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Running Amp Power Wire in an 07

mystikarkitect

mystikarkitect

Full Member
Joined
May 9, 2004
Messages
149
Location
Houston
This is a question for those who have installed amps in 07 Avalanches, but does anyone know where the best place to run the power wire through the firewall is? I wanted to do on the passenger side but it looks to me like theres a plastic vent cover blocking it. Does anyone know where a good place to run 4 gauge power wire is? Its pretty cluttered under there in the engine bay. This is all I have left to figure out before the system goes in this weekend. Thanks.
 
drivers side. There is a large rubber grummet there ,just cut hole in that and run it through it.
 
I'm with you mystikarkitect, I want to take it down the passenger side.  I do not like cutting factory grommets, it's just an invitation for water.  I'm hoping to start on my amp install this weekend like you so I can't help now, but I'll post as soon as I figure something out.
 
Well after doing some scoping of things I decided to go down the driver's side after all.  There was just too much of that sound deadener on the passenger side to have a good feel for what was where.

I didn't use the factory grommet, instead I drilled a hole just above where the parking brake comes through the firewall.  I installed a Stinger 4g compression grommet, then packed some silicone adhesive around it for paranoia's sake.

Had to remove the back side of the wheel well liner - just a few pop connectors and a couple of 7mm head screws.

From the outside:

normal_mini-Avalanche_IVA-W205_Install_026.JPG


And from the inside:

normal_mini-Avalanche_IVA-W205_Install_027.JPG


It was easy after that to just pull the sill trim up and run it along under there.  Couldn't see it at all when I pushed it under the weather stripping.

normal_mini-Avalanche_IVA-W205_Install_028.JPG


Hope this helps.
 
Awesome stuff man, I really appreciate the info. Where did you run the 4 gauge from the battery to the new hole? I know that the battery is on the passengers side so this was another thing I was worrying about, if I should run the wire above the engine, below or what. Greatly appreciated man, and I'll post pictures tomorrow if the weather allows. Its been raining all week in Houston.
 
I ran the cable just under the cowl, zip-tied to the attachments for the hood release cable. I bought a Stinger amp install kit and it came with an 18' piece of 4g which was plenty to get across and back to under the rear seat where the amp will mount.  Probably had 2 extra feet of wire.

normal_mini-Avalanche_IVA-W205_Install_024.JPG
 
(y) You rock man. Really appreciate the pics and the info. It was another crappy day here so install has to wait till next week, but I can't wait now. How's it sound compared to stock Bose?
 
mystikarkitect said:
(y) You rock man. Really appreciate the pics and the info. It was another crappy day here so install has to wait till next week, but I can't wait now. How's it sound compared to stock Bose?
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I have the Alpine head in, but not the amp, sub or speakers.  The amp I'm going to use is in my Vette right now, and I haven't had a chance to pull it and put a temp amp in there.  Hoping by next week to have it all done.
 
One more question for you, how the heck did you get the plastic trim around the hood release off? The sill along the door pops off just fine, but I have zero clue how to get the other trim off. I feel like im going to break it because Im unsure as to how its held on. I see that you removed it to lift up the carpet. Thanks man.
 
mystikarkitect said:
One more question for you, how the heck did you get the plastic trim around the hood release off? The sill along the door pops off just fine, but I have zero clue how to get the other trim off. I feel like im going to break it because Im unsure as to how its held on. I see that you removed it to lift up the carpet. Thanks man.
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It's just a couple of clips.  Pull up on the hood release hand and just pop the trim piece out.  You may need to rotate it bottom-up a bit as you pull it out.  I don't remember specifically because it came out without any special effort.  The passenger side is the same, only without the hood release.  Maybe try popping that one first so you can have a look at where the clips are.
 
