So the other day I was cleaning my car and was vacuuming my trunk area. When I moved the carpet back, I noticed in the right corner there were some wires. Inspected them closer and it turns out they are wires for an after market amp. (I bought the car used, I've only owned it for ~7 months) There's a L-audio in, R-audio in, Ground, Power and Switch wire, 5 wires total. I traced them back under the rear seat, through the passenger floor panels and up into the dash on the passenger side, but lose them at that point. It looks like a professional install, everything is very nice and neat and they don't look like cheap wires (Rockford Fosgate.)

So a few questions I have are: I don't see the hot/power wire coming from the battery, nor do I see any of that wire in the engine bay. Is it possible the power is coming from somewhere else, ie; the fuse box? Or does the power absolutely need to be coming from the battery? I ask that because... I turned the car on and turned the radio on and tried using a test light to see if the switch wire and power wire would light up. Neither of them did though. So I can assume that they aren't hooked up, correct?

 

The previous owner probably disabled the power wire you found in your trunk so that when he removed his amp there wouldn't be a hot wire laying around in your trunk... If you can maybe tug on the power wire where you follow to it last it might come through... Maybe its connected to the inline fuse and hidden somewhere in the firewall/engine bay.

 

When I got home from work I looked over the engine bay religiously and I finally found the wire. It comes out of a grommet on the passengers side and its in wire loom and zip-tied to one of the cars wire harnesses. That's where he cut it and taped it up. So now I need to go to the store I guess and get an amplifier install kit, because I need more wire and the inline fuse.

So that should solve that part of it. But now I'm wondering if he had an aftermarket head unit... Also, the REM/switch wire, should that be hot with power when the radio is on, or does that just send a signal from the amp to the head unit?

 

Chances are he had a head unit... But you never know... I am a little rusty on car audio (It's been awhile) but I am 90% sure that the remote wire does produce 12v power or some ****. A volt meter check would solve that... Take the deck out and see if it's connected, you'll have to do it eventually...

Now the Rockford Fosgate wiring... That is just a coincident right? your car doesn't have the rockford system does it?

 

No it doesn't have the RF system, and yes he had a head unit installed. I took the dash apart today and confirmed that. So I guess i'll be purchasing a new head unit sometime soon.

 

You won't need the 'amp install kit' - just go to PartsExpress.com and get the fuse and wire is... just wire.

You already have everything you need (once you get the new head unit, of course)

 

Yeah I know I can get just the fuse and some extra wire, but I figured i'd just get a simple kit and have some parts/wire left over for another project or incase something happens. As much as I dislike Wal-Mart, they sell amp kits pretty cheap, 8-gauge wire and fuse and all, like $15 bucks. Probably just go that route. I think I'm going to stick with the stock headunit for now though and just wire in a Speaker wire to RCA adapter... We'll see

Think I've been dumping more money into my car this past month than I've been taking in, haha. Should probably slow it down a little bit..