[mbradlawrence]

Hi All,

First post but have been lurking for while getting tips on how to perform my install.

I ordered a level one system from musicar (VP electric). Initially, I had upgraded to Morel Dotech's in the door and Jehnerts for the underseats. For Christmas my well meaning brother-in-law sent my a JL10W3v3-4 sub. This gift ended up costing me a few more bucks -- I quickly called up Ken and he changed the amp and added a custom enclosure to my order. In addition (and this impressed the hell out of me) Ken told me that I could "downgrade" from the Jehnerts back to the Audio Systems for the underseats as the sub would now be picking up the low end for me and we could run the underseats as true midbases.

Thus, the install that will start tonight will include:
A clean sweep;
A JL HD700/5
Morel Dotech 4 inch door/ tweeter combo
Audio Systems 8 inch underseats
JL 10W3v3-4 Sub

I am anxiously awaiting UPS and will update as I progress!

[ctuna]

and document.

[Aurich]

Originally Posted by blawrecne

In addition (and this impressed the hell out of me) Ken told me that I could "downgrade" from the Jehnerts back to the Audio Systems for the underseats as the sub would now be picking up the low end for me and we could run the underseats as true midbases.

Oh you know, I meant to ask Ken about that myself, forgot when I was talking subs with him to do so though, so thanks!

[rcurley55]

I just got a shipment from Ken as well. Everything looks really well done and he even included some extras I wasn't expecting.

Big thumbs up to Musicar NW! I'll be posting a thread as soon as I can get some time to work on the car.

[Route 16]

How much did all of you guys spend? And where to install? I haven't done this cuz of the price range.

[asian010]

Originally Posted by yoko kai

How much did all of you guys spend? And where to install? I haven't done this cuz of the price range.

pm them for quotes.

[mbradlawrence]

As an intial matter, if you are going to do an install yourself and you have little to no experience (or even alot) I highly recommend using the guys and Musicar. Ken (VP electric) and Tom answered the phone everytime I called yesterday and we got through some odd issues that came up. My buddy stopped by during the install (man was he useless!) and he correctly pointed out that without the harness and connections to the speakers, etc. that showed up with the stuff, I could have never gotten close to pulling this thing off myself.

I'll start with the bad news. I have to get 2 new plastic plug-type clips for the drivers door panel. Thats all that broke! I may also have a minor connection to the driver's side tweeter issue but its simple and will either involve a crimp connector or a new molex connection.

The whole install took me about 9 hours. I could do it again about 5 now that I have all the right tools and the experience. To that end, some tips on tools:

Buy a trim removal kit (I got mine from harbor);

a long 10mm hex driver is a must -- I got a $5 ratchet driver thingy from home depot with a ton of tips/sockets that worked perfect. The point is has to be longer than a ratchet otherwise getting the underseat subs enclosures out will be a major pain -- this issue alone added about an hour to the install -- of course, if I had a good socket set with an extender that may have been moot;

Make sure you have a long screw driver with a T20 tip; and

Get a T50 driver that can attach to a ratchet.

On to the install. Most of what I did was cribbed from other posts on this forum and I will try to give credit where it is due.

I started on the passenger side door, moved to the underseats, connected the passer sides (harness was previously laid out on floor then moved back to the trunk), completed the trunk (except for power) and then moved back up to the drivers side. Except for one hiccup on the driver's side, after doing the passenger side, the driver's side flew (I learned from my mistakes). Then I connected power, calibrated, and boom, it worked.

In more detail now, and with pictures.

Door removal is handled great in this thread http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30305 but I still took some picture of it. I will post them (hopefully) in a reply to this post as I am still working on getting the pictures to upload correctly)

[mbradlawrence]

Removing the door:


Here is door removed. I can't find the link right now but BSW has a good one showing how to do this and how to pop the door handle connection out. Use a t20 driver to get the screws out.



Next, I pulled out the old window sail to replace it with one with a window sails (part nos. 51 33 7 171 201 and 202) My old ones had the foam so I just transferred it over, no need to order it.

The new sail:


Putting the tweeter in was very simple, just carefully get it to lock in (took about 30 seconds) Some others have said you needed to trim some tabs but that was not my experience:



with the foam:



So, what come out of door was one crappy 4inch and no tweeter. I showed the new tweeter sail above but below is all the hardware that went in the door (the old speaker is on the right). Took a little bit of doing to get the 4inch in, try flexing the door panel a bit if you get stuck.



