Worm

Hey everyone I am almost done with my system and I have the rear seats out with all wires ran but I cannot determine a good ground. I saw a similar post but it is for the 3rd gen TLs and IS NOT the same as my 4th gen BASE TL. Under the back seat on the right hand side there is what looks like a grounding point for the cars electrical, it has a gold bolt and a gold flat piece under the bolt with a black and silver striped around 18 Gauge cord going to it. Is this a ground and can I use this for my amp and LOC? If anyone knows a good place it would be much appreciated I want to finish tomorrow. Thank you in advance and please be sure that the same point will be on my 4th gen as I said the 3rd gen is different. Under the rear seat is where I would like to do it. Thanks for everyones help.

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

I used a bolt in the trunk underneath the spare tire. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly where it is and I'm at work so I can't check.

Maybe you can hook everything up and test it to see if the one you're referring to works? I pre-wired everything before having my box built and installed, and I did a quick test to ensure it worked before taking my car in.

melrob1

You should be more concerned about the length of your ground. The shorter the ground the less resistance you will have! Thus better power and risk of noise. Also make sure to alway remove the paint where your grounding. Needs to be metal on metal. Just make it within 8" of the amp location. Verify nothing is underneath and ground away! FWIW Im a 20 year car audio vet

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

^this.

you can ground it to wherever you want. just make sure you take in consideration of what melrob said

Stew4HD

Shouldn't he be more concerned about conductor size? How much resistance is a 10' piece of 8 gauge wire have? I doubt it is even measureable. IJS as an electrical engineer for over 25 years

IMO, as you said, have clean metal to metal contact s vital!

Worm

Thanks for everyones comments BUT I understand the ground should be short, I understand the paint should be ground off to bare metal, I understand the concept of a good ground. But my question was where to ground it?

Stew4HD

Have you taken out the side panels yet? If so, you can ground it where they grounded the XM unit

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

anywhere that there is a bolt! its your choice where to mount amp. where to ground.
but be sure to sand paint, metal to metal, etc

melrob1

Of course size matters but I'm assuming he did his homework and matched it up right. A car is an entire different world my friend. Noise from too long of a ground even if the size is correct is one of the biggest issues we see when back yard bandits ask us to figure our their noise problems. Resistance is a major issue with amps running of an already over loaded alternator.