So got to drive 4 hours and visit my family for mothers day, bonus is the fully decked out workshop of my dads with multiple bays and every tool possible.
Got to install my Amp kit and amp yesterday. With great results.
Tried to remember to take as many pics, it's by no means a 100% step by step but shows the important parts for this car.
First hurdle was finding a place to go thru the firewall. There is a large (about 1.5-2") grommet that all the existing wires pass though. It has some space to punch through and run a 4AWG power cable. Pics below.
This is basically a two man operation - I used a punch get through the two layers of rubber (make sure to have someone on the other side under the dash to feel where it's coming through and guide you to not punch or knick any wires. Once you know you can push through without damaging anything you need a wire pull tool.
Since the power cable is thick, you will need to use some super fine braided steel cable to loop around/through the power cable and pull it though. Again, i did it as a two man operation. I was on the engine side pulling, my dad was under the dash pulling.
With this combo - you get it though without pulling the entire grommet out of it's set position (and keeping everything nice and sealed)
Once you have it through its just a matter of pulling as much slack as you need to route the cable around to the battery terminal (will post pics of how/where I mounted the fuse tomorrow, it's dark outside now)
I ran the 4AWG amp power cable down the passenger side running board, under the drivers seat, and around the back of the center console to the amp under the passenger seat.
The wires will all be hidden right under the center console lip -- I wanted to make sure everything works first before I started making everything clean and pretty.
Grounding point is the passenger side front left bolt that holds down the seat. Taking the bolt out (10mm socket wrench) i used a wire brush wheel to grind/polish off all the black paint. This point has proven to be a solid grounding point into the chassis - and I get a good power through this point.
Will post more pics tomorrow. But once everything was hooked up it worked perfectly the FIRST time. So glad I went super slow and labeled everything when I was tapping the head unit and running my line out converter in my part one thread, link here:
http://www.kia-forums.com/3g-2011-ri...dding-amp.html
Sadly -- tonight I had a mishap due to my own stpidity of not applying the parking brake and my carport in the apartment complex getting some nasty face time with the inside of my door. results (with pics) here:
http://www.kia-forums.com/3g-2011-ri...tml#post421145
luckily it should be a $20 fix. Which makes me super happy as this car seems WELL engineered. Even hyper extending the door an extra foot to the point the checker assembly breaks, the door itself, panels, and paint are all flawless
Part 2 - Amp kit installation (with pics)
Linear Mode
