I sent black_friday a PM asking for his assistance. Should be soon.

buy a cheap step bit for a drill at lowes or home depot. they are very useful in these situations. Be carfeul though. First look in the engine compartment and find an area near the driver side where there is no wiring ran. After you find a free spot, check the inside to make sure that same are is clear as well. Next drill the hole. Don't use too much pressure because you may push the bit straight through. Also make sure you are aware of the size of the gromet that you are usuing and yes you absolutely have to use a gromet. If you plan on run 0wg in the future, I'd definitely run at least 4wg now. It gives you a better starting point than 8ga. Lastly, if you can't find a safe spot on the drivers side of the fire wall, don't be afraid to run it through the passenger side. from that point you could run it down the passenger side or cross it over once you get through the fire wall. Let me know if you have any other questions. Btw don't run your power wire next to speaker wires. It will give you engine noise

But if you have to, install a couple of these ferrite chokes. These should help stop the A/C hum from your alternator. All they do is snap over the wire and close shut. Done.

Actually, I've already gotten the power wire through the firewall as of yesterday afternoon. But now, I have no idea why, I have fried my amp.

All the wiring was just as it should have been, ground secure, all fuses great.

Once I got it all wired, I turned it on and started playing some bass-heavy stuff like rap and whatnot. Everything went just as I had hoped it would, so I went ahead and set my gains and other settings on the amp to where it sounded good. Left the music playing for a few minutes, then turned my iPod off.

Once the iPod was off, i noticed the subwoofers were still playing, and fairly loudly too. Even after I turned the volume on my HU all the way down, the subs were still rumbling, like thunder. Starting to get worried about the integrity of my amp, I shut the car off and let it sit for a while to see if this would fix the problem. Now, no matter what I do, the amp will no longer power up. All of the lights are illuminated EXCEPT for the power LED. I double-checked all my fuses and wiring, and everything is still fine. Even checked all the fuses with a volt meter. So now I'm thinking that I just fried my amp somehow and have to buy another one. But I don't want the same thing to happen to the new one too, so I'm a little hesitant about that.

I would have it professionally installed, but the only local place that will do it is going to charge me upwards of $350 JUST for labor!! So obviously, with my job at McDonalds and all, I can't really afford to just pay some dude to run wire through my car for an hour.

Any advice on how to save my system and my wallet?

Geez dude, I just noticed your like 35 miles from me.

I'm just covering bases here.
If your amp depends on powerup from your HU remote wire, check that.

Check for voltage at your amp.

Otherwise, me thinks your amp may be toasted.

Already tested voltage at the amp and the remote wire. When I detach the faceplate, the amp shuts down completely. But when the faceplate is attached and the car is on, all the amp'* lights except for the power light are on. And yes, I noticed that a couple days ago that you're only about a 30 min drive from here lol.

when amplifier power supplies go bad, they send constant voltage to subs even when the car is not running. remember they have a constant 12v signal too. check your speaker leads at the amp for DC voltage. If you even read so much as 1 volt, this is not a good thing. That is, if the amp hasnt already taken a dump completely