kickass audio

I got my 1/0 knu wire from him tuesday this week. It took awhile to get to me for some odd reason but none the less, it got to me and in perfect shape. When i was concerned about where it was due to it not arriving after 7 days i asked him and he was cool about the entire deal and said he would get on it and sure enough he did and assured me it would get to me but for some reason it was taking longer for me. Then 3 days later it came on my door step for me. The wire isnt in use right now until i get 3 more xs d3100's but it will be used when i get them all and start to make my subwoofer box and finish getting it designed. So overall, very smoothe transaction process, excellent prices, fast shipping (even though it was longer than i expected but then again i never ordered anything from outside of the us so i didnt know how long it would take), and it arrived to me as expected and in perfect condition. I would highly recommend buying from bre2ts again and if he sells something i am interested in, i would sure buy from him again. Thanks for the great sale man!!!

So my sister has a 2006 Chevy Impala with 60 some odd thousand miles on it and she has a O2 sensor problem. I dont know the exact code it gives as my dad had it checked out but it is stating that the bank 1 sensor is missing from the circuit. The guy who scanned the code said it was before the catalytic converter. So i jacked up the car and made sure it was plugged in and it was. I also checked all the sensors on the manifold, exhaust, etc. and none of them were loose. I unplugged them from the harness and put them back on and they clicked in place and locked in good. I didnt unscrew any of the O2 sensors because i didnt know if a faulty O2 sensor would throw a code saying it wasnt found by the computer. If anyone has something to suggest other than taking out the O2 sensor on that bank and sensor and replace it please let me know.

good catch on that. i didnt think of the 3sixty doing that. i did that to mine once before too.

have you perhaps tried to bypass the 3sixty? Try to hook up your rca wires directly to the amps and not through the 3sixty. Its a slim chance that it isnt working right. Also, since your 3sixty seems to be sensing a signal on its input, if you have a digital multi meter, try to put the positive on the middle part of the RCA and the negative probe on the outside of the rca (the outer piece that is thin and round) Set your DMM to AC volts and see if it reads any power. If it doesnt then your 3sixty is defective. Or you can do like i said before and bypass the 3sixty entirely or maybe save your configuration by going into the file>save as. Then reset everything on the 3sixty to default settings. When i hooked up my 3sixty.2 on saturday it worked really weird until i set all the settings on it just right. And maybe as a final resort, if the steps above yeild no results, try to go to radioshack or if you have one yourself, get a headphone to rca cable. Then get your ipod or other mp3 player with headphone outputs and hook one end to the ipod and the other end to your amp. Before you turn on the radio turn the ipod volume all the way down as the volume is somewhat loud on the headphone outputs. Then turn on your amp with the ipod hooked up to the rca inputs and see if it plays volume. If it does then that means your problem is between the 3sixty.2 and the amps, possibly a busted rca wire in there. If it doesnt then it seems to be an issue with your amps.

Not a problem man.

Ok I what if the battery is under the back seat? My car's battery is under the rear seat. Is it still ok? Also, I used my full length of wire instead of cutting it so around 17 ft of 0 gauge wire from the back seat to the trunk LOL In that case i would ground it right at the battery since you have all that wire floating around. Dont want to take a chance of it getting cut and shorting out on your body.

If its the wire going from a front batt to the amp in the rear then the fuse should be near the battery. However in the op's case i believe his batt is in the trunk with his amps and if so i would just fuse it right before the amp.

I am confused why you wouldn't fuse the wire going to the amp near the battery. Oh crap good call. lmao see what working all day can do to you? OP, you should take the fuse for both your amps and put them as close to the amp as possible. So for both your amps, just use one fuse and put it as close to the amp as you possibly can (1-3 feet is the usual distance rule)

thank you James!!

do what you want but im saying that a reducer will not work for your needs. And getting two 4ga runs will work but if i were you and i had the same problem id prefer to get just 1/0 and then split it after that.

