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So.. the weather is absolutely dire at the moment. and not having the space of a double garage means I need to have the car outside to work on it.
And that started today.
Door panel off to find out ZERO tweeters. Doesn't even look like they have ever been there. A plug is there for it but nothing not even a bracket.
Now I do have an issue and I need some advice on what my next steps should be.
I need to get 2 cables into my door, the rubber grommet between the car and door is jam packed full of cables access it extremely limited to none, I cannot see how it will be possible to run 2 cables in there?
How did you manage this? seriously ?
options in my head are use the existing bit of wire that was in place to feed the OE speaker and tag onto it inside the car? however this then means the tweeters will need a crossover and well its not the greatest grade of cable.
Kinda stuck and needing some inspiration and advice on this.
I spent about 5 mins looking into routing the cables through the rubber hose before I decided, sod that.
Make a hole in the flat part of both grommets and run the cables "exposed" between the body/door. Obviously don't make the holes too big. You shouldn't need to remove any material. Just use a screwdriver and you'll get a tight fit. Never had any issue with mine being like that (water ingress etc).
Admittedy I only had a pair of cables to run, not 4. Maybe run one pair either side of the main cabling, rather than all through the same hole? Or consider dash/pillar mouting the tweeters.
Rain started..... I had a good rant to myself and stuck it back in the garage.
Id really like to get the cables in the grommet channels and it will annoy the life out me OCD style.
I just read a very old post where someone popped the grommet off the door and the car body both ends and managed to feed it this way. apparently a 10 minute job...
I sat looking at it that long I need to walk away for a few hours and go back or it will be one of those jobs where everything I touch snaps or breaks.
I'm not saying that it can't be done but the time/risk/reward ratio didn't work for me at the time. I think that runnig 4 cables may be your biggest challenge though. You could cut the back of the hose, along it's length, tuck the cables up inside and then tape the whole lot up?
I almost done that and talked myself out of it initially.
The post I read was this.
Quote from an old thread I searched for.
Post
Had the same problem, albeit in a bug eye but the principle is the same.
Remove the kick panel underneath the dash at either side. You may need to remove other stuff there too but eventually you'll trace the wires that lead thought to the doors. These wires terminate in a connector behind the kickplate so unconnect this.
Then locate the rubber tube that guides the cable between the body and the door and pull back the grommet from both the door and the one one the body. You should be able to pull the wires out from the bodywork (cos you unconnected them) which leaves you with wired hanging out of the door only.
Now, take the speaker cable and run it through the hole in the body. Then attach the speaker wire to part of an old wire coathanger, lubricate it with washing up liquid and feed it through the rubber cable guide. Once it is through, feed it throught the hole in the door and pull.
Feed the unconnected wires back in to the car body and reattach the grommets (more washing up liquid needed here). Finally plug the connector back in and job done.
Sounds complicated but takes about ten minutes a side.
That's what I did, anyway. Could be a simpler method, but hope it helps
I will give this another try before going with the outside grommet idea. seems quite a few have went with this route.
I need the rain to clear off and give me some time to carefully go over this.
I'm not sure how much value there is to disconnecting the wires in the kick-panel TBH. If you pull out the grommets from either end, you should see whether you have enough space to feed 4 cables and then feed through as described. I did investigate it when I did mine, so there must have been an issue if it's supposedly as easy as suggested. I'm wondering what thickness of cable they were using in the guide. Crappy single stran OEM stuff is probably easy. I think I used 16AWG cable for the front, 3.2mm x 6.5mm.
It's quite possible though that I was simply being lazy at that stage of the install....
Also, when you do feed the cable through, make sure you leave enough length. You want the cable to form a "U" shape, where it drops below the speaker and then feeds up. If you have the cable direct to the speaker terminals, you run the risk of moisture running down the cable...direct to the terminals. Make sure also that the it's clear of the window (run them up and down a few times).
Between the rain I did manage to get some progress.
Inside the car down at the footwell you have a big white plug which is for everything that is contained in the door. you have to cut a cable tie as this is secured to the car body inside.
You can then feed the white plug from inside the car out the hole which you have pushed the grommet out.
I then unclipped all the wires in the door and disconnected them.
Fiddly yes and well the access inst the greatest. Then I fed most of that loom out the door side using the hole where the grommet was attached.
I fed in 2 lengths of speaker cable and then put the lot back together.
Its awkward and you just need to take your time. Its tight and you need to pull the whole lot straight to keep it feeding properly.
So its back together as such, the OE wiring is still in place and untouched meaning it can all be put back or removed with minimal effort.
I am covered in the black tar type sealant true story.
I am now in the process of bolting in some speaker rings I made from plywood which I painted before hand and at the same time fitting in some sound deadening to keep down some of the door rattles.
But the rain is back on......
Last edited by sti-chris; 03 March 2021 at 09:44 PM.
The spacer rings I made fit very well and I secured these to the door using bolts as I don't want them working lose or rattling. I fitted in some sound pads and covered up the holes which I could, its not 100% but the doors don't lend them selves that great.
I'm sure my last Subaru had tweeters, almost certain, however this one has none not even a bracket just a plug from the loom nothing else.
So i decided to do something a bit radical and take a hole cutter to the door handle panel and fit it in there.
Thankfully i think it looks okay and i'm sure it will sound better in this location rather than be stuck behind the panel where the OE ones should have been.
You can probably tell but I am in no rush i'm just happy to take a bit of time and try and get it right.
Last edited by sti-chris; 03 March 2021 at 09:45 PM.
