ipb32

Just been checking over everyhting on my new Alpine head unit. Looked like it would all be straight forward and pretty much plug straight in (via autoleads adapter) - but..... the yellow "permanent" wire on the Alpine has a big grey box which has a choke coil and 20 amp fuse with a sticker saying "Connect direct to battery or fuse block - do not connect behind dashboard".

Does this mean I literally clamp a stretch of wire to the battery and join it to this yellow cable? Is there a particular gauge of wire and do I need to include a further fuse or is the fact that there is a 20 amp fuse in the grey box sufficient?

Sigh...and I thought it was going to be a 5 minute job....

Ian

AndyMoody

iTrader: (2)

Yes you do need to extend the yellow wire and run it directly to the battery. As the Alpine units run 4 x 60w they need a decent current (amp) supply which probably isn't enough through the standard wiring loom which could cause melting or things going haywire (fires) at a later date. I had same problem fitting an Alpine into my wife's Citroen, thought I could join red and yellow wires together and get away with it. I got a piece of wire from car audio dealer and wired straight to battery as the instructions say and everything is fine. Explain what you want it for and they will supply the correct stuff. Once you can find a way through the bulkhead!!

Good luck,

Andy.

chiark

have a search on here, someone's in the same boat... I think they ended up running it to the battery.

chiark

In reality, the worst that should happen is a blown fuse...

For routing to the battery, go through the aircon grommet on <=MY00, or through the ECU loom on MY01+. Both are in the same place - when looking into the engine bay from the front, they're on the right hand side as you look at the bulkhead, around 8 inches below the top of the bay IIRC.

ipb32

Thanx for that guys - really appreciate your help. Gonna have a go at fitting it tomorrow (got to Maplin too late today for cable, etc!!).

I've looked at the bulkhead and I presume you mean the quite big (2-3in diameter) gromet thing???? I presume I don't need to remove this - it;s just a case of threading the extra wire through? Also, presumably it comes out somewhere behind the glove box?

If you could just confirm the following that'd be great: -run very short piece of wire (8AWG???) from battery to inline fuse (20A?). Continue wire from fuse through bulkhead - terminate it with a female bullet connector and join it to the wire from the headset?

Thanx in advance.

Ian

chiark

That's about the strength of it, yes.

For the grommet, I think we're talking about the same one. It's taped up in the engine bay. Remove the tape, run the cable, re-tape it and robert is your father's brother... Washing up liquid, or if you've got some handy silicone lubricant is better (plumber's merchants sell it - it's near magical)

Nick.