I've got an 06 LT.....So I got some cheap subs with an amp today from a friend. I hooked everything up properly... ran 4GA wire from my amp to the pos. by my fuse box, grounded it properly, and hooked it up to my head unit. I tested it with the car off and it worked fine. Then after I ran all the cables properly I turned the car on (The hot wire was only connected and I had the other end taped because I needed a different wire to ground it permanently.) And my CE light came on and I couldn't see the gear selector around the different gears. It also wouldnt let me shift into overdrive and seemed like the gear spacing was stretched. So i took it to the garage down the road and they re-set my computer and I unhooked the hot. I drove it 120 miles since then and its been fine, unhooked. Could having that 4GA wire hooked up have messed something up. IDK if i wanna hook it back up and screw it up again. Im clueless. Any help or ideas would be awesome. Thanks

 

could be that the amp is trying to draw some power but isnt able to because your not grounded?

 

That would make sense but I didn't even have the hot connected to the amp. Just the wire was connected to the battery and run to the trunk but taped up to be safe, amp was unplugged from all power (but plugged into the head unit)

 

you used electrical tape i assume? does the power wire cross any other wires or maybe fuses?

 

What do you mean by cross any other wires or fuses? (it has an inline fuse in the 4GA wire) I ran it from the engine bay inside the car under the carpet along the edge where all the other wiring for the car is. would having power flowing through it and not having it connected to anything or grounded interfere with the car's wiring next to it under the carpet?

 

the power could mess with some things but it shouldnt, like in my car right now im having trouble with the rca wires being messed with by the power wire.

 

"I hooked everything up properly... ran GA wire from my amp to the pos. by my fuse box, grounded it properly, and hooked it up to my head unit."

OK the 4 Ga battery wire HAS TO BE hooked up battery only not the post by the fuse box. and the ground wire need to go from the Amp to the chaise (bare metal )and no more than 18" long and 4 Ga also
that will fix your problem ...

 

?? Like with engine noise on the rcas ??

 

Thanks a lot! I need to go buy a longer 4GA wire now cuz it wont reach the battery. I got the 4GA wire for free, but now that i'm going to buy one, do I really need that huge of a wire? what GA would you recommend? What did you mean by ?? Like with engine noise on the rcas ??

Also, just curious as to why it cannot be hooked up to the positive terminal by the fuse box. I"ll never do that again though!

 

OK 1 at a time
look at as a hose or a straw a amp works best when it has a free flow of power for when the bass hits because or the bigger draw of power. That is why i think your having the problem with the way it is ran now the wire from the battery to the remote battery post is only 12 GA so your amp is drawing more power than that wire can handel...

So on to the next one. The 4 GA wire the best one to get is the one that has the most individual strands of wire the higher the strand count the better the flow of electricity to the amp

last one on the RCAs you can get a wine on the speakers (mids and highs ) Aka engine wine you get that when your RCAS don't have a enough shielding or your power wire is not a 90 degrees angle where they meet