Grounding wires?
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=3368
Printed Date: July 05, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Topic: Grounding wires?
Posted By: sador
Subject: Grounding wires?
Date Posted: September 05, 2002 at 9:11 PM
Hi every body!! I'm running 3 amps and a xover plus a capacitor,so how is the better way to ground all this separate or all togeter? thank
Replies:
Posted By: ih8u37
Date Posted: September 05, 2002 at 10:25 PM
Ground each seperately
Posted By: pervitizm
Date Posted: September 05, 2002 at 10:30 PM
You would want to ground the 3 amps crossover and cap and the same spot if you can. I believe they call that star grounding because you have all your components grounded at the same location. Or a better way is to get a ground disturbution(sp) block  and ground the five items to that block and from the block to a ground on your car. I hope that helps. ------------- live & die 4 tha luv of BASS!!!!
Posted By: Ryan1
Date Posted: September 06, 2002 at 12:57 AM
The only problem with the picture above though is that you want to match your power and ground wire guage, I hope with three amps and one cross over you are running more than 8 guage. you can find dist. blocks to split bigger wire, but I think that one above is a 4 guage input and 4; 8 guage outputs.
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Ryan
-=SoundStream Junkie=-
Parkin' Lot Pimpin' 4 Life
Posted By: pervitizm
Date Posted: September 06, 2002 at 8:14 PM
Yeah, I couldn't find a pic of the ground block that I had in mind so I just grabbed the closest looking one off crutchfield. ------------- live & die 4 tha luv of BASS!!!!
Posted By: mobiletoys2002
Date Posted: September 06, 2002 at 9:09 PM
street wires makes a distro block that can accommodate a 4 guage or 2 guage wire this may be the one but even still if sador is only running 3 amps close to this distro block with 4 guage or whatever from the battery and then breaking it down to 4 small sections of 8 guage this is fine being that the current capacity of the 8 guage will be higher if the run is shorter. Besides that his amp may only take an 8 guage wire an this would be fine. Sador your ground will will have the same current flowing through as the main power wire so if a 4 guage was run from the battery a 4 gauge can be connected to ground. and with a distro block the current is divided amongst the components so 8 guage will be ok to go a close run to the amps.
Posted By: mobiletoys2002
Date Posted: September 06, 2002 at 9:13 PM
Oh yeah a 4 guage can acomidate up to about 140 amps of current so if you add your current draw all together and you are within this range you are ok.
Posted By: sador
Date Posted: September 07, 2002 at 9:13 AM
Thahk you guys,I,m using a Dist. block (1)4 guage in and 4(8)guage out. 
Posted By: Garfunkel01
Date Posted: September 08, 2002 at 8:11 PM
WHOA THERE GUYS!!!!
No no no, Always ground each respective device to the chassis independently. I speak from experience here, i had a setup where my 2 amplifiers were grounded through a block to the chassis, and i had many many MAJOR power problems. Always ground each piece independently Especially the Cap from the amps. Just FYI, I had one ZX1000 and one XR460 Kicker amplifier connected through the block, I had Headlight dimming problems, alternator charging problems, and even once in a while, the entire car would "reset" guages, heater and everything immediately after a large bass hit. I rewired the car to individual grounds per piece and suddenly, the alternator started charging properly. The Cap should be grounded as close to the cap as possible, and each amp should be grounded as close to each respective amp as possible.
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Owner/Installer
Bassment Designs
Alberta Canada
Kicker in a Convert!! YAY!!
Posted By: mobiletoys2002
Date Posted: September 08, 2002 at 11:59 PM
Huh, i never had that problem before or heard this before oh well.  leaves me something to think about.
Posted By: Velocity Motors
Date Posted: September 09, 2002 at 7:55 AM
Sorry, but I have to add my 2c's..... try both methods before you shoot down one. I am a firm believer in the central grounding schematics because of what a ground loop is. GROUND LOOP defined : A ground loop occures when the absolute ground voltage of one unit is different that that of another unit. When you have a difference in voltages, and an electrical connection between them, current will flow in the conductor. In our case, we usually get noise when we are using an amplifier with our head unit. The amp is grounded in the rear, and the head unit in the dash. Sometimes one connection is better than the other, and the difference in voltage flows through the shield of our RCA signal cable. Because it is so close to the signal itself, it is usually picked up by the amplifier and amplified to our speakers. Now I'm not saying that using different grounding points is wrong.... don't get me wrong, but becareful that the ground that you are using in the rear for all your components are the same voltage as the one in your head unit. MAKE SURE YOU TEST FOR ABSOLUTE GROUND before you start drilling a hole in your chassis or frame. As far as the problems of Garfunkel01 being solved by removing the central grounding configuration.... good for you for finding that problem. I for one would not have found that problem because I never had that with central grounding. If there is an alternator problem or a charging problem I would look at the upgrading the ground at the battery or at the alternator itself. Like I said before.... try different avenues of wiring before you shoot one down before you try it. ------------- Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA
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