Amplifier install

[jd99gst]

This installation was done in a 99 GST Spyder. I know for certain there are differences in the trunk part, but to my knowledge, the rest of the article should be completely applicable. I took the pictures a week after I installed it.

I assume you have the following items:
An amplifier.
Amplifier power cables, remote lead cable, coaxial cables.
A screwdriver.
A pair of pliers.

ABSOLUTE FIRST STEP: Disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. You do not want to learn this lesson through experimentation.

Power
Now, you're going to want to insert the power cable through the grommet found by lifting the carpet up in front of the passenger seat. I took two pictures to show where it is, but it's really obvious.




After you fish this through there, you're going to need a hanger (and preferably, a second person) to fish it up to the top of the engine bay. Push the fuse through as far as you can get it, and wrap the hanger wire right underneath it for best results. We'll connect it later, as I don't like having live wires sitting around.

To the right of the grommet you put the power cable through, there will be a slide-type fastener, pull it out. To the right of that, on the side of the car, is a screw connecting the panel. Unscrew that, and pull the panel away. You can now safely pull up the side panel on the bottom of the door, as pictured here. There are only clips holding it in.


Run the wires from the grommet, underneath the carpet along the side of the car, and run it through the hole that is now exposed underneath the floor panel.



There are two clips like this, one on each side. Pull it, then pull the seat up. After disconnecting this, the whole back seat comes out. Put it somewhere clean.



Unscrew this screw. You should now be able to run the power cable through the carpet and underneath the panel you just unscrewed. It will run through a gap in the body where other wires are coming from - this may take some wiggling to get through. I do it this way because it takes the least amount of disassembling of the car.



The backing of the trunk is clipped on. You should be able to get them all off without much problem, and run the power wire to the trunk, as shown.

You'll also want to set up your ground wire now. Pick a nonpainted place on the body (or scape the paint off, like me), and screw it down.

[jd99gst]

Signal

Now, you need to get the signal from your head unit. You're going to wire it on the OPPOSITE side of the power. If you run the cables on the same side, you'll get interference from the power.


Run it on the left of the trunk.


After you get the signal into the car from the trunk, run it under the carpet next to the jump in the middle of the floor. You might have to move a lot of the carpet, which can easily be done by unsecuring it from the seat clip (the only thing holding it in place near there.)


Next, unscrew the console from the car. There is a screw on either side.


Now, remove the cupholder from the console by grabbing it on either side and just pulling. You won't break it.


Now, unscrew these screws.



Remove this bezel from around the radio and HVAC controls. A flathead screwdriver will do it, just pop it off from the top.


Now, unscrew these screws.

The whole console should be loose now. You can run that signal cable from the hump to underneath the console and by the shifter. You're going to want to use some zip ties here (one is shown in an earlier picture) to make sure the signal cable never interferes with your shifter.

Remove your CD player, and plug the coaxial cables into the back (you do have inputs, right?)



Now you want to hook up your amp to the terminal. Test it out by hooking it up BEFORE you put everything back together. If everything is working properly, everything just bolts back down in the reverse way you did it. Mount the amp, install the subwoofers, and you're good to go!


If anyone has any comments or suggestions for changes to this article, just PM me and I'll fix it up.

Josh


NOTE:

I received this advice in a PM.

"Trunk power wire routing tip for 2g awd

on a 2g AWD there are holes that the rcas and power cord can be passed thru to get them to the "trunk"... however to completely hide them there is a hidden hole under the plastic covering infront and aft of the back seat. remove the two screws you find after removing the lower back seat to remove the front panel completely so you can follow the original cable run and cable holders(accepts up to 2ga cable...) and remove two screws aft of the rear seat to lift up the bottom of the piece aft of the rear seat. Use a coat hanger or wire puller to find the hole and pull the power wire thru... and all your cabling will be hidden and under the trunk board.
This is for a 2g AWD, FWD are different in the trunk area..."

I received information that there might be additional screws to remove the cd player that I never put back after installing my head unit months ago. I also referred to the pre-amp outputs on the head unit as "inputs" - my mistake. Clearly, you plug the RCAs into the head outputs.