I just ordered an aftermarket radio, I was just wondering where you guys ran the wires; ie power, RCA, and speaker wire back from the trunk to the speakers. I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out for myself, but thought I'd throw it out there.

 

I cut into the stock wiring harness. Also most aftermarket radio makers should have an adapter for the stock wiring harness for their radios

As far as Power for Amplifier in the trunk, i ran it like most shops would have and went through the firewall, under the door trim and between the back seat and the frame to the trunk.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=464783

In other words,go to wallyworld,get the Scosche harness

 

wally world... thats funny

 

Yea, I've already installed an after market head unit, the JVC KD- HDR1 which I highly recommend to anyone looking for a good head unit with HD radio [which is a huge improvement over standard radio, makes listening to AM actually fun, and the HD FM sounds better than Satellite in my opinion, now if they would just make the programming on FM better...]

But what I was asking about is for putting an Amp in the trunk, where did people run the wires from the battery to the Amp, and the RCA cables from the head unit to the Amp, and then the speaker wires back.

I'll do a pretty well documented job of it so theres more info on upgrading the stereo than just what size the speakers are.

 

Run the wires under the door sills....

 

it's shame that the JVC FM tuner is crap.
I think it is the worst I have had yet.
the factory radio in the malibu is better
the Alpine that is 10+ yrs old that I put in the Altima has a better tuner.

 

The JVC cd/mp3 (I forget the model number right now and the trucks not here) has a great radio tuner. I got stations in there I didn't even know I could get! I'm in North Florida and I get Savannah, GA and some Gainesville stations! Stock antenna...
________
MEDICAL MARIJUANA

 

find the model# and check out it's FM sensitivity ratings

 

The FM sensitivity for the JVC HD reciever is 11.2dBf, I'm using the stock antenna and I think the reception is pretty good, especially around the hills I live in. Better than the stock Bose radio in the Max

 

The best thing to do for your wires is pull out all of the seats and carpet. It is WAY easier to access everything. At least take out the seats. That only takes like 15 minutes.

Then, just find a path for each set. If you use heavy gauge wire (especially for power) you want to run them in a different location from the RCAs, or you will have noticeable lumps.

I am lazy and had extra money at the time, so I paid a shop to do mine. Well worth the money, IMO.

 

Hey man on the amp wire, if you open your door theres a panel under it.Take it off and lift up the carpet and run it under there. Thats what i did until i bought new carpet then i drilled a hole in the firewall and ran it through the middle of the car.

 

I have the JVC KD-lh1000 and the radio reception is great. Sensitivity is 11.3 dBf. To install the wires, I'd remove the rear seats, drivers side seat, and door sills. Then run it right along with the factory wires going to the rear speakers and antenna. Thats how I did it at least....

 

As long as it isn't still raining tomorrow I'll probably do the install then. I plan to run the power for the Amp and the RCA cables separately to avoid interference, taking the seats out is a pretty good idea so I think I'll be doing that. Thanks for the help guys.

 

I guess because I'm running 0ga power wire, I ran mine a bit differently from most.

I had to take off my driver's side inner fender cover, and run my power wire along the same path as the engine harness that's in that area. I pretty much did what Chris said, and pulled EVERYTHING out of the car (seats, center console, carpet...). Then I ran that wire along with my remote turn-on lead down the driver's side.

Other than that, I've got my RCA's running directly down the middle of the car (under the carpet, of course), and speaker wires running down the passenger side.

 

11.3 is pretty lousy compared to the 9.3 that alpine and Kenwood get, 8 that Pioneer gets, 9 for Sony.
The only brands that I'm finding with worse tuners, are Panasonic (12.2), Blaupunkt(17 hmy: ), and Eclipse (12).

and for those curious, Dual has 8.5-9


Lower = better

 

I finally finished installing my new speakers, they sound way better than the stock Bose [they were pretty dried out looking when I removed them] and will hopefully sound a little better after they break. What I really wish I had was a Dremel, I don't think I'll ever do something like that again without one. Cutting the plastic that the original Bose fronts are contained in was hell, and easily took me the longest amount of time.

I replaced the fronts with Polk's db5250, their five and a half inch speakers, and took a lot more cutting than I thought they would. It isn't pretty, but that speaker grill on the door is there for a reason I put the crossovers in the door map pockets, and havn't decided where to mount the tweeters yet, so they are just stuck on to the door with some double sided tape until I decide of a final resting place.

I replaced the back 2 with Polks 6x9's and they sound pretty good as well, those were a lot easier to put in, even though only 2 of the original screws would fit the mounts of the Polks.

I've got them all powered with an Infinity reference 7541a 4 channel amp, 111 watts per channel. Looks pretty good, and sounds great as well.

I ran the pre-amp wires down the center of the car, under carpet, the speaker wires from the front two down the passenger side under that plastic trim, and the power wire/on signal wire down the drivers side plastic trim.

I did this without removing the back seat, because I couldn't really figure out how to. If I took out the rear seat, and had a Dremel, and was organized, I probably could have finished in around 4 hours. It actually took me probably closer to 10. Either way, I wouldn't say that's to bad for a first timer.

 

I installed a Clarion DB245. Buy a harness and splice everything according to the supplied diagram. Make good splices or you'll be redoing it.

 

When you run those amp wires, make sure that the power wire, and remote turn on are NOT run next to the RCA wires. I like to run the RCA's down the middle of the car, the power wire down one side (I usually stick to whatever side the main wiring harness is on, drivers side on the Maxima), and the speaker wires on the other side.

 

I guess no one read that?