Got it man, thanks a lot. Im actually out in the garage as im typing this. Hate to keep bugging you, but whats the best way to remove the pop connectors on the wheel well? I tried yanking them out with some pliers but the suckers are stuck on really tight. Is there a particular way of getting these off? Its the last thing I need to do before drilling, the day's really cleared up out here.
 
mystikarkitect said:
Got it man, thanks a lot. Im actually out in the garage as im typing this. Hate to keep bugging you, but whats the best way to remove the pop connectors on the wheel well? I tried yanking them out with some pliers but the suckers are stuck on really tight. Is there a particular way of getting these off? Its the last thing I need to do before drilling, the day's really cleared up out here.
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They're 2-piece connectors.  Take a flathead screwdriver and pop the center part of it out, that will relieve the pressure on the connector and let you remove it.  I have a panel tool that I use - looks like a screwdriver with a sort of a crowbar spread on the end of it.  But you can get them out with 1 small and one big screwdriver too.  Look around the edge of the center ring - you'll see a flat spot where you can lever the screwdriver on the center piece.
 
Thanks man! Worked great, i didnt know that there was a smaller piece within the bigger piece for reinforcement. But I got em off.
 
Well after a long day of installing I wish I could report a successful install but it never seems to be the case lol. Everything worked great, I ran the cable the same way you did to the back of the truck, to a distribution block because the wire wasnt long enough, and then finally to the amp. Once connected the amp was on and working, but no power was going to the sub. No idea why. Tried the other subwoofer, and this one did work but sounded like complete crap. Turns out the speaker terminals that I bought from Radio Shack were both leaky and rattling. Crap. So it was getting dark and I took everything out only to find out that now I have a high pitched engine whine in the truck when I accelerate. I have no clue whats causing this, but Im sure it has something to do with the RCAs that are now running the full length of the truck. The power wire is no longer connected, the ground is gone, but there is still a high pitched whine in the truck when I drive. Argh...next weekened im gonna have to drag my head unit out and run some higher end RCAs down the opposite side of the truck, in addition to having to fix my leaky subwoofer box. Thanks for all the help man, I really appreciate it, hopefully next week I'll have good news.
 
You'll get it, I have no doubt. You helped me a BUNCH with mine. One step at a time, buddy, it'll work out.  >:D
 
mystikarkitect said:
Well after a long day of installing I wish I could report a successful install but it never seems to be the case lol. Everything worked great, I ran the cable the same way you did to the back of the truck, to a distribution block because the wire wasnt long enough, and then finally to the amp. Once connected the amp was on and working, but no power was going to the sub. No idea why. Tried the other subwoofer, and this one did work but sounded like complete crap. Turns out the speaker terminals that I bought from Radio Shack were both leaky and rattling. Crap. So it was getting dark and I took everything out only to find out that now I have a high pitched engine whine in the truck when I accelerate. I have no clue whats causing this, but Im sure it has something to do with the RCAs that are now running the full length of the truck. The power wire is no longer connected, the ground is gone, but there is still a high pitched whine in the truck when I drive. Argh...next weekened im gonna have to drag my head unit out and run some higher end RCAs down the opposite side of the truck, in addition to having to fix my leaky subwoofer box. Thanks for all the help man, I really appreciate it, hopefully next week I'll have good news.
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Glad to help, but sorry to hear you ran into troubles. Unfortunately a ground loop like that is pretty common.  Putting in a quality set of RCA's is always a good idea but not necessarily the fix, in fact it probably ain't gonna do anything.  I used Stinger RCA's in my Vette and still wound up with a ground loop.

There are two things to do to help minimize this noise.  When you run your good set of RCA's keep them away from the power wire. I try where possible to run the power down the outside of the car and the RCA's down the center.  It's ok to run speaker wires next to the power wire, but not the low level signal wires.

The second thing is to use a common ground.  In my Vette I had a ground loop just as you're describing.  I was using the factory NAV head so I clipped the factory ground wire and tied a new wire to it and ran that back to the ground I made for my amp - noise disappeared. 

Ground loops can be a pain to trace, but start with those 2 things before doing anything else.  Last resort would be to use a ground loop isolator, but that's absolutely a last resort as they definitely have an audible effect.
 
