sub and amp install (now updating to include full Amped speakers too!!)

[Adam R]

well im sure we have a sticky somewhere around here explaining exactly how to wire up a sub / amp off the standard HU. well below is how i have done it and im pretty sure how everyone else has.

if i have missed something out then pm and i will add it in. DONT POST IN THIS THREAD.




well here goes nothing.
i hope this lot from here on helps you out a bit, please contact me in you need any pictures or more advice. and if you need a chat when doing the wiring then ask for my mobile number and we can have a chat

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
i cheated when wiring in my amp just to let you know.

i will dop a step by step guide here then a more advanced chat on each section lower down.

1)buy all the stuff you think you will need.
2)wire in the power cable from engine bay to car
3)remove the glove box
4)remove plastic tray
5)cabling
6)removing the HU
7)find another source of REM if step 6 is not for you.
8)removing side trim
9)rear door card
10)help with wiring in
11)wiring in the power to the boot
12)grounding point
13) signal input to amp



1) buy:

power cable roughly 1.5 x the length of your car
small cable for rem around the same length as the power cable.
2 or 3 o ring connectors, see what size you will need with regard to battery connectors and grounding points.
about 30 cable ties (optional)

2) start fitting the power cable. start in the engine bay, and look at the battery, look towards the bulk head and about a foot down there will be a rubber grommet about the size of a 2 pound coin. if you pull this out and make a small hole in the centre of it. (make it smaller than the power cable so it is hard to get through)

push most of the cable through you have left enough to get the battery.

3) go in to the car and remove the glove box, there should be about 4 or 5 screws to remove it (its not too difficult) but dont remove the screw that is holding the catch in at the top.

4) remove the plastic plate underneath the glove box (above the passangers feet) by removing the two screws that hold it in place. remove the plastic white block that is attached to it (try not break it).

5) you should now see the rest of the power cable that you have pushed through the bulk head from engine bay in to the car. from here pull what you can through and leave it on the floor.

6) if you are going to wire up the REM to the HU then read this, if not skip to step 7.

undo the 2 screws under neath the HU (left and right side at the front just underneath the facia)
the HU faci should then slowly prize off.

carefull at this point as there is a ribbon cable attached from the facia to the HU behind. detach this and put the facia to one side. (i have not removed the HU but i will give you the best account i can out of memory from other cars) undo maybe 2 screws and then the bottom part of the HU should pull out, you may need some HU pins to pull it out.
once this is done there will be a serise of conectors at the back on the bottom left hand side. the black ISO connector sould have numbers on it in small print, if not then look for the ONLY BLACK WIRE. pair in to this by splicing or soldering. attach the REM cable to the BLACK WIRE then feed it around to the passanger foot well.

put everything back to how it was (regarding the HU and facia)

7)
this way ONLY TURNS ON THE AMP WHEN THE IGNITION IS ON.!
other way of doing it is a bit more of a guessing game, get some one to turn the ignition on and off while you hold a multi metre over an earth and another colour. when ignition is off you want to see 0v, but when turned on you want to be seeing 12v. (will be around 12.4v)
from this cable pair off and this will feed your REM.

8) now from here you should have an REM cable and a power cable in the well of the passanger foot area. i found it easier if i taped the two cables together every 150mm with a small bit of electrical tape to keep the wires togetheron the passanger side there will be a greyish trim running along by the sill. remove ALL the screws.

from here you can either grab hold and sharply pull up, or you can carefully push the plastic in towards the seat and get a flat bladed screwdriver and prize the metal hooks off the plastic support, again carefull not to break anything.

from here once these are removed, wire in the power cable with the factory loom, (using the cable ties to hold them in).
now the slightly tricky bit!!!

9) go in to the boot and look to the left hand side, right at the top where the seat belt ankor is. you will see a small loom of cable going in through a hole around here running towards the rear passanger side passanger. this is where the power cable is going to come out of!

slide the passanger seat right forward and play about the rear passanger door card. unfortunatly to compleatly remove the door card you have to remove the seat too. dont bother unless your happy with doing that.

i just pulled the top of the door card off and kinda bent it over, and put my hand down between the door skin and the door card. , you will see the loom going up towards where i mentioned earlier.

