I got this jensen road gear 250 watt car amp. I tested it by plugging it into a 12 volt battery and it powered on, but when I wire it into my head unit it doesnt. I know the 12 volts comming out of the head unit is live cause I was able to plug something else into it and it worked. Ive replaced fuses tried wiring the hot wire in to the 12 volt and RMT on the amp and I get nothing. My ground wire is less than a foot long and is wired directly to the chasis. Any help please. I may half to find some other help

ummm, usuly when i wire amps, and when most ppl wire amps, they wire directly to the battery... maybe you should try that, i know some ppl arnt comfortable cutting a hole in their firewall, but somtimes its the only way.

Yeah, you should have wired straight to the battery. That's how every single amp I've used/seen has been wired. Besides, if you go from the back of the head unit, you have a crap load of power loss; that's probably what your problem is. Hence the fact that the wire the amp uses is (or should be) pretty thick; it allows for greater current to power the amp.

Oh, and your firewall should already have a hole somewhere for other wires to run to the engine and battery, so if you find that, you won't have to cut a new one.

lol yes, start by wiring it to the battery. out of curiosity, how are you wiring it to your head unit?

Most head units have a turn on lead (usually blue) coming from the unit to go to your components. Sometimes this is labeled as a power antennae lead. What is the model number for the head unit?

You're not going to get good results that way. What you NEED to do is run power cable straight from the battery, put an inline fuse within the first foot off the battery and then run the remote turn on lead from the head unit, and ground to either bare metal on the frame of the car or back to negative battery terminal.

my head unit is a jensen 3610. So if i wire it directly to the battery all i need is a thick cable and put that on the hot of the battery and the other end to the amp. The amp has a fuse. The other thing is that i want the amp to turn off when the car turns off. Im for no just plugging one 6x9 into the amp

what if i were to use the cigarette lighter as a power source?, but then I still can have the amp turn off with the car

The amp gets wired directly to the battery. The ground goes to the chassis. The HU has a remote turn on that goes to the amp. When you turn the HU on/off it turns the amp on/off by the remote turn on wire. Dont forget the RCAs too.

The only proper way to wire an amp is directly to the battery! It needs good clean current. You should be running at least 8 gauge wire or bigger. It depends on the current your amp will draw. A cigarette lighter power wire is not good enough to supply the current your amps need!!!!!!

Even though the amp is fused you still need a fuse close to the battery. I think a 30 amp is normal for most applications.

If you run the remote wire to your head unit it will cycle the amp on and off.

be sure to choose proper wiring gauge and be certain to fuse properly. Your asking for fire or damage to stuff if you don't fuse properly.

thanks. Since my cig lighter doesnt work and is unpluged ill use the hot from that which is wired dirrectly to the battery. The fuse on that is only 10amp i believe should i bump that to 20 or 25

You don't seem to understand. Do not use your cig lighter.

Read this. It will help you do things the right way.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-MQP9z5Oo0BZ/d...d/CarGuide.html

And you can't just make a fuse bigger without the risk of the wire melting and possibly catching on fire. You need proper gauge wires.

Leave the 10 amp fuse in! If it blows, then bump it up. You are safer with lower amp fuses. Put the fuse closest to the battery.

ok that guide helps some.

You cannot use a wire already run! You have to wire this new one in yourself. All the wires for the electronics in your car already have fuses, therefore they are not directly to the battery as you so believe. You must go directly to the battery and place an inline fuse right before the connection. That is THE way to do it.

i think you should have it professionaly done sounds like your kinda clueless i dont wanna hear you posting in three weeks about how you blew up your amp or burnt yourself bad trying to rig this thing up...

That crutchfield guide tells you pretty much what you need to know. You do it any other way, and you'll break something.

lmao ^ from expereince?

I installed my car stereo fine. I though installing amps was a peice of cake guess not. All I want to do is plug in one 6x9 to give my suv a little more bass. I have 4 5 and 1/4 inch speakers now. Its a 200w stero. Maybe I could just wire in that 6x9 without the amp or will I get more bass with the amp

omg take it to someone who knows what they are doing, everyone of your replies seems...well dumb...and repetitive.. and repetitive and repetitive....
are you even reading what people are posting, seroiusly...

"I installed my car stereo fine" i doubt that.

The best advice i can give you it get the hell away from your cars electronics.

Drive to a place which puts in amps and have them do it. Your going to set your car on fire trying to run a 200watt amp from your damn cig lighter.. omg...

Not me personally but I know people who have burned up wires and almost set their interior on fire.

I installed a set of components with crossovers and a 150w x 2 amp along with a head unit. I didn't have any problem but I did a lot of reading prior.

Also you need to make sure those speakers can handle the amp. If they are good speakers you'll probably be OK if the amp is 100x2. Just set your gain properly and don't crank the volume to distortion.

Installing an amp is easy. You just got to do some planning.

btw, if you want bass your better off with a small sub (8" or 10") over those 6x9 speakers. But then you need a good box. You can buy decent ones. What kind of car is it?

what do u mean u doubt my car stereo works fine it does. All I had to do is get the wiring harnes from isuzu and splice the wires together. I like experimenting and trying new stuff out. Sorry 4 beiing repetitive. My cars kinda old its a 1988 isuzu trooper not much room for a sub since the seats are folded down about twice a week.

power the amp directly from the battery, the black wire should be attached to bare metal on the car's frame, and attach the blue wire from the radio into the amp's "remote" wire, and it will turn on and off with the radio.

well success. I fixed my cig lighter and got one of those kits from pepboys the allows u to hook the amp to it. The blue wire i still gotta hook up. Do u think that by adding one 6x9 to the amp will make more difference than having one without the amp. Its a 250 watt kenwood.

ahh screw it the amp wasnt working this morning. Since i gotta take the car into the mechanic ill see if he can look at it. I may just try hooking the speaker into the preamp outputs since audio does go through that. Or i may just have a bad amp

Sorry bud. You can't run it from the preamps. They are not amped at all where your speaker leads have at least an internal amp.

I think at this point my amp is faulty. I got the inline fuse and wired everything very simple, just the amp no rca and speakers yet, It wont turn on and i get a few sparks. So im gonna ask my mechanic or trash it