I am in the process of piecing together a full audio setup for my 07 Cobalt. I've got the deck, DIN trim kit, harness for the door chimes, speakers, and the sub, amp, and box. All I need now is the necessary wiring for the subs, speakers, and amp.
From what I understand, the door and rear speakers are just a remove and replace installation that is extremely simple, so I am really only needing to know which wires I will need and where to connect them to install the sub and amp. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

ok its easy you need a power wire with and inline fuse, ground wire, remote wire, and rca jacks. your run the power wire with the fuse depending on the size of your amp 4-8 gague wire is what you need run it from your battery to your amp. the ground wire usually 8 gauge from a ground on your car to the amp, the remote wire 22 gauge works fine for it from the wiring harness from your radio should be blue and labeled to your amp and plug the rca jacks into the back of the radio into your amp. then run speaker wire from your speakers to the back of the box inside and speaker wire from the back of the box to the amp you can bridge it or no depending on the setup you have and just tune it and thats it if you have any more ?s feel free to ask but make sure you have an inline fuse on your power wire if not you could fry something or possibly set your car on fire and once that power wire is hooked to your battery make sure it does touch anything metal cuz if you do youll blow your fuse.

 

Can't go wrong if you follow that advice. Well done.
Just wanted to add a couple things
1) Make sure the amps on the inline fuse are greater than the draw on your amplifier (if your amplifier has a 40amp fuse in it don't put a 30amp fuse inline, pretty common sense)
2)Make sure the inline fuse is 6" away from the Batt.
3)The thicker the wire the better. Unless your running one of those 6000 watt amps 4 gauge should do (anything bigger than 1000 watts and I'd go with 0 guage)
4) GROUNDS- The most important part, find a ground thats connected to he chasis of the car, DO NOT just screw onto the sheet metal, I used an existing bolt (the ones that hold your back seat in will do)
5)Place your system around your grounds, they should never be more than 24-30 inches long. The shorter the better is the rule of thumb
6) RCA's Dont go cheap. Buy the expesive ones, make sure there shielded, unless of course you enjoy engine whine through your speakers
7) Make sure you keep as much distance between the power wires and the RCA's as possible. A power wire has about a 1 foot radias to it in terms of interference. This will also create engine whine.
8) If your HU doesn't already have one place a 0.5 amp inline fuse on the remote wire (close to the HU) Better safe than sorry
9)Invest in a capacitor it will safe your cars charging system plus tighten your bass, a worthy investment
10) Finally, look before you drill. Make sure you know whats under what your drilling into. If I had a dime for every idiot I know that drilled into the gas tank or fuel line, or wiring I'd be a rich man
I didn't want to take anything away from the previous post, Its sound advise, from someone who has obviously installed a system or two. Just wanted to add my two cents

 

very nice guys can't think of anything that would have been missed. i for one learned most of those little tips that spun put out the hard way, with the ground though also make sure its bare metal so if there is any paint under the bold just take a screw driver and scrape it away to ensure a good ground. and ya when it comes to the wiring don't go cheap you will regret it later on.

 

not takin anything away good things said its small things like that that get over looked and you dont think aout unless your actually doing it and they can bring on a world of hurt

 

One final question (I hope).

I am running a mono-channel amp with 2 10" subs. I purchased the Rockford Fosgate wiring kit, but how EXACTLY do I go about wiring the subs in series from the mono-channel amp?

 

Most mono amps will have two speaker outputs on them, this is just to save you the pain of sodering the speaker wires together.
Are you sure you want to run them in series, or do you want to run them parallel? Unless the subs are DVC or can't handle a 2ohm load them you might want to think about parallel (its less complicated)
I woyld have to know a little more about your set up to give better advice but I can tell you this, there is a topice in he electronics, audio and video section called "JUST GOT MY NEW AMP NEED SOME HELP *pics*" in there you will find that Piston Head was kind enough to post diagrams of all series and parallel wiring. If you still need advice post the details of your setup and we'll be able to help you alot better. Good luck and remember have fun ... dont let it discourage you.

 

Well, the amp is an M850 Alpine 800w, and I'm running 2 Alpine Type-E subs. Also have the Rockford single amp wiring kit as well.

 

actually i consider series a bit easier since less wires are used... anyway if you know what you doing go for it. If not check out the wiring guides on the rockford fosgate site.... it explains all the ohm stuff easily. I would help more but im leaving for a week

 

It all depends on personal preference, some us, and I'm the worst for this hold grudges against things, if it didn't work once or something blew when it was wired like this, then we won't try it again, I guess it could be superstition.
Series, parallel, they both will work. when in doubt go with the easiest way. On the back of the sub box there are two speaker terminals right? Taker two eqaul length peices of speaker wire and connect them to the back of the sub box (pos. to pos. neg. to neg. on each side)now on the other end of the wires grab the two pos. and twist them together, do the same for neg. Now shove them in there respective terminals on the amp. and volia, your done. If you have or find an easier way then go with what makes you comfortable.

I have to comment on the rockford kit though. Its an 8 gauge kit, you should really go with 4 gauge but you can squeak by with what you got, however it only comes with a 40amp fuse. This will not due as I believe the alpine amp has 2 40amp fuses for a total of 80 amps. If you look in your owners manual it should say "place an 80amp fuse near the batt." Its as easy to solve as replacing the 40amp fuse with an 80 amp, otherwise you'll be blowing that fuse daily.

 

Sounds like a plan there! The wiring kit is a 4-gauge, and comes with a 100-amp fuse.

Rockford Fosgate RFK4X
# amplifier wiring kit
# cables meet or exceed the American Wire Gauge specifications and requirements
# 17 feet of 4-gauge power cable
# 3 feet of 4-gauge ground cable
# 20 feet of 18-gauge turn-on lead wire
# one 20-foot twisted pair RCA patch cable
# 30 feet of 16-gauge speaker wire
# MAXI fuse holder and 100-amp fuse
# assortment of wire termination hardware and cable ties