Re: E-xtraordinary Car Stereo Install
Well, folks, it's time for the return of an oldie but goodie. I'm reviving this thread.
Spring is coming to the upper Midwest. I know it will soon be spring because driving home last night, for the first time in months, a bug went
splat! against my windshield.
[Foghorn Leghorn]It didn't crack, the windshield that is. That's a joke, son, a joke. Son, you're more stick than popsicle.[/Foghorn Leghorn]
You do know what is the last thing that goes through a bug's mind when it hits your windshield, don't you?
Its aśśhole.
Hey, if it's time for an old thread, it's time for old jokes. :grin:
As it will soon be spring, we all know that in spring a young man's fancy turns to...
loud car stereos! Or in this case, an old man's fancy. This spring I will be installing two more amps in my Element, a second subwoofer, a trick Alpine processor, doing at least four and probably six more fiberglass buildouts, redoing all the cabling, in general, giving the system a serious upgrade. One thing that will be different this time around is that I will be doing much of the work myself. While I will certainly ask for help from my store's car stereo installers, you can also watch me do a lot of the job. This could be scary.
Hey, this is an old dog that can teach the young pups some new tricks. Yesterday in the bay, we wanted to mount a new tray for my battery (more on that shortly). The new tray completely covered up the mounting bracket and the installer that was helping me yesterday, Coats, was eyeballing where the screws should go. I said, "Wait a minute. You guys don't have any chalk around here?" They didn't but in the back of a deposit book we found some carbon paper. That will do nicely. I taped the carbon paper, carbon side up, on the hidden bracket. I laid in the new battery tray and wiggled it around, rubbing it against the carbon paper. We took out the battery tray and on its back were marks from the carbon paper. We knew exactly where the bracket hit it. If they'd had some chalk, I would have covered the hidden bracket with chalk. The result would have been the same. I marked for Coats where I wanted the three screws to go and when he installed it, he hit solid metal. Yes! I think Coats and Skull, our other installer, were both impressed. God knows I was. ;-)
Before I can install any of the equipment listed above, I have to make sure I have sufficient power. Everything was OK as long as I had only two amps in the car. The car's electrical system could handle it. But with four amps, the strain will be a lot greater. I was going to upgrade the alternator, but in another
thread it was determined that (1) there is no upgraded alternator for the Element and (2) our alternator is conservatively rated and probably puts out 130-140 amps anyway. That should be enough.
I will need to upgrade all of my power distribution before I'm done. All of the 4 gauge wires leading from the battery to distribution and the 8 gauge ones going to the amps will be replaced with 1/0 gauge and 4 gauge, respectively. It's will be shame to waste all that old wire but there is no choice. Running 1/0 gauge and 4 gauge under the floor should be interesting.
Some of you will remember that in addition to the standard positive wire distribution system in my car, I set up a ground distribution system. Initially I hooked up my grounds the standard way you hook up grounds in a car, with all of them running to a central point on the chassis. Unfortunately, I had bad noises. I had alternator whine both through the amps and the deck and even ignition noise.
Tick...tick...tick... Kicker has been advocating for a while running your grounds straight to the negative battery terminal and I did this, setting up a whole second distribution system. Viola! No noise. The noise floor in my car is now the thermal noise put out by the amps. It is dead fracking quiet.
All of that will get replaced and upgraded, too. :sad:
Before I could do any of this, I had to install a second battery in my car, one specifically for the car stereo. That is what this post will be about.
Every car I've owned since 1989 has used two batteries. I'm a firm believer in two batteries. One of them is dedicated to the car with the other one for the car stereo. Two batteries solve a couple of problems. One, even if you are cranking on the stereo all day, the car will still start. Two, the second battery acts like a giant filter cap, providing the stereo with juice when it needs it for transients. There is another
thread going right now about the need for add on capacitors in a car. Some people like them, others don't. I do up to a point. Still, no cap is as beefy as a battery. That is what you really need. You could just upgrade the undersized battery that comes with the Element. There certainly is room for a bigger battery. It would help both the car and the stereo. But nothing beats a second battery, dedicated to the car stereo. It is the best solution.
You need something that will separate the two batteries from each other when the car is off. Otherwise the inevitable potential that will exist between them will cause current to flow and they will drain each other. You can use a battery isolator but I like a relay more. It is simple. The
alternator thread refered to before is mostly dedicated to discussing relays. I won't duplicate the discussion here except to mention the conclusion. For my E, I bought a superb relay that was designed for the International Space Station. The one that's in my car is the same one used in space except it hasn't had to pass NASA certification. Cool, dude.
I visited outer space more than once back in the '70's.
It was out of sight, man. With my new relay, I'm ready again for the countdown. Too bad my rocket motor is out of propellant. :grin:
Enough talk. It's time for pictures:
How did Linda Park make it back into this thread? :? It must be all the space talk.
end of part 1