How to Wire a Car Stereo System

If you want to wire your car stereo system, no need to worry. You can do this quite easily with having a basic knowledge of electrical wiring and automotive repair. You don’t need any professional knowledge to do this job. Hereunder are given few steps to help you wire your stereo system.

Required Material

• Electrical tape
• Wire cutters
• Amplifier wiring kit
• 9 volt battery
• Utility knife
• Small piece of sand paper.
• Screwdrivers
• Pliers
• Wire strippers
• Guide to removing the dash and speaker panels of your car

Overview of Car Stereo Systems

Before going to do anything, it is important to know some basics about your car stereo system. It basically has four main parts: head unit, main speakers, amplifiers (optional) and the sub woofers.

• Head unit is the core unit of any stereo system. All the other components are attached to the head unit by pair of wires.

• Usually a vehicle has 4 speakers in total, i.e. 2 in the front and 2 in the back. Mostly, a speaker is broken down into two components, i.e. one for the highs and one for the bass. Each speaker connects to the heat unit through pair of wires.

• Amplifiers are used to provide extra power to speakers, most probably to power sub woofers. These are connected to the head unit through an RCA cable and a ‘remote on’ wire. These are also connected the battery via a fused ‘hot’ wire and also to the car chassis with a short ground wire.

• Sub woofers are used to enhance the speakers’ ability to produce deep bass. These are connected to amplifiers to the right of the sub woofer box.

Preparing for the Installation

• You need to have everything at one place before starting your work. Make sure that you have all the required tools and items at arm’s length during the work.
• Probably you required the following material before starting your task: an amplifier wiring kit which will contain all the wires to get power and signal to your amplifier; six feet of 14-gauge speaker wire for the sub woofers; a car stereo wire harness which connects the existing wiring for your old head unit to your new one. Speakers have their own wires.

• An important you need to have is the repair guide for your car model, which contains all the necessary information about assembling or disassembling different indoor components of the car like dashboard, door panels, floor molding and so on.
• You need following tools: Screwdrivers, pliers, wire cutters, wire strippers, a utility knife, sand paper or a file, electrical tape, a 9-volt battery, and any other tools that the instructions for installing the head unit and your car guides specify.

The Installation

• First of all remover the battery connections to avoid being electrocute.
• Take away the old speakers and install your new speaker by taking off the paneling of the speaker.

Mostly the speaker wire is connected to the old speakers with a metal clip, which you can remove from the old speakers and slide it on the new ones. If you don’t have the metal clip, simply cut off the old wire and strip about half an inch of it. Do the same with the wire of the new speaker so that you can connect both the wires properly. Afterward cover the connection with electrical tape.

Connect the connectors properly. The positive wire (red or white) should be connected to positive terminal and negative wire (black) should be connected to negative terminal. Speakers should be screwed back properly. And if you are using component speakers, then make sure that the crossover is properly fixed. You might need to wait before putting back the speaker enclosures until you install the head unit.

• Remove the existing head unit. Connect the wire harness of new car stereo to the connector that was previously attached to the old unit and the other end of the harness with the new one. Connect the antenna cable as well.

In case your new speakers have separate wires, connect them by stripping twisting and taping properly. If you want to add amplifier then leave the head unit unscrewed until you install the amplifier first. Otherwise put back the speaker enclosures.

• Amplifiers come with a positive wire and an o-ring on one end of the wire. This o-ring is inserted in the bolt on the connector, which connects it to the car battery. Connect the positive cable (thick red wire) of the amplifier to the positive terminal of the battery.

• Fuse should be held in the provided holder.
• The power cable should be run through the firewall of the car along to the back of the car where amplifier is located. The best way is to run this wire under the plastic molding along the bottom edge of the car. The remote on wire will run through the dash along with the power cable.
• RCA signal cable will be run through the dash from head unit to amplifier, on the other side of the car.
• Choose the place on the back of the car where you actually want to set your amplifier and subwoofers. This is so because; you need to connect the thick black ground cable to the metal frame of the car. This cable should not be more than 3 feet in length.
• Locate a bolt or screw there, remove it and sand it down properly so that the o-ring will sit properly in the place without any problem.
• Now you need to connect the RCA cable and the remote on wire to your head unit. Similarly, connect the RCA signal, ground, power and remote on wire to amplifier.
• Secure the sub woofer in the trunk or wherever you find it suitable in your car and connect it with amplifier.
• Connect the 14-gauge speaker wires to the right and left channels of the amplifier and to the sub woofer with speaker connectors.
• Now you are ready to fix the head unit in the dashboard. Check all the connections and make sure that they are all secure. Any lose connection may cause damage to your unit or will not produce the required results. Reconnect the battery connections after fixing the head unit in its slot. You are now ready to turn on your stereo system and enjoy your driving.

Points to Remember

• Make sure that your speaker wires or signal wires don’t run near the amplifier’s power wires.
• Don’t ever try to work on electrical system with having your battery terminals connected. Always remove the battery connections before working on any of the electrical system of your car to prevent any damage or injury.
• If you are confused about negative and positive wire, touch the speaker wire to a 9-volt battery. If the speaker moves forward, then this must be positive wire. In any other case it will be negative.