First i need a good place to ground my amps to in the trunk of my 97 any suggestions?

and Second I need to a know a good place to add a ground wire from my batt. to the chassis in the same car.

help is greatly appreciated - RaGa

 

In the trunk ground to a sanded, paint free section of the chassis with as few welds and joints between it and the alternator.

For the battery you can use the factory location. But you may want to step up the bolt size. You will have to tap out a larger threaded hole if you do that, but it is beneficial.

 

just use the bolts behind the back seat in the mid section.

 

I beleive that is a seat belt bolt. Remember that anything in the car that you modify in an unsafe manner is your resonsibility. If you get in an accident, no fault of your own, and the seat belt doesn't hold you are responsible. That has been upheld in court. Same reason our car alarms can't harm the thief.

 

also, ground your amps to the same point...you don't want a potential ground-loop

 

it is not a seat belt bolt but is two bolts to hold the middle part of the seats in the rear. I just removed the screw put the ground wire in-between it and put the screw back on. No big change at all.

If it it changed the seat belt in any way then you would be right

 

Don't worry, so long as that bolt is there for a reason the law will prevail in court.


Friend, if it is a modern amp then hopefully it has decent power suppy isolation and we won't have to worry about ground potential differences. But you are right to never assume anything is high quality.

 

thanks jmax i appreciate the informative replies

 

even with most modern amps there can be a ground potential difference between two diff grounding points..a few millivolts in difference can bring noise in...its always best to ground to the same point regardless....it just eliminates a chance of that being a problem in the future...its just a precaution..like if u only plan on using one small amp so you only run 8AWG wire to the battery...you might as well run a 4awg instead just incase something changes down the line...just precautions for solving problems before hand before they arise

 

I'm not denying the possibility. But it's a fault of the component you use as much as an install "error". The car audio companies have known of the data supporting quality power supply isolation for more than a decade. Like every technology field some engineers can convince the manufacturer to actually incorparate better technology into the device instead of marketing gimmicks.

Why use 4 gauge, when I have 4/0?