subwoofer ground

Sup guys,
I've had a 10 inch JL sub in my 2000 since I got it a bit over a year ago, which I wired myself. Its worked perfectly until a month or 2 ago when the fuse holder under the hood melted. I took it to a local shop to ask a guy what could have caused it and they said it was probably a problem with my ground wire not being run correctly. Like the dumbass I am i just got a new fuse holder and forgot about it but now its randomly cutting off so I'm going to rewire it now.

I've got my amp under my back seat but I was just wondering where a good spot to ground it to would be back there. I searched around and couldn't find anything and knew a bunch of you had systems so though i'd ask for some advice. thanks!

There's a perfect spot under there....unbolt the seatbelt connection, grind, or scrape some paint off, and use that as your ground. I used that same location for the ground on my 2 kicker solo baric L7 12's with a kicker 2500watt amp flawlessly...never had a problem!

Or borrow a seat screw for one of the front seats, that's what I did. Replace the OEM "oxide" screw with a zinc plated screw (M8-1.25x30m/m or so,) make sure the threads for the nutsert are clean, and put a little Ox-Gard on the threads when you put it all back together. Problem solved.

You can really use any chassis screw with the same limitations - I just happen to know the information for the front seat screws offhand. That, and your amp is probably on the floor - and those screws are easy to get to.

You can also put a ground anywhere you like - use a small ring lug on the end of the cable (#10 or 1/4",) clean a patch of sheetmetal right down to bare metal, and apply Ox-Gard on assembly. I do suggest the use of a flat washer under the screw head - crimp lugs are soft, and it's easy to bugger them up without a washer (it helps prevent the underside of the screw head from distorting the lug, and helps prevent the lug pulling over the screw head if something silly happens.)

Ideally, add the ground somewhere off to the side, and hopefully under something that's easy to remove for service. The use of a rivet is not recommended to attach the lug - not only is the electrical connection not quite up to scratch, but you'll probably need to tear the thing to bits at intervals to clean and service.

I have a problem with that guys assumption (the stereo shop guy). Think of your amp like a headlight bulb. If you put one in that has a higher amp draw than the fuse for the circuit, then the fuse pops, but a regular bulb in the same circuit doesn't. it only draws the power it needs for its rating. You amp is the same, it only going to draw enough power as it is being asked to. The ground can be put anywhere on the chassis, and to check just use a 12 volt tester to see if it is good.

I bet it is one of two things. First check the fuses on your amp. the sum value (add all visible fuses on the amp) will dictate the fuse size you need in the engine bay. A fuse rated less than this value will pop (and occationally melt), but one just a bit over is okay. I need a 75 amp and the closes one i could get was 80. The second cause, and the thing I bet it is, is that the power wire is grounding out. Depending on the severity of the open area in the insulation, or the possibility that a little wire is arching from the power terminal on the amp, it will cause different reactions. A grounded power wire will cause the first melting that you had, because the circuit tries to suck all the power through the ground out. All power will follow path of least resistance, so the battery power all tries to flow though that point, and causes a circuit melt or fire! A ground out that is a light arch and only touches once in a while will cause it to cut in and out also. Just like a bad ground, but more dangerous. Heres what to check.

First check the amp connections to make sure no little strands are touching other terminals. If that looks good check your power wire. Make sure that all points that there is a splice it is properly covered with electrical tape, or where there is a point where you drilled and threaded the wire through has a gromet. Make sure no little wire poke trough the electrical tape.

Usually if you have a bad ground the amp won't work or will work and cut in and out. If the amp is bad it usually will blow the fuses on the amp first or with the main fuse. In your case that the main fuse blew and the others are still good, I bet it is something to do with the power wire.

Take off the spare tire in the cargo area and the plastic pice behind it. You'll be looking into the body. There is a bigger bolt almost dead center and there might already be a ground to it. Just unbolt it, slide your wire in and bolt it back down. That's how i have my amp and back up lights grounded and they haven't failed yet.

if you were not getting any noise through the speakers you can pretty well assume the ground is ok as far as the fuse melting that could be from a power surge or number of other thngs and the amp cutting out it may simply be overheating if its not getting good airflow or the ohm load is too low for that particular amp.

the seatbelt bolt under the rear seat is what I use for my system. Never had a problem either. don't think about this too much, use the seatbelt bolt... If you have another problem, look elsewhere (it's probably not the ground).

I used the bolt for the drivers seat belt that is just off the floor board. Works great and no ground loop noise. Tried the ones under the rear seat but they didnt want to come loose and I wasn't going to risk break hte head off of one.

I realize this is old, but I thought I would add my story in anyway.

A buddy of mine had a 4 channel MTX amp pushing two 10" MTXs in a bandpass box. He was probablly pushing around 400 amps. He had the ground wire taped to the head of a screw. Dumb I know, but I knew nothing about stereos or electronics for that matter. Anyway, his setup worked fine for a couple years with the exception of the ground wire coming off the screw head every once in a while. I checked it out about a month or two before his amp finally fried and all around the power terminal of his amp was melted and the thing was just flopping around. I assume it happened because of the crappy ground, but I'm not sure.

When he got his second system in he had me take a look at it. I had a bit more experience by then. Of course, he had taped the friggin' ground wire to another screw head except this time his amp kept cutting out. I hooked him up with a solid, clean ground and he hasn't had any problems in the 3-4 years he has had it.

For grounds, I just look for a screw I can use and scrape the paint off from under it and put a washer under the screw. Also, don't use a screw that is too close to the floor, because there is a good chance it will get wet and corrode quickly. Especially in the snowy areas where they use a lot of salt on the roads.

I'm just now having problems with it again...I ended up using the bolt under the rear seat, which worked really well, but this system is confusing the hell out me and stopped working again...

The amp power light is on, so there is power but no sound. I checked my R.C.As; they're good...took of my deck and checked all ground wire and the remote wire conncetions; they're good...Checked all fuses and underhood connections; they're good so i'm really running out of options. The weird thing is I have a manual gain knob in my center console and when i mess with it sometimes the sub comes back for a second but then goes off again. I have no idea what is wrong and i've covered pretty much every angle, so i'm about to take it to the local shop and get them to look at it for me...anyone had a similar problem?