Will get some tomorrow, I put things away after a quick trial fit then removed again.
I will solder up the connections to the speaker wires and get a few pictures before closing up the door.
I seen that the HU can disable its internal amp and route all sound to RCA's so I wont even need to open up the back doors to disconnect those. Mind you that would have been the easiest job
I'm going to take to a few tinnies and reflect on my bit graft.
Still undecided to go with amp under seat or in the boot. Favouring boot at the moment as it seems the best place to secure it out the way and ease of access.
Definitely deactivate the internal amp. All it does is generate interference and heat.
I'd still favour under the seat. Once you've set it up you shouldn't have to touch it again. You won't need to physically secure it and it will be completely protected. Whereas it will be exposed in the boot to anything else you may be carrying in there.
Okay So, a small update I will post up pictures later.
Drivers side main driver and tweeter fitted and door closed back up.
3 RCA cables ran from the front to the back.
Passengers side main driver fitted but ruined my door surround fitting the tweeter.
I cut it from the wrong side and as soon as the hole cutter hit the plastic it shattered into bits.
Wires ran for passengers side speakers into the boot.
Todo list : run the amp power cable, The last time I done this i managed into a bung on the passengers side bulk head. Quick look and I can't see it. any pointers other than get glasses.
Pull the stereo and connect up the RCA's and remote amp wire.
Connect up the amp and secure it. Think I will get a rivnut gun and fit proper mounts behind the seats.
The list is getting short but still a bit of work to be done before I can get some sound out of it.
Last edited by sti-chris; 03 August 2017 at 06:59 PM.
Was much easier to feed in the cables as this door has no where near as many wires as the drivers side.
Picture of the door and how I applied the sound deadening, these doors will never lend them selves great for acoustics but I'm sure some is better than none.
Soldered up the ends.
took the water bottle to the side removed strut brace and loosened out the inter cooler spray to get some access to the bung.
Ready made channel for the power cable to run along.
Getting it back together
Today's progress a boot full of wires.
Still to connect up the RCA's , then wire up the amp and fix up a fuse for the battery side and then an earth tag from withing the boot.
Still need a bit of trim that I broke yesterday to fit the passengers tweeter
Last edited by sti-chris; 03 March 2021 at 09:46 PM.
On the doors, did you do the outter-skin (the inner side of the external door)? That's a huge thin panel and will resonate likely buggery. You should get 2 sheets and cut lengthsways, so you have 4 pieces. Then put 2 pieces above and below the crash bar.
How do the doors sound when you close them? There should be a reassuring thunk, more BMW than Subaru.
I looked at the OSF grommet but figured that I'd have to take the glove box apart again, so I used the one above the clutch pedal, on the bulkhead behind the turbo.
I put some bellow the crash barrier on the door skin, the door sounds better but certainly not like my Audi
if it wasn't for the fact the windows goes up and down id have filled it with foam and boxed up the speaker.
The doors are super thin on metal.
I will earth the amp somewhere in the boot, Try to find a nice bolt that I can clean up and tag onto, The spare wheel might have something useful in that area in case I need to make a tag point.
New bit trim ordered for passengers side tweeter but delivery could be weeks
I could do with a day away from it but I will do some other jobs round the house and go back to it at some point today.
Use a rear seatbelt mount for the earth. Grind off any paint and then find an O-ring big enough to take the bolt (you can cut and open one up a little if needed.) You ideally want the earth run to be as short as possible.
Shame about the second tweeter, as the first one looks really good. Maybe use a soldering iron rather than a saw next time?
Know what it was I cut it from the front side and it shattered to bits and rightfully so.
The first one I cut from the back through the front where I could lean the drill on it using a nice flat surface.
I will just need to wait a bit, Suppose for setting it up I could do a gaffa tape fit temporary.
Yes the seat belt bolt could be a shout never thought about that.
I really need to get to know this stereo a bit better I will have a look over the manual to familiarise myself a bit more with its menu system.
When it comes the time which is better for audio quality MP3 or Flac or ???
FLAC is lossless, MP3 isn't. Although there is debate whether you can tell the difference between a lossless file and 320kbps....
MP3 will obviously be smaller files but depends upon you storage size (USB/SD card etc). I'd say FLAC personally. That's how I have all my music stored. However, my HU doesn't play FLAC so I convert everything to WAV files for my car (WAV has zero compression, a CD is a WAV file but obviously they can't be any bigger than the original FLAC/MP3 source).
The better the audio system, the more you'll notice poor recordings...
I have all 3 of my amps earthed to a single point (drivers seat belt mount) using a distribution-block (4 into 1).
Okay, so everything up and running and outputting sound. The setup from the head unit is front RCA - main drivers - Rear RCA is tweeters - Sub output well that's for the sub which I don't yet have.
I have options to set up as 2 way or 3 way using the HD crossover.
I can set the front and read frequency cut off's I think?
I went at the stereo a few times now and keep giving up quite complicated.
The sound is very clear but with No Sub its hard to set this up.
What would you recommend for sub and amp ?
Also any setting you think would work for the cut off points.
LPF for Mids = 2khz
HPF for Mids = the lower you go, the more bass. Sub bass is below 100hz. The speakers may not be big enough or have enough power to go very low. Hence Sub Speakers.
I don't have the octave slopes to hand but can get them later for you. Try 12db or 18db.
The frequency set for either front or rear can be set 20 - 200 Hz
Also should I set it to 2 way cross over in the HU as I have no dedicated Sub at atm ?
01 August 2017, 12:34 PM
