I'm gonna nuke my Sound system! Advice?

This seems like the most reasonable place to post this thread for the simple fact that I can't tell what my problem is...Maybe it's the amp...Maybe it's the sub...maybe its the headunit...Maybe it's me?

This is a long one so I'll try to be brief. I am very very close to losing my mind though and nading my car. 3 days ago I went and bought a Rockford Fosgate 750Watt Amplifier. 2 days ago I went to Best Buy and purchased an 1800watt Alpine Type-R sub and a X ED vented subwoofer box. Along with this I bought the biggest Sub/amp kit I could possibly buy for $150. It came with all the wires. RCA, Speaker, Ground, B+..etc etc.

So, being new to this but not an idiot to car installations I decided to save the $120 and do it myself, while learning something new(Not so great of an idea now)...

I will explain what I did in it's exact order and give side notes...I pray that someone has the advice I need or at least some tips because the internet is very lousy for helping with this topic.

I own a 2010 Scion XD with a stock Pioneer stereo which features a set of RCA's on the headunit.

Step one: Removed all of the product from it's packaging. Installed my Type-R Sub into my vented box. Red to red and black to clear. On the type R I noticed it came with 2 very stubby 3 inch long prong things. So I looked in the guide...no guide...just a diagram. Says for a single sub, use 1 pair of the pronged wires and put it in the positive and negative of the unused speaker wire slots. (Dual Voice Coil Subwoofer - 4 +4 600Watt RMS) So I did.

Step two: Set my grounding wire. For this I actually had to take out the spare tire and use the screw area to hold that holds the tire down for my ground. I took an electrical sander and made SURE it was metal in color. once that was done I took a nut, washer and the bolt and tightened the hell out of it till the gound couldnt move. Set the tire back down over that and put the floor panel back over the tire THEn set the sub back ontop of that.

Step three: I removed the negative charge from my car battery and instaled my B+ wire by stabbing through my main grommet near the drivers side. Easy enough. So I ripped up my left side panels and gently lined it with the B+ wire, tracing it allll the way back to the sub.

Step four: Took off the stereo bezel...Took OUT the stereo and found a 12volt wire that was activated by the cars ignition...In most cases I heard its a blue/white cord...in my case it was gray. I tried the blue one and it kept the amp on even when the power in the car was off. prolly not so great. SO I went with a random gray one next to the blue and with success it gives power to the amp when needed and turns it off when needed.(nothing is plugged into the amp yet, that was just looking ahead). Along with this I plugged in my RCA wires. Red to blue and white to black.(easier to remember for color combo) Then like step three, but on the right side of the car I laced my ground panels near the doors all the way to the trunk space with the REM wire + RCA wires.

Step five: I screwd the amp into the side of my subwoofer box because it's closest to the ground cable. Now that I have ALL of my wires sitting on the back seat with the amp waiting to be fed I plugged in my main 3. First my ground...Then my B+...and finally my RCA's. After this was done I plugged
my Speaker box into the amp making sure my colors still matched the positive and negative speaker wires from the sub.

I put everything back and turned the car on....No bass what so ever. Stuck my ear to the sub and no sound either. THe amplifier shows three available lights but only one is on and it;s the power light. SO obviously the ground and B+ are right. The other two lights that COULD come on are my protect and thermal. Both of which would show up if I assumeably had not done something right of screwed up...I also notice that when I engage the egnition my subwoofer makes a subtle "pa-pop" sound.

Things I've tried...I undide my fuse area and rewired it to the B+ just to make sure I had as much of the wires contacts as posible for maximum power to the amp...I switched the colors of the RCA cords....I tried a totally different set of RCA cords. I took OUT my sub from the box at least 3 times and tried flipping around the wires...I also tried playing with those weird prong things in different orders. The one thing I have NOT tried or done yet was found a better spot for my REM cord because from what I understand, the only purpose of this cord is to tell the amp to turn on and off when the car does...and if its already doing that, it shouldnt need fixed as is.

I also havent switched out the fuse at all. Even though I failed to take it out at the jump of everything...I checked it 3 times and there are no fractures in it. It's a 100A fuse so I would notice. BUT I have heard of fuses just being bad and not working regardless of physical qualities or defects.

I'm not sure what the problem is...But after spending over $900 and spending 3 days on this I'm pretty annoyed. I went to best buy and after I explained EVERY thing I just wrote, to an employee in the car section he said "cant say anything..I signed a contract so even if I know your problem I cant say it. You'll have to bring it in and let us do a trouble shoot. $30 an hour..." my thoughts were "EXCUSE ME ASSHOLE? i JUST SPENT $900 HERE ON YOUR PRODUCTS AND BECAUSE I CHOSE TO DO IT MYSELF YOU WONT EVEN GIVE ME ADVICE OR A TIP?"....If this wasn't the only place in my area with the products I needed...I woulda returned it all out of anger.

Any advice? Tips? Something?

 

Going to also add that I gave up on shuffling tutorials. Ive been all over the internet and there is hardly anything in depth or helpful. Everything says "see an experienced technician if troubles persist"....lol? My GF wants to kill me because While I was outside in the hot sun for 9 hours yesterday playing with this...she sat on the couch waiting for me to stop obsessing. >.<

 

I used a screw driver and turned the gain dial up and down as well as the eq dial and the filter dial. no change in anything. it even has some kind of infrasion switch?? I turned that on and still nothing.

 

I remember checking for the headunit switch because I also read on the web of the RCA's needing to sometimes be turned on. I don't recall seeing any switches but I'll look again when I get out of work. As for the prong things, yes they are terminals. I just googled it. I'll make sure I did it right. And my RCA's are connected to my input.

I was planning on upgrading to a touch screen alpine stereo...But I'd reallly hate to have to go through all of that even sooner just to get my system working. I'll let you know later this evening if any improvement. I have a really strong feeling the problem is between the stereo and the subwoofer itself.

 

Okay, I figured it out. After tearing apart my system 4 times and assuming that because I couldn't find an on/off switch on the headunit for my RCA's I assumed there wasn't one. So, I called scion and waited on the phone FOREVER to talk to the car guys and they told me how to access the subwoofer power unit for the RCA's and it involved quite a few stupid tricks that NO ONE who doesn't specialize in pioneer stereos would know.