10) if you have metal tape (used for wiring) this is very helpfull at this point, if you dont have this use a coat hanger but becarfull of the door skin!!!! it is very thin.
poke this through the hole from the boot in to where the rear passanger sits then tape the power and rem to it then pull the hanger back through and your power cable and REM are now in the boot!

11) there are many ways of getting the rem and power to the bottom of the boot.
the easiest is wire it along the top where the standard loom is then wire it either under the carpet or between the skins of the boot (behind the light cluster going down)

12) now both cables are in your boot ready for instalation of an amp. for a grounding point i used the stud where the spare wheel is kept as this is already exposed metal and is a good earth point, just make sure you get a decent connection of metal to metal or you will suffer gounding problems. andother place is to use an existing bolt somewhere in the boot.

13) for signal to the sub:

if the amp has high level imputs (can except speaker wire) then this is brilliant, pair off from the left rear speaker and join these to the amp, if it will excect 2 inputs then get some more speaker cable and pair off from the right rear speaker aswell.

if it only have RCA (phono) input then buy a high level input to a RCA adapter (around 8 quid) then wire that up as per instructions. do not use the same earthing point for the adapter as the amp, as this will cause an earth feedback loop!


well after a lot of rambling on i hope this helps you out.

as a usual disclaimer. sad to say this but the world is turning in to a horrible place.
i dont accept any injury, damage or loss of anything or blah blah blah.

Regards

Adam



(PS I WILL PUT PICTURES UP. i will do the whole thing again (kinda) and take pictures of what i am doing. i am not home untill 6pm so the pictures will be up around 8pm tonight or before if im lucky.)


Again PLEASE DONT POST IN THIS THREAD, PM ME INSTEAD!!!

[PhilW]

Added to FAQ.

[Adam R]

well here are all the pictures and i will reference them as well as i can and add a bit more explinations to them.

as you can see here i have use an 'O' ring connector to connect the + of my battery to the power cable. (dont do this till the very end!!) the black long thing is the inline fuse. and the cable is red


this is where the cable goes through the bulk head from engine bay to the passanger foot well.


remove the 4 screws that hold the glove box in. 3 at the top and 1 at the back


hold the catch and pull towards you and down, the glove box should come straight out


next remove the lower 'scuttle' pannel from the passanger footwell.
there are two screws, one on the far left and one on the far right. once you have done this it should fall down like the picture below


remove the plastic blocks attached to it and pull out the pannel


from here you should have seen your power cable by now,

you can see near the middle at the top of the picture the grommit is in place and my power cable is comming through



next removing the HU
undo the two screws at the bottom of it, i would have taken a picture of them but they are so obvious i thought even the most un experianced person would spot them (if not just under the facia pannel on the right and left there are two screws )
prize from the bottom up, and pull the facia off.


next detach the ribbon cable from the HU (NOT THE FACIA)


next remove the 4 screws marked on the picture

[Adam R]

the black cable marked is the REM FOR THE HU! pair in to this however you want to do itjust make sure it wont short on anything!


or the otherway of getting a REM (i only wanted the sub on if the ignition was on) then pair in to where the fuse pannel is.


now to remove the nasty grey trim down the side where the passanger sits to hide your cabling!!! basically push it in towards the interior of the car, get a flat bladed screw driver and prize open the metal clips. or just hank the thing upwards like i did (i take no resonsability if you break it!)


it should look like this once removed.... dont forget to undo the screw near the back of it though!!!!


peel up the carpet and lay down the cables


next.... the dreaded rear door card...if you have long arms like me its no problem



grab hold of the door card around here (its easiest here) and pull inwards it should with a pop unclip itself and bare all and show you the inner of the rear door skin!, scarey eh, no crash protection near the back.