Well another thing that was really wierd was that my remote door locks werent working properly anymore. I'd leave the truck and let it sit for a minute or two. Id come back and try to unlock and it wouldnt work. So Id have to manually unlock the truck. Once the door was unlocked however, THEN the remote would work. Go figure. I didn't know what caused this so I pulled out the power wire and RCAs and Remote Wire and it worked after that. This weekend Im going to buy some higher end RCAs, run them down the opposite side of the truck and see if that fixes the loop. If not I'll use the common ground fix. I'll report back on Sunday to let you guys know how it all turned out. Life's just been so busy lately lol, its hard to find time.
 
mystikarkitect said:
Well another thing that was really wierd was that my remote door locks werent working properly anymore. I'd leave the truck and let it sit for a minute or two. Id come back and try to unlock and it wouldnt work. So Id have to manually unlock the truck. Once the door was unlocked however, THEN the remote would work. Go figure. I didn't know what caused this so I pulled out the power wire and RCAs and Remote Wire and it worked after that. This weekend Im going to buy some higher end RCAs, run them down the opposite side of the truck and see if that fixes the loop. If not I'll use the common ground fix. I'll report back on Sunday to let you guys know how it all turned out. Life's just been so busy lately lol, its hard to find time.
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Very odd... I haven't energized my wire yet so I'm not sure if I'll run into that.  Could be the path takes it too close to the module that controls things and the noise from the power is interfering.  Let us know how things work out.

I hear you about the time, believe me.
 
Unforunately couldn't do much this weekend due to rain. It's rained every weekend the past 3 weeks over here, I managed to find time last week but in between showers lol. I still have the whine. Here's the wierd thing though. The RCAs are still connected and tucked away near the head unit, and I get the whine. There is no power wire anymore, no amp, nothing. The RCAs were tucked away in the same exact place before, and I didn't get a whine. Now all of the sudden, I do? I'm kinda confused as to what changed, or if the current of the power wire was enough to activate the RCAs or something. I'm kinda confused as to why I didn't have engine whine before, but now I do after I connected it once. One thing that did happen and I'm hoping isnt the cause was that when I was removing the amplifier I forgot to take the fuse out, so when I was tying the wires together, the power wire and ground wire touched and started to spark. I'm unsure if this could be the reason for the ground loop, I wouldn't think so because that really has nothing to do with the head unit, rather just positive electricity hitting the vehicle chassis but you never know. I'm trying to think of every possibility. I bought some high end Stinger interconnects and will be using those, so we'll see how that goes. I bought a better grommet too and some nicer speaker wire, so maybe it was all for the best.
 
Have you tried disconnecting the RCA's altogether?  Could be that there's a problem with the grounding of the RCA jacks...

Also, I don't recall you mentioning what you're hooking the amp TO.  Is it a factory head with a module for the output or did you put in an aftermarket head?
 
Its a Pioneer Avic Z-1 head unit. Ill be dragging it out next weekend and plugging in new RCAs. I've heard that some Pioneer units are notorious for ground loops.
 
mystikarkitect said:
Its a Pioneer Avic Z-1 head unit. Ill be dragging it out next weekend and plugging in new RCAs. I've heard that some Pioneer units are notorious for ground loops.
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I've heard the same at Corvette Forum. To check for that, run a wire to ground and touch the outside (negative) connector of the RCA cable while it's connected to the unit.  If the hum goes away, it's the internal ground of the head itself.
 
You mean ground a wire to the vehicle body and then touch the outside (unconnected) RCA with it and see if it goes away?
 
mystikarkitect said:
You mean ground a wire to the vehicle body and then touch the outside (unconnected) RCA with it and see if it goes away?
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Doesn't matter what the ground source is, this is just a test.  I meant while the RCA is connected to the back of the Pio head unit.
 
I am in process of installing 04 gauge welding cable to the rear for amps  for a 2008. I spent 3 hours last night removing battery and trying to find a location.  I even drilled a test hole and came out in the passenger wheel Well. I plugged the hole reinstalled battery and found a better spot exactly where someone above had said.  I will have to drill a hole somewhere above and between the large factory grommet plug (about 3" in diameter) and the parking brake grommet.  First I have a large power distribution box in the way and some other plug holder that needs to be removed for clearance for drill and bit.  Car Audio is more than challenging to say the least.  That console was  gift from the devil with that cheap plastic sub  and very difficult to remove it.  I thought about the JL audio sub but $ 750.00 is a ridiculous price. it should be about a $ 300.00 item. Barely any air space so really would question the output and low bass.  :beating: :beating: :cry:
 
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