Installed Kenwood Sub...worked...not anymore

[Astheros]

Hey guys,
so i went out and bought a kenwood sub today....the model that is sold as a complete kit...comes in a box already and has a built in amp as well. well it says to wire directly through your headunit...like use your headunits power, ground, and battery wires on the harness. however, the sub has 2 ground wires coming out of it and also 2 battery wires. (black and yellow respectively)

well i wired the 2 battery wires to the battery wire in the headunit harness...kinda like 3 way spliced. I also wired the 2 ground wires to the ground wire in the headunit harness in a 3 way split form as well. the other wire from the sub left is the power wire(1) which i wired to the ignition switch on wire on the headunit harness again in a 3 way split.....this all worked fine and i was testing the sub for about an hour trying to change sound settings to minimize trunk rattling.

well i then decided to take all the wires apart again..disconnect my connections so that i could reroute the wires cleanly through the panels and not just through the rear seats.....connected everything the way it was connected before and turned the key to on position but deck wont come on and neither will sub.

my xm receiver still work and it is plugged into the cig lighter adapter. all my lights work on the cluster and car turns on fine. fuse 28 for audio unit is not fried.

i though maybe the connections were loose so i took them apart again....wires the headunit directly to its harness like as if there was no sub and it didnt work....i then wired the sub itself to the battery, power, and ground wires on the harness to see if maybe the headunit was fried but sub wont come on either.

what could it be. this f**king sucks...i hope my headunit is ok....it cost me 280 bucks. and sub cost another 180.

i just dont get it why it would work the first time and not the second time.

the only difference between first and second time was that since the sub has 2 ground wires coming...and when rerouted cleany the wires did not reach the ground wire on the deck harness....i took some 18 gauge wire....connected it to the 2 ground wires from the sub and then took the other end and hook it to the ground on the harness. in essence....i took the the ground wires from the sub (2) and turn them into 1 by extending them by a single wire. 2to1 cause of my addition to make it reach the deck harness.

i know this is long but any ideas.

recap:
installed self powered sub from kenwood that connect directly to headunit harness wires for power, ignition and ground.
sub worked first time around fine
disconnected wires to reroute cleany
connected again to headunit harness and neither headunit not sub works now
fuse is ok for the audio unit
all lights in car work and car starts fine.
headunit or sub will aslo not work even when connected individually.

 

[Melt]

wait wait wait .... you wired the sub to the power wire coming off the HEADUNIT?! ..... youre supposed to run a wire off the battery for that and then have an individual ground somewhere in the trunk.

Is the sub you got this one?

friend has it in his mustang and thats how we wired it

 

[Astheros]

No. i do have a power cable running in my car from battery to trunk but the sub i got doesnt need that much power....the one you pictured is an infinity sub...self powered just like my kenwood.

this is the one i got.

the sub came prewired on its end...it had a harness hooked up to it with a ton of wires....left, right speaker wires, battery, power and ground wires....i did not need to use the speaker wires cause i wired it with rca wires. in the manual and the guy at best buy told me that this sub was intended to be wired trough the 18 gauge wires in the headunit harness...which is what i did...it worked the first time but not the second time after cleanly rerouting the wires.

i would take pics but no digi cam.

ill see if i take it to best buy tomorrow for them to either install it for me...which sucks cause ill have to pay 70 bucks or maybe both the headunit and sub are fried....i guess ill also try to install my old headunit back on the car to see its something in the car or the headunit...if my old headunit works then i will conclude that i somehow fried the sub and the headunit....if my old headunit doesnt work..then i will conclude that something is wrong in the cars harness...like maybe a wire from the harness came loose or something else happened.

 

[Melt]

that thing looks like it can push some bass .... regardless of what best buy told you id wire that s**t through the battery with some 10 gauge at least .... i got 8 gauge running to my 2 10s with 500.1 amp

 

[Astheros]

that thing looks like it can push some bass .... regardless of what best buy told you id wire that s**t through the battery with some 10 gauge at least .... i got 8 gauge running to my 2 10s with 500.1 amp

but the sub comes with a harness all using 18 gauge wires. labeled, battery, power, ground, left rear, right rear, etc.

