I don't post in here much, but I have been as of late. I figured I would try and give back to the forum with a writeup on what I've been trying to do.

This is for a 99 Prelude. I've been struggling with this for the past couple of days, so I thought a writeup would be in order after I got the amp in. I don't have any pictures, but I figure this well help anyway.

Mind you, I've done probobally 20 or 30 installs, and this one was the toughest for me. I've never put an amp on a stock headunit, and between not having a pinout for the radio and other things it took me the better part of 3 afternoons to get this whole thing in. I know some of you may not agree with how I do some things, but please, your imput is wanted and needed.

Okay first things first. Get all of your supplies (wiring kit, amp, subs, box, tools, etc.). Get your power cord (4 guage or similar sizing, depending on how big your amp is) and cut it in half. You need to do this to put the inline fuse under the hood. Next, you can crimp your O terminal onto the end of the power cord that is going to be going on the battery.

Now you are going to need to drill a hole to the left of the clutch under the dash to run the power wire though. I could'nt get my drill in the engine bay to go that way, and almost hit the brake booster, so be CAREFUL!!!

Run the other end of the power wire through there, and leave the power wire UNCONNECTED under the hood (no fuse in the fuse holder at least). There is no reason to touch the power wire on the body of the car and destroy your fuse. That could lead to pointless troubleshooting later when you can avoid it by just not putting the fuse in or not connecting the wires back together at the fuse holder.

Now you need to pull off you surround on the headunit. It's just held on by clips, so just use a screwdriver at the top to pry it back enough to get your hands under it. There are 4 screws that hold the headunit in. I ended up taking a 8 way apart (the handle off) to get down in there..as the opening is deeper and thinner than any other phillips head screwdriver I had. As this was an automatic car, I had to put the keys in and put it in 1 to get the headunit out. Go ahead and unplug the radio antennae, and the main harness plug to the headunit. Here is where things got tricky for me.

Having no helms for the car I turned to HT...but nobody could really help me. I found someone with a Helms and checked in on it. The wire you need to splice into for the remote wire (blue in the kit, and it runs to the amp) is a WHITE/RED wire (white with a red stripe) in location A2 on the harness (second from the left on the top row if you are looking at the end of the connector). Now are the high level imputs. I chose to tap into the rear speakers, as they are run off of an amp anyway. The + for the right rear is a RED/YELLOW wire in location A5 (fifth from the right on the top). The negative for the right rear speaker is directly below that and is a BROWN/WHITE wire (position A15). For the left rear speaker, the positive is in position A6 and is a BLUE/YELLOW wire. The negative for that same speaker is a GREY/WHITE wire directly underneath the Blue/yellow wire (position A16).

I spliced into the wires by using a wire stripper and making two small cuts in the wire (just the sheath, not the actual copper wire). Then I used a knife to cut the sheath off of the copper. Wrap the wires around the harness and then tape/solder them as you see fit. I just wrapped them, as she is not sure she is going to keep the stock headunit.

You now need to run the remote (blue wire) and a set of speaker wire (I had to run two, as this was a strange 2 in one amp). I routed the wiring under the carpet twoards the drivers side door. I popped the panel on the door sill and then ran it under the carpet. You guys can figure this one out.

I then mounted the amp to the back of the seat. Boy was it a tight fit. A Kicker KX800.4 is HUGE with the shroud on it. It really just barely fit. Anyways, run the wires back to the trunk and mount the amp. Then you can put your connectors on your remote and power wire. Also, go ahead and put ends on your ground wire. I ran mine to a bolt in the spare tire area, as it allowed the owner of the car to still use the folding seatback.

Wire up your high level imputs, run speaker wire from the amp to the subs and Voila!! You have a new amp/subs in your Prelude!

 

hi , i just did a similar install on a 2000 accord and had one problem. Could you tell me where you ran the remote wire from the amp to? I ran it to the radio fuse, but the amp always stays on, even when the car is off. I don't get it, I thought it was suppose to turn off with it.? Any help will be apprecaited man. Thank you

Thomas

 

You need to tap into the ACC wire (labeled as ACC/main headunit power in a Helms manual). I found out what was wrong, and I had picked a bad ground. Once I got my hands on a multimeter I was good to go. If you have a pinout I'll tell you which one.

 

thanks man, I'll search for that wire, hope i can find it.


thomas