I have a question concerning the V-Drive amp that is in some of the Alpine amps, especially the 9815. I'm looking to get that HU but they say you need a direct fused connection to the battery and suggest getting a 10 gauge amp kit. Is a whole kit necessary? Has anyone installed an Alpine amp and had to do this? I would like to hear some suggestions about this. I'm looking to use the HU to power the rear speakers and not the front.

 

Come on....someone has to have heard of this, or might even had to do it themselves? Do you need a whole 10 gauge amp kit? I need info. Thanx

 

Well, Let's see...
I have the CDA-9815 unit in my Z now, but I installed an 800 watt, 4-channel kicker amp also. So I don't know if I can answer your question or not! By the way, what the hell was your question???

 

I have the 9813 but it too has the direct fused connection to the battery. In the Alpine wiring harness, there is a lead (yellow) with an inline fuse - this is supposed to be directly connected to the battery. All I did was soder a 10 (I think) guage wire to the lead and ran it to the battery. I am also using the hu to power the rear speakers only. Works great!

 

i did it the exact same way...

 

Ok, that is what I wanted to know. Is there another way to do it without soldering? I don't have a soldering iron. Also, how did you connect it to the battery? (ring connector?)

 

you can get some crimp style wire connectors at radio shak, but a sodering iron only costs $20 (at radio shak also). For $20 you can have piece of mind that all of your connections are good and wont come loose (soder the Alpine harness to the metra harness too). Definitely better than using the twist and tape method, especially after you have spent all that $$ on a good head unit. You can also get some ring terminals that will allow you to hook it up to the battery.

 

Ok, maybe an iron is the way to go then. So, you just cut the yellow lead wire and solder the 10 gauge wire I assume. What do you mean solder the alpine harness to the metra harness? I was planning to use an alpine to Nissan harness, along with another harness to plug into the factory wiring.

 

Here's another question about the Alpine's w/V-Drive that require the direct connect to the battery......which harness can you use? Do you use the standard harness that requires wiring splicing since you're going to have to splice one to the battery anyway, or can you use the double harness method which is Alpine to universal harness, universal to Nissan harness? If you used the double harness which requires no splicing on units that don't require a direct connect to the battery, how and where would you go about splicing into the harness to get a lead to the battery?

Thanks for the help.

 

I ordered a metra harness that plugs into the Nissan harness. That way I didn't have to cut into the factory harness at all. What I mean by sodering the Alpine harness to the metra harness is by taking both of these two harness and sodering the correct leads together. Then plug the Alpine side back into the head unit and the metra side into the factory Nissan side.

The metra harness that I got, did not have a lead for a direct connect to the battery. So the yellow fused lead on the Alpine harness (direct battery connect) didn't get connected to anything. So, now I ran a wire directly from the battery to the back of the dash. Removed some of the plastic coating from both the wire I just ran, and the yellow fused lead from the Alpine harness and sodered the two together. MAKE SURE YOU HOOK THE WIRE UP TO THE BATTERY AFTER YOU SODER YOU CONNECTIONS.

 

I'm still a little confused...don't shoot me!

Normally there's two wire harnesses, both with exposed wires on one end, and a plastic plug on the other end. One comes with the headunit, and the other you purchase separately according to your vehicle. You normally solder (or crimp) one to the other at the exposed ends. This is where you would run a direct lead from the deck's wiring harness to the battery instead of soldering it to the harness you connect to the car's harness.

Now, I know you can buy an Alpine to universal harness that has plastic plugs on both ends as well as a universal to Nissan harness that also has plastic plugs on both ends, thus elevating any soldering....just plug and play. Should you chose to go this route, where do you splice in to send a direct lead to the battery since there are no exposed wires on either of the harnesses since they plug directly into each other?

Thanks for the help!

BTW....I just picked up a brand new, still in the box, 7893 off of eBay for $250!

 

That is what I want to clarify too Stone Z. My thought right now is to cut the yellow power lead coming from the HU itself. So, that would be the alpine harness. However, I could be wrong and I hope someone jumps in here to comment. I'll be using the two harnesses as well.

 

I have a CDA-7894 and used to have an alpine V power amp which I recently swapped out. I have the 7894 which has 60watt peak V-Drive hooked up to a wiring harness i got at a local electronics store. I've had it installed for about a year (not in a Z) with no problems. The only thing I noticed was that with the amp hooked up and running full on a JL 10", the face plate would flicker. This could be solved by hard wiring the head unit, or by getting a capacitor. I personally don't feel comfortable with having my head unit directly wired to the battery even w/ a fuse in between but it's up to you. If you're going with an amp and sub set up you'll probably want to by a cap anywise.

 

I also have the 9815 and wondered the same thing. I ended up running 16 guage wire the the power of my amp behind the drivers seat because I thought this was easier than connecting to the battery. The *** clowns who installed my system ran this wire to the constant of the factory harness. When I fixed the problem it also eliminated the alternator whine I had.

 

So, if you're only going to be running 4 speakers (coaxials, not a sub) off the V-Drive deck power, then it's not neccesary to run a direct line to the battery?

Also...wouldn't running a driect lead to the battery give the H/U constant power whether the car is turned on or not? Wouldn't you have to physically turn the deck off unlike most where the deck is powered down when you shut the car off because the *hot* is wired to a 12-volt lead?

 

Yes.

Yes, this is the Alpine harness.

Yes, this is the metra harness I spoke of.

Yup, here is where the $20 sodering iron comes into play.

Exactly, the metra harness didn't have a lead that matched the alpine harness. So, using some 10 guage wire, soder it to the alpine harness (yellow fused lead) and run it directly to the battery.

This is not the route I went so I am unable to help you here.

If there is still confusion over this by this afternoon, I will take and post some pictures tonight in attempts to clear the confusion.

 

IMO, if I were to run coaxials, I would still run the lead to the battery. This is what Alpine designed the unit to do, the fused lead exists for a reason...

The lead in question (coming off the head unit) is not a constant lead. Yes, you are hooking it directly to the battery, but when you shut down the car, the head unit doesn't continue to draw power if you leave the head unit on.

 

Now this Metra harness (Alpine -> Universal), will that work for all Alpine HUs? Some Crutchfield guy seemed to think they are different and that I would have to use the Alpine harness (comes with it) and either crimp or solder the wires to a Nissan harness.

 

The metra is specific to the 350Z. The metra side will plug directly into the Nissan harness w/o modification.
<disclaimer>
I can't say that I am 100% certain that the metra will work with all Alpine HU's.
</disclaimer>

BUT, how different can they be? 4 speaker outputs, a ground, power, antenna, remote turn on, (you get the idea).

I would say that your 9815 won't differ too much from my 9813. Get the metra wiring harness and you will be good to go. I got mine from these guys:
http://www.audiowarehouseexpress.co...asp?mdl=99-7402

 

Ok, the Metra Harness is the other one then (Unv. to Nissan). So, is there a harness that plugs into the Alpine HU and into the Metra Harness? Does that work for all Alpines or is it specific to one kind?