[Adam R]

ok so once you have pulled this back you should see the wiring loom.


ok ok so before you start throwing the wire in there getting all happy your nearly done well your not!
now go in to the boot and look up in the top left corner you should see a space where the standard wiring loom comes out. idealy you want a wiring tape (thin metal tape used for wiring up houses and cars).
now poke it through the hole (no pun intended!) and you should see it go in to behind the rear door card.


so once you have pulled the cable through to the boot, re attach the door card. if any metal clips came off then re attach them


now go in to the boot and you should have your cable hanging out of the top left hand corner. you can wire it 2 different ways.


once the cables are routed, (your choice) they should appear in the boot well


from here once you have wired the cable to your amp, use some more power cable as your ground from your amp. i used the spare wheel stud in my boot, but ANYTHING with a good ground to it (clean metal contact, NO PAINT). make sure your amp is grounded or you get weird effects.

well now your wondering..... you have the power and REM to the boot but where is the signal????
well since our HU does not have a 5th output for a sub (low level) you will have to make a 5th channel up.

pair off both sides of the rear speakers. like the picture below and run the pair off cables down to the amp using the existing wiring loom.


(do the same for left and right rear speakers)

now go in to halfords or a local car audio place and buy a converter from high level speaker input to low level output. i didn't take a picture of it for some reason , its a black rectangular thing that has 5 cables going in to it and 2 phone leads comming out.

there are good instructions that come with the little converter thing so follow them you cant go wrong. DONT USE THE SAME EARTH FOR THE CONVERTER AND AMP!!! this will cause an earth loop feedback system and will make your sub pulse and sound horrible.
make sure you get the polarities right when you wire up the converter.
if once all connected the sub is quiet then swap polarities on ONE SPEAKER CONNECTION ONLY.

for example you have wired it in so

+ -
+ -

and it sounds quite wire it in

+ -
- +


ONLY DO THE ABOVE IF THE SUB IS ABNORMALLY QUIET!!!
this is because the signals are canceling each other out and not giving your amp a good signal.

connect up your amp and wellaaa.

[Adam R]

well i hope this helps alot of you do this mod. it is ashame our HU is so pants....

if i have missed any details out that you would like included them please PM ME ONLY and i will add them in. also if you feel my explainations really arnt helping you still, PM me for my mobile number and i will either help you out over the phone or we can try and arrange something for me to do it for you (free of charge if you come to me)

thanks all

Adam

[A9_SLU]

Cheers mate very useful set of instructions

[matt27]

very very grateful for your pics, many thanks!!

am sending my radio off for repair, gt the dreaded diode curse, it keeps turning off, found an ebayer who does repairs for £70

[DallanTan]

where do the phonos come from though to provide any input??

[truCido]

Originally Posted by DallanTan

where do the phonos come from though to provide any input??

If you actually read the guide you'd find out

[Mat]

PMSL

Need phono converter thingys

[Adam R]

what's up mat ?

[2free]

help!! lol ive read this about 3 times and i still dont think ive got it. I have a seat ibiza 1.4 mk3... just bought

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=330209873988

with http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=120220503219

but im a complete idiot when its comes to this, havent a clue. am i just over reacting lol

[Myki da Pyki]

Which bits dont you get mate?

[Adam R]

2free.

hello mate i created this thread to help even the most novice electrical minded people to be able to wire up the system.

obviously there is need for improvement if your still not sure on what to do.
please feel free to PM me or put a message in this thread.
if your still not sure or want some one to talk you through it, i can supply my mobile number to have a chat, and if your not too far away im sure we could sort something out if you want me to install it for you.

would ask for some petrol money but would not charge for the install as long as you have all the bits.

**EDIT**

i just noticed you got a sub wiring kit.

these things are not very good for our cars as they have a phono lead that is huge (supposed to go from the back of the HU to the amp). since our standard HU's dont have a phono out you have to make do with what i have done and use a high input to phono output device(seen in the second to last pic).