If he uses a gauge reducer then he has to make TWO runs of 1/0. Thats a total waste of money and is going to be a bitch to install. If he is using two amps a reducer wont do jack shit as it will only reduce ONE wire. So whats he gonna do with the other amp??

for amps you ALWAYS fuse them right before the positive wire goes into the amp. Usually a good rule of thumb is a foot to 3 feet from the amps positive wire you should have it fused. Now the fuse rating depends on the size wire you are using. Fuses are meant to protect the wire more than your equipment. So if its 1/0 gauge wire you are running, it should be something like a 250 amp fuse for a 20-25 foot run. The one going between your two batteries NEEDS to be fused on both ends. So you will run a fuse 1-3 feet from the battery in the front and another fuse 1-3 feet from the rear battery.

Dude its not rocket science to run 0g and then a distro to get 2 4ga out of it. Honestly if you can afford the 0g id say get it now for future expansion. Hell i changed my system so many times in one year that i went with 8ga, to 4ga, to 1/0 gauge in 6 months. Id say get 1/0, then get the distro block and then get two short runs of 4ga wire. I think you will waste more money to get two runs of 4ga from your batt to your amps than to just run 1/0 with a distro block and then two short runs of 4ga. Plus if you do run two 4ga wires, think of what you may do in the near future with upgrading your subs and amps. I think its better to buy things right the first time around than to keep blowing money on making it right.

The diagram looks good to me but you do not need to have dual fuses on the positive lead going from your xs batt in the rear (i think its in the rear for how the drawing is made) to your aq2200. You only need a fuse just before the wire goes into the amp itself. You DO need to use a fuse on both sides of the power wire going from the front to rear batt or else it will keep arcing if it shorts out and you can kiss your car goodbye.

Hey bro, here ya go: http://www.audiosavings.com/products/Distribution-Block/DB-LINK-4-POSITION-AGU-FUSED-DISTRIBUTION-BLOCK-0-4-AWG/SFAGUFB-48.aspx This is something you should use. The reducers are pointless as you will have to run two runs of 1/0 from front to back to make it work. Id get the distro block like i linked here as it will take the positive 1/0 wire you have and split it up into 4 4-gauge wires or 4 8-gauge wires. Plus it is fused so you can put a fuse between each block for extra protection. I have one just like this at home and i know it takes 1/0 and 4ga for inputs but im not sure if its 4 8-gauge or 4 4-gauge outputs. It is fused and made by rockford fosgate and it is gold plated, but i used it and it worked great.

Yea i dont know of any tools to actually test the pressure on the belt. I just yank on it and see how far it moves and adjust it from there. Also i try to pull the belt straight off a pulley and if you can then the belt is either too small or just needs to be tightened up some. Getting the right amount of tension on your belt is a pain but after you get it you will have to adjust it down the line as the belt will stretch as it gets older. From what ive seen, when my belt squeals all the time, its usually 2 inches larger than the original length of the belt. And tomato, your humidity plays a LARGE role in belt slipping. Like i said with mine, if i let the truck sit a day or two and it rained one of those days, the belt will squeal for a minute and then stop once it gets warm and the belt dries out. This is normal and you usually cant do anything about it other than to stick your vehicle in a garage so it doesnt get as much moisture on your belt. Ive seen that most belt slippage occurs on the pulley for your fan (if you dont have an electronic radiator fan), your crank shaft, or your tensioner. Its rare that ive seen it caused by another pulley slipping.

Haha my belt tensioner testing tool is called your hand and a ruler from office max. LMFAO!! seriously though thats what i do. I find a good flat spot in the belt where i can put the rulers edge onto and then i mark where the belt was with some tape so you know where it was before you start pulling onto it. Then with one hand start to pull the belt up where you placed the ruler and see how far you can get it and jot down how far you go the top of the belt to go on the ruler. Then subract that from the measurement you got when the belt was just sitting there and that will be how much tension you have on your belt. Now its not really accurate as some guys on here are like hercules compared to the weak ass guy i am but i find it does a good job when i do that test.