 

[1999stockaccord]

I would run the power right to the battery, after reading up a little on a few reviews said that they had the same problem, but once they ran the power to the battery, it all worked fine

 

[Astheros]

i saw some reviews saying to connect power to battery instead...how do i do that....do i take the 18 guauge wires and hook them up to the terminal directly?

also...they said their sub turned off at high volumes...this worked fine for me when i first installed it...its when i disconnected it to reroute the wires...then it wont work anymore...neither is my headunit....ill see. ill do some trial and error troubleshooting tomorrow.....if that doesnt work....i am getting my headunit and sub replaced cause i bought them at best buy

 

[K2_civic]

You definitely need a power wire from the battery, with an in-line fuse

These are the wires you need, you need 2 RCAs from the headunit to the amp (or you can splice into the speakers in the back, but this will sound like ass)

Then you need a remote or "power" wire running from the headunit to the sub, this is not the 12V hookup, this will be a little screw that says remote.

The actual 12V is a power wire from the battery to the sub/amp directly, where you also need the inline fuse

Then you will need a ground, which should be the same size wire as the sub

For example, I have 2 12" Audiobahn subs that are 1000W with 800W going to them (they are RMS matched with the amp), so I am using 8 gauge wire. Your power and ground should be thick ass wire, not 18 gauge, that would fry in my car in a second. Most of the time, the amp kits are not included with speakers, get one at the local circuit city or walmart

 

[Astheros]

You definitely need a power wire from the battery, with an in-line fuse

These are the wires you need, you need 2 RCAs from the headunit to the amp (or you can splice into the speakers in the back, but this will sound like ass)

Then you need a remote or "power" wire running from the headunit to the sub, this is not the 12V hookup, this will be a little screw that says remote.

The actual 12V is a power wire from the battery to the sub/amp directly, where you also need the inline fuse

Then you will need a ground, which should be the same size wire as the sub

For example, I have 2 12" Audiobahn subs that are 1000W with 800W going to them (they are RMS matched with the amp), so I am using 8 gauge wire. Your power and ground should be thick ass wire, not 18 gauge, that would fry in my car in a second. Most of the time, the amp kits are not included with speakers, get one at the local circuit city or walmart

it seems you guys dont understand...this is a model sold by kenwood...
its a box, with a sub and a built in amp....its only puts out 200W max power.
the sub comes out of the box with a wired remote to change the sound from the driver seat....it comes with 18 ft of 18 gauge wire labeled like a headunit harness would be labeled. it doesnt say anything about needing a battery connection with thick wire in the manual....the manual says to hook up directly to headunit. i guess cause its not that powerful it can be hooked up to the headunit.

 

[Astheros]

ok so fuse under hood was blown....i think its cause of the way iwired ground the second time around. well see. imma put it back right now and hopefully everything is ok.

 

[K2_civic]

Yes, I would search for things in your car that are not working and maybe that will help find the blown fuse, there is also a chance that there is a fuse in the amp, or even in the back of the headunit

 

[Astheros]

yeah everything in my car was working fine...i checked the fuse in the headunit and the fusebox inside the car but not the fusebox in engine compartment. best buy dude check it out and put in a new stronger fuse for me. took it home wired everything up and its pumping lovely...

great f**king sound for a 150.00 self powered sub in enclosure and easy install as it uses the headunit wires. no need to run wires to battery...i have one but its not being used. in a couple days ill go get some nicer rca cables for better sound.

it does come with an 18ft wires though so i had to stick a shitload of extra wire in the rear driver side panel.


THANKS EVERYONE FOR THE HELP!

 

[desiscrubs]

yeah, i would still wire it to the battery with some thick (8gauge) wire w/an in-line fuse and then run RCA's straight back from the headunit...less chance of frying anything that way...just my 2cents

 

[1999stockaccord]

yeah, i would still wire it to the battery with some thick (8gauge) wire w/an in-line fuse and then run RCA's straight back from the headunit...less chance of frying anything that way...just my 2cents

Most of us would suggest bigger wire, BUT thats not an option with this package and even if he cut and spliced in bigger wire (bad idea) it wouldnt do any good

Running the RCA's is gonna be teh best improvement he made


BTW- you can cut off the extra length of wire if you want... you dont have to and shouldnt just stash the extra wire under the panel...