any left the battery side, leave enough so that the power cable can be tied to other cables under the bonnet.

Step 4) Now you have the majority of the power cable in the passenger side, manover it over to the left of the car where the pillar is, you should see some other cables (If you have the GO Model, i think). Push the power cable and pull it through the carpit so that all of the cable is coming out by the plastic cover for the door at the bottom.

Step 5) Using the screwdriver, remove the 2 screws at either end of the plastic foot cover so that the cover can be removed. Once these are undo you will have to pull at it in 4 different places as there are 4 clips that hold it down.



Step 6) With this remove run the power cable along the floor ensuring its tight so that it wont roll about. If there is cables already there, run them along the same line as the cables and attach it to them if required.



Step 7) Now you have the cables in the back of the car, lift up the back seat so that you can see the metal underneath. Feed the power cable up the plastic of the back seat so that it pops up on the metal which would be under the back seat. Pull all of the cable through till tight. You may need to try and tuck the power cable behind as much as the plastic as possible so its less visable. (You cant really see it anyway)



Step 8) Last part of the power wiring is simple, feed the power cable underneath the back of the back seat into the boot. Should go straight under with eaze. Then attach to your sub woofer power connection +12v.



DO NOT ATTACH UNTIL ALL WIRES ARE CONNECTED.


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Stage 2
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Step 1) Go to the boot of your car. Where the boot catch is there should be to black screws which can be remove.



Lift up the carpit slightly and using the Brown cable (Ground) Feed the looped end up the carpit till it pops out the top. Undo the screw and place the loop underneath where the screw goes and rescrew back in tight. Make sure there is no paint on the metal as it has to be bare metal for a solid ground connection.



Step 2) Relay the carpit back down and you should be left with a coil of ground cable sitting in your boot.

Same as the power attach to the GROUND section of the amplifer.

DO NOT ATTACH TILL OTHER WIRES ARE DONE

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STAGE 3
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RCA Cables

First of all you need to remove your headunit. Do this with the keys supplied with the stereo.

You then want to feed the RCA cables down the back of the headunit towards the drivers side of the car.

You then need to pull the RCA's down so that only a little bit is left at the headunit gap which can be plugged in. Push the RCA cables down the carpit collumn on the right by the door and repeat the stages of the power wiring from the plastic footwell on the floor until the RCA's are in the boot.





While doing the RCA's you should also run the remote cable down the with them as that also needs wiring and it saves you doing 2 jobs seperate.

In your boot you should now have a:

Red Power Cable
Brown Ground Cable
Twin set of RCA Cables
Small Blue Remote Cable

You now need to undo the screws / allen key connectors to allow you to put the wires into the correct connector block. You will need to use either wire cutters or a simple cutting knife like i did. Trim the plastic coating around the wires so only the copper is out, do this about an inch so you have an inch of copper wire at the end of the cable.

This will allow you to insert the copper wire into the connectors and redo them back up one by one.



Once this is done your all set to go. Make sure you check all connections are solid.

Check that all fuses are ok and inserted correctly and set all of the settings on the amplifier to 0

Now your all set, you need to set your amp up for optimum performance. If your sub is brand new, i recommend that you run it in on a low-medium volume for at least 15 hours.

The guide you got with the sub pack does recommend that you run the sub in for at least 30 hours before using its max performance due to the fact parts in the sub need to losen up as they may be stiff since manifactured.

The last 3 subs i have had i have run in for 15 hours turning it up slowly every few days. This speeds up the running in process as long as you dont go and wack it on full blast after the 15 hours, id say just keep it at a nice level for a bit longer.

Setting up your gain:

Turn the gain down to 0db (ie all the way to the - or 0) then turn your stereo up to 3/4 of the volume that you are going to listen to your music at. Then slowly turn up the gain until you can hear distortion in the subwoofer or clipping. Once distortion can be heard, turn the gain down slightly which allows for your music to be turned up to 100% if your listening volume.

Your gain is now set

Clipping is where the subwoofer is reacting to hard to smaller bass notes and then when a big bass note is due to be played the sub cant react big enough as its already near peak performance which makes the sub 'fart'. You will know if its doing this as its terribly noticable. I advise immediate turning down or risk of sub failure.

DO NOT FOLLOW THE SETTING OF THE GAIN IF YOUR SUB IS BRAND NEW. For starting use, turn the gain up to a quatre for a least 5 hours then slowly turning it up as you go through the hours up to 15.



Frequency:

Some people say the frequency is what notes are played through the sub. This is true depending on what amplifier you have. If your amp is a normal amplifier which can be used to hook up other speakers or tweeters. The frequency range will be different.

My amplifier is for my subwoofer only and is built for it. It has a xover Frequency dial which means its already crossed over to only play bassnotes. Turning thi frequency adjusts how much of the songs bass frequency level id like it to play.

If your using a normal amplifier its best to keep the frequency at about 80 and below. Any higher and your starting towards mid notes which can damage the sub.

Thats it! Wasn't that hard really was it?

Enjoy playing with your sub,

Oh and i didnt mention... where to place the sub:

Facing the sub towards the backseats increases punchier bass notes,
Facing the sub towards the boot of the car makes the sub sound deeper as notes are projected across the roof.


Thanks for reading

Alec