I now attempted to try to put the window sail back in. Make sure to roll the window down first when you do this on the drivers side. I wasn't an issue on the passenger side (the driver's side could roll it down). On the driver side I had to reconnect the window connection, roll is down, and then unconnect to set the door aside (this was definetly a "duh" moment).

The sails can be tricky. I kept having to refer to the driver's side to make sure it looked right. When I did the driver side, it was hard as well -- its just an awkward piece.

Now, the underseat subs. Using the t50 driver remove the seat connections. Then, more the seat all the way forward on its tracks and use the controls to tip the seat back into a "fully upright position." I had already done this, but if you have not, REMOVE THE BACK SEAT. Its easy to do in the sedan, just pull up. This allows you just tip the front seat back and have access to the floor woofer without removing then front seat.

Now, remove the grill on top of the underseat (phillips screw driver).



On the two corners furthest from the door, are 2 10mm bolts. Unscrew them. The back one was hard to get at, hence the $5 tool I described above.



Getting the sub out of the enclosure was not painless. I knew this was coming but was surprised at how securely is glued in. I was expecting a dab of glue -- it went completely around. Ken to the rescue -- he told me to pretend it wasn't may car and pry the sucker out. It worked.

I screwed the new ones using the adapters Ken provided and they were prewired. The fit perfectly!

Comparison of old underseat (right) to new.


After some wrestling around, the enclosure goes back in. Now, in comes the harness ken provided. I connected the old connection to the 4pin terminal and the underseat to the 2 pin. Hard to understand without seeing it but put it this way -- there was no way to screw this up, I just plugged the stuff in. I then removed the panel by over the carpet by the door (just pull up). I was really worried about running this wire. Turns out, you can just tuck it under the trim all the way back to the back seat. (Technic explained this in one of the 100 posts I read). Then, pull the white plug in the picture below (the pic is of the back seat with the "seat" removed)



and you are in the trunk with no exposed wires:



I next connected the electronics (minus power) in the back and then reversed the above process on the passenger side. My only snafu was that I pulled the molex connector off the tweeter on the driver side. Well, I was finishing this come hell or high water so, good old twist and tape method, and will go back and either remolex connect or use crimp connectors when I get my new door connection tabs/plugs to replace the two I broke from the dealer.

Next post I'll describe the back end connections.

[mbradlawrence]

In the back I had a cleansweep, a JL 700/5 and a JL 10W3v3 (4 ohm) going into a custom enclosure provided by Ken.

I pre drilled the sub enclosure and used what can be best described as "super decking screws" to secure the sub into the enclosure. Inside the enclosure were 4 wires. It bundled them into groups of two and connected them. Ken provides a 4 wire harnees that connected to a harness that passed through the walls of the enclosure (I can't describe it well, just know that wire goes from inside to outside the enclosure without breaking the seal of the enclosure) and terminates in a 4 pin connector. This connects to another harness that goes to the amp.

As for the clean sweep, it received what comes back from the 4 pin connector connected at up by the underseats on each side (two 2 pin connectors couple into a 4 pin connector that does to the cleansweep. The clean sweep sits with velcro in the space up near the back seats next to the computer.

I really worried before I got the stuff how to wire power to the cleansweep. Just tie to the power and ground of the amp. IGN, remote activate, power and ground were all in one 4 pin harness that terminated in 3 wires. Just tie those into the amp at power, ground and activate.

If you understand the above, you have read the cleansweep info. If not, don't worry about it, just plug in the harness and connect it to the amp. I wasted alot of preinstall time thinking about this and it was just that, a waste. The stuff I received just worked -- enough said.

Next I connected the speaker wires to the amp. Ken provided a legend so this was easy. I mounted the amp to a board (also provided). I did this first, then the wiring, and then attached that to the board to the factory amp location (came predrilled and fit right in).

Now came power and ground. Ground was easy. I had trouble with power and eventually just picked one of the terminals (there are at least 3) with nothing connected to it. I may snap a picture later, run it by Ken, and post if it is a "good" location for power. The order I did this was, however, NOT smart. Thinking back, i should have disonnected ground, then disconnected power but I had already done ground so just did it live. Maybe dangerous but, heck, it all works so must not have been too bad.