Haha i know. Like i said earlier i tend to talk a ton on here. But id rather explain it in full detail so you guys all know what i personally did and know so you can possibly resolve your problems. Thats pretty much why i do it like that.

It depends. Usually from what ive seen working on cars with my dad for 10 years is that with belts when they chirp its usually caused from either the pulley being loose and not putting enough tension on all of the pulleys, your pulley itself may need some oils (very rare that this happens), your belt has glazing on it which means its deteriorating, or you have some moisture or humidity in the air to make it slip until it can get warm or rub off the moisture after a few minutes. On rare occasions with my truck if its a really humid day my belt will squeak for a minute until i drive it for the length of one block then it stops completely. What id do to make sure your belt wont snap if you tighten it is to take it off and inspect the ENTIRE belt. Make sure that there are no grooves that are cut out, bent out of shape or deformed. If they are then its time to replace the belt as it is slipping too much. Also what i like to do is to take the belt and bend it so that the ribbed part of the belt is bent outward. Then look at it, if you see that its cracked or hard to bend then its time to replace the belt asap. Also check your engine for this. Look at the pulleys on your engine or any parts of your engine that go over the area of your belt. Look to see if you have any black residue on it. If you do this means your belt is coming apart from either slipping or it had something come into contact with it. With my old belt on my truck before i replaced it, i had a drop of power steering fluid hit the belt and even though i cleaned it off immediately, it still gummed up the belt on the one spot where the drop hit. Also when you take the belt off check every one of your pulleys to see if they are worn out. For example if you have a bad air compressor the pulley sometimes seems to wobble. Testing it is just like how you can test your tires for a bad wheel bearing. Grab the pulley at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and try to move it left and right. If it moves then that pulley is bad and needs to be replaced. If it doesnt then try to put your hands on the 12 and 6 o'clock positions and pull up and down to see if the pulley moves. Same as before, if it wobbles then you need to replace the pulley, if not then your pulley is in good working order. And finally, do NOT EVER spray anything onto the pulleys to try and stop squealing. This will only splatter onto the belt and cause it to slip. Think of it as if you put bearing grease on your brake rotors. Your car wont stop well if you do this. Well same thing with your belt, if you oil it, your belt will tend to slip more. The only thing you should do if your bearing is in need of lubrication is to take the pulley apart and put bearing grease onto the pulleys bearings and put it back together which is a pain in the ass to do. You can easily tell which pulley is squealing by rotating it by hand. Now dont be a dumbass and try to turn your engines crankshaft or other major pulleys (the large ones) as they will be damn near impossible to turn, but spin your small ones and see if any of them squeal when you move the back and forth. If they do then they need some lubrication or replacement.

That sucks, i hate engines without the auto tensioning belts. They are a pain in the ass to get right. But what i usually do (this isnt accurate as we are all different in strength) but i pull onto the belt and see how far i can stretch it before it gets really hard to pull. Then i measure how far i pulled it up. If its going farther than a inch to a inch and a half then your belt is way too loose and id say loosen it up. If its anything less than 3/4 of a inch then its too tight. I keep mine at a inch but mine is a auto tensioning belt system so i just adjust it with getting bigger or smaller belts.

Youre welcome bro. I know i talk and drone on when i explain stuff on here but i cant really think of a easy way to describe stuff sometimes. And even if i do, it may not be something somebody else can understand. But thats pretty much what happens with h/o alts. The more strain to put out power, the harder that pulley is to spin and if your belt is loose, worn out, or glazed over the more you raise the risk to slip that belt and not get the alt to spin for a second or two. What i recommend doing is to get a new belt, a can or two of brake part cleaner, and a rag (i prefer a rag over paper towels but paper towels will work but you may get them to get stuck and rip on your pulleys such as your air compressor). When i replaced the belt on my envoy and my oldsmobile, i took the old belt off and before i put the new belt on i made sure that by simply putting the belt on all of the pulleys and see if the tensioner would get back far enough for you to slip the belt onto. If this does NOT happen then your belt is too loose. With my car and truck i got the belt so tight that i had to use a breaker bar and a 4 foot long fence pole to get the damn thing bent far enough back so i could slip the belt over it. I had the pulley move back maybe at most 1/8 of a inch when i put the belt onto it from being fully extended to tightening the belt. Yea i know someones going to say thats too tight but i have never busted a belt nor have i had belt slip. Now my envoy i do get belt slip only if i slam the gas down and it will slip for a fraction of a second when it downshifts but thats the only time it slips. But if your belt does fit then i took the rag and sprayed brake cleaner onto it and cleaned all of the pulleys of my engine. NOTE: do NOT use sand paper, steel wool pads, or anything abrasive like this on the pulleys as it will damage them and you can get pieces stuck and ruin your belt. But i cleaned all the pulleys off and put the belt on and it works perfectly.

