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Amp power wire and engine fuse box?

mikeyp

mikeyp

New member
So I just bought a 2011 GTI a couple weeks ago and ordered an under floor sub box from uber-stealth, a shallow mount pioneer sub, and a small rockford fosgate amp. Haven't received the box yet, but will post some pics of the install and everything later. In any case, I've been reading around the forums for install advice, and did some looking around under the hood myself today, and I was wondering...

Is it possible to run the amp power wire to the engine bay fuse box, instead of directly to the battery. I've done sub/amp installs on like a half dozen cars and have always wired it directly to the battery with an inline fuse, but I'm wondering if I could do this differently.

I popped open the fuse box to find a few open slots. The open ones are H (80amp), F (40amp), and the far right one which doesn't have a letter or amperage - maybe just a direct lead to the battery? For what it's worth, mine is a 2011 gti, stock audio with touchscreen and no navi, and a sunroof. (see image below)


And was wondering if I could run my power to one of these open slots and then just use a regular fuse in the fuse box, instead of an inline fuse? I'm not sure which location either of the connections go to, so i'm not exactly sure which fuse i'd have to plug in. (another image below)


Any help, tips, advice, etc would be appreciated. I don't know a whole lot about the electrical wiring on these things, i've typically owned older cars.

Thanks.
 
GTIwannagofast

GTIwannagofast

Ready to race!
have you tried google'ing for a electrical schematic of the car? not sure if you'll find one.

the first question i would have running off of that bus bar is what is the over current protection for the main conductor from the battery. if you add the amp to some position on there, you are increasing the load on that main wire, and would it be able to handle that load without blowing a fuse or melting.
 
mikeyp

mikeyp

New member
Hey thanks for the replies, yeah I stumbled upon that fuse box map, though it does seem much different than mine... =/

Came across a post of a guy that installed his power wire similarly on an mkv, which makes me believe it's totally do-able. http://uavbob.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/gti-thumpin-in-the-trunk/

In the end I guess there isn't much advantage to running it to the bus bar, but I'm still curious if anyone on the forum has had experience with doing it this way. It'd be a slick, clean way to run it.
 
GTIwannagofast

GTIwannagofast

Ready to race!
most def' looks cleaner and it more than likely can be done... just a matter of the main battery wire and the bus bar being able to handle the additional load. what size is the amp?
 
Matt-mk6

Matt-mk6

Ready to race!
I was thinking about this when I installed my sub but I did what you we're going to do in my last car and it resulted in amp over loading and I ended up running power directly to the battery and did the same in the gti
 
maxtdi

maxtdi

Go Kart Champion
I wanted to attach it to that exact area also, folks here are recommending against it so I went with battery instead. Honestly I don't see how a small amp would cause a lot of issues, then again a 300x1 is not THAT small.
 
Credit

Credit

Ready to race!
Anyone connect with the bus bar instead of the battery? If so how powerful was amp and did you have any problems?
 
veedoubleme

veedoubleme

Go Kart Champion
Credit said:
Anyone connect with the bus bar instead of the battery? If so how powerful was amp and did you have any problems?
Click to expand...

My Amp is connected here, and if you read directly above where it's hooked up (block F) it says 40A, so it should be just fine. My amp asked for a 30A fuse. If you need more juice, block H is good for 80A.

 
veedoubleme

veedoubleme

Go Kart Champion
ch0sen0ne7 said:
what's the difference between that way ^^^ and this way...
http://golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30741&highlight=install

i hooked mine up the same way as mk6fan...i'm still in the process of running everything so my amp isn't hooked up yet but i'm assuming it's a safe way of getting power, correct?
Click to expand...

I think it's cleaner not to double up on posts if you don't need. Just go to the hardware store and get a 5mm lock nut (that's the size for the post I hooked up to anyway).
 
C

ch0sen0ne7

Passed Driver's Ed
veedoubleme said:
I think it's cleaner not to double up on posts if you don't need. Just go to the hardware store and get a 5mm lock nut (that's the size for the post I hooked up to anyway).
Click to expand...

but it's essentially the same as hooking it up directly to the battery, right? or is it adding more of a load?
 
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