Anyways, I calibrated the cleansweep with the disk they provided and a trick from Ken. 1) use cs knob to turn sound way down so you don't blast the world with noise 2) turn hu all the way down and then turn to the right 45 clicks. 3) make sure doors are closed. 4) hit calibrate.

The whole thing worked, first try (of course, I forget to put the fuse in at first). I recalibrated this morning with the above method to make sure the "gong" was not too loud.

Almost forgot, here is a picture I snapped of the sub as installed (i did this before I cleaned up the wiring because I just had to give it listen!).



In some, don't be afraid, you can do this yourself.

Several additional comments have surfaced since I started writing this:
1) have a ton of flashlights around, they seem to walk away a bunch.
2) more space is better -- my one car garage was not the best location to do this.
3) you will need a wire stripper.
4) my girlfriend knew I was doing this but could not see, at all, that I had changed the car!
5) the USB stick method you find in the forum is WAY, WAY, WAY better than the ipod outputs
6) USE MUSICAR!


Final thoughts:
I was going for sound quality but ended up with that and some extra thump. I'm going to have to adjust gains on the underseats down or my ass is going to alway be shaking. I'm going for drive right now for no reason other than to just to listen!

[mbradlawrence]

just get "into" the forum.

[ctuna]

Do you have any more pictures of your trunk especially the amp and cleansweep locations and setup?

[mbradlawrence]

CTUNA-- I put the amp on a board and mounted it to the stock amp connection points. The clean sweep is mounted with velcro next to the silver box in the photo above -- basically between rear seats and the small recess in the floor next to the sub. The harness form the speakers connects directly to the cleansweep and the rca cables connect it to the amp. VP electric provided a harness for hooking power up to the cleansweep. Plugged it into the clean sweep and tied power, ground and aux out in into the respective locations in the amp. This involved removing a bit of insulation from the power and ground cables and twising them together with the lines of the harness described above.

[VP Electricity]

Originally Posted by blawrecne

CTUNA-- I put the amp on a board and mounted it to the stock amp connection points. The clean sweep is mounted with velcro next to the silver box in the photo above -- basically between rear seats and the small recess in the floor next to the sub. The harness form the speakers connects directly to the cleansweep and the rca cables connect it to the amp. VP electric provided a harness for hooking power up to the cleansweep. Plugged it into the clean sweep and tied power, ground and aux out in into the respective locations in the amp. This involved removing a bit of insulation from the power and ground cables and twising them together with the lines of the harness described above.

We shipped a handful of harnesses where one of the power wires for the CL441dsp was left floating. We had to ask him to repair the harness once we found out about it, or pull it and we would send a replacement - he (quite wisely, I thought) chose to mod the harness. That step is not usually required.

[nichojo]

Do you have to get behind the head unit for any of this? From the sounds of it, Technics harness comes into play under the seats but come on, that sounds way too straight forward!

[VP Electricity]

Originally Posted by nichojo

Do you have to get behind the head unit for any of this? From the sounds of it, Technics harness comes into play under the seats but come on, that sounds way too straight forward!

This package doesn't use Technic's harness. We make this one ourselves. If you were going with the 6-channel, rear-speaker-upgraded option, then we would include a modified Technic Stereo harness and you would have to pull the radio.

This routes signal to the processor location, and door and underseat speaker wires to the amplifier location.

[nichojo]

Originally Posted by VP Electricity

This package doesn't use Technic's harness. We make this one ourselves. If you were going with the 6-channel, rear-speaker-upgraded option, then we would include a modified Technic Stereo harness and you would have to pull the radio.

This routes signal to the processor location, and door and underseat speaker wires to the amplifier location.

Wow, nice!

[mbradlawrence]

Further to Ken's post. The harness is what really makes this in install that anyone can do. I am an electrical engineer so wiring does not scare but keeping track of which wire is which to ensure no cross wiring and or polarity issues scares me. With the harness and the prewired speakers it was actually impossible to mess up the wiring -- if you tried to do it wrong, the connections would not fit!

The system is starting to break in a bit and now comes the fiddling Its fun and I have already had 2 people say that the system blows away anything they have ever heard!

[VP Electricity]

Originally Posted by blawrecne

...I have already had 2 people say that the system blows away anything they have ever heard!