Sorry this? crunk, the reason for this is because the alternator puts out power when its spun. When you have a heavy load on the alternator, the more it demands it to be spun faster to keep the alternator up with the current demand. Thats why if you ever notice when you are at idle and you put a huge strain on your alternator that your voltage will drop and so will your engine RPM's. This is due to the alt trying to get that speed to put out the amperage but not getting any since you are at such a low engine speed. Think of the alternator working hard like this... If you had a wagon and you were pulling it by hand it wouldnt be hard. Now add some dead weight like for example sand bags and then pull it. It will take some extra strength to get it moving. This is because you are straining yourself to try and make up for the extra load you are demanding to keep up with. The same type of deal works with your alternator. The more strain you put on the alt to put out more power, the more it will get harder to spin the pulley around for it as it has to make up for the power demand by getting more speed. This is why most ppl with high output alts say that their belt squeals at low engine speeds or at any speed but when they have excessive loads on it. The more of a load you place on a alternator, the harder it is to spin that pulley around. Thats why Matt from mechman recommends getting a new belt and possibly a new tensioner for your engine as the tighter the belt is, the less slack it will have for the alternator to start slipping and cause it to squeal. Believe me when i say i had a stock belt on my truck and it was so damn loose that just powering my little 2500w amp it was slipping the belt on the pulley of the alternator. When i got a belt that was 1 inch smaller than the stock belt it worked perfectly. It was a pain in the ass to get it slipped over my tensioner pulley but it worked out in the end.

how about instead of one big 5" pipe you use maybe 2-3 pipes to run it through?

can you not find a good spot that wont get hot and burn the electrical conduit? Because what i would say to do is get some of that gray electrical conduit pipe and run your wires through that. Then to anchor and bend it (bending will be a pain in the ass tho) get some metal brackets that are stainless steel and bolt them down into the metal of your truck. If you can i would use nuts and bolts to hold the pipe in place. Then like the other guys said on here use some of the expanding foam. Now what i personally did for when i ran my wires through the firewall on my truck and car, i sealed it off tightly by using some of the weather putty they have when you put a hvac system on your house. Like if you go outside of your house (if you have central air), look at where the condensor and power wires go through the wall of your house. Around the wires and the tube there will be like a rubbery weather putty that is very strong. I have used the same chunk of putty on both my cars (the putty i have is over 2 years old and it is still like its brand new) and i have not had any leaks with it what so ever. I would prefer to use the putty over expanding foam as the foam will break down when it get weathered where the putty from what ive seen and tested holds up really great. Now the putty from what i have seen is bad when you hit it with sunlight as it dries it up fast but under your truck i highly doubt that will happen at all. You can get the putty at home-depot, lowes, or any other hardware store like that. They sell it in a brick looking shape and it is usually gray in color but can come in black too. It is usually wrapped in white wax paper and goes for about $2-3. I wouldnt really run pvc piping because like you said it can build up with all the road crap and plus i find pvc is easier to melt than the electrical conduits they make (even though they are both pvc)

Umm yea, what does the motherboard read for the connectors where you soldered the 8ga wire to it? I realize that i should run the positive and grounds from the main board off the +12v1 area but what did you connect the 8ga wires to on that board? I want to make sure i dont do it wrong and fry any of my stuff.