[scaredpassenger]

just wanted to say what an excelent walk through this is!! well done Adam!

[Adam R]

thanks....
just out of interest, how many people would find a thread on how to amp all the speakers useful ?

[DivadLarsen]

First of all: Thanks for a great guide!!! I really appreciate it - great job!!!!

BUT: I too have an Ibiza mk2 (99), but I cannot determine exactly where you run the power cable from the engine bay to the passengers foot well!??!

If you could find some time to perhaps shoot another couple of pictures, describing/showing where exactly to run the cable, i would be very greatful!!!

Thanks again,

DivadLarsen.

[Adam R]

hello david. i am sorry the reply took so long. basically look for a grommit in the fire wall ( look inside the engine bay for a rubber circle), punch a hole in it and hey presto !

[Adam R]

Before i start there seems to be a few people with issues with interference in their audio system. here are a few words of advice, DONT buy cheap crap, i made this mistake and it costs more in the long run!. ensure you get:
1) either twin or tripple sheilded RCA cable
2) RCA converters with gain inputs
3) decent quality speaker cable
4) make sure you earth your amps to a good earthing point e.g. the spare wheel stud!

all the above will help reduce / eliminate unwanted noise in the system.


HOW TO WIRE UP AN AMP TO A STANDARD HU!!!!!!!!!!
right... now to do some serious help!!!

as previously i have shown you lot how to do a sub / amp install.
i will now show you how to install an amp to those new speakers you have just put in your doors!
i hope you have read the above as i will be reffering back to it!


PLEASE DO NOT POST UNTILL I SAY SO, AS I WANT TO KEEP THE NEXT POSTS BY ME ON THIS TOPIC ALONE!!!!

FIRST THINGS FIRST

You have a swanky new 4ch amp (or can be a 2 ch if you only plan on doing the front 2) that you want to put in your car to make your new speakers sound the part. this is a guide that will help even the most novice (just like carrying on from the sub install) electrical minded person be able to fit this unit!

First off you will need the following bits of kit!
1) a 2 or 4 ch amp (or what ever you decide to use.
2) 2 x 2 RCA screened cables 5 meters long!! (these must be good quality!!! buy cheap and you will regret it HONEST i found out and wasted a lot of money!!! so listen up)
3) 2 x RCA converters. no crap what i used in my sub install, these are now much better quality. get ones that have adjustable levels, and that cost over £15 each!!!
4) lots of crimp connectors, chocolate blocks or a soldering iron (depending on what you like best)
5) MORE power cable (i used around 1m of this stuff again)
6) MORE earth Cable ( again around 1m long)
7) MORE blue REM cable
8) good quality normal speaker wire (atleast 16 meters of the stuff!)
9)some good connectors that will accept the earth cable and live cable ( x 2 of course)
10) lots of blood sweat and tears
11) tools and lots of them!!!


right now you have the stuff listed above i reccomend you go to your car and remove. (the rear bench) and back rests! this is easy to do and takes no more than 5 minutes (honest!) you will need torque drives for this! (this step can be avoided but is a pain in the arse to work around!!!!)


THIS IS ALL ON DRIVERS SIDE
next you will want to remove the rear passanger door card.
plastic bit that runs along the sill
need to remove the tray under neath the fuses.
REMOVE THE HU (as shown in last guide)


now you have all that done, start to get busy and cut wires!!!!

there will be a coloured block that plugs in to the back of the HU that takes all the speaker signals to the speakers.. like this :

the pair of cables at opposite ends do the rear speakers and the 2 pairs in the middle do the fronts!

this plug will have 8 wires comming out the back of it, i labled these up TWICE on every single wire. then cut all the wires in between the lables.


from this i then used my 2 x RCA converters and connected them accordingly to there correct signal outputs. (1 rca converter to the left 4, and 1 rca to the right 4 cables)



2 rca converters one for front speakers, one for rear.. or in my case one for front one for sub.

once this is done the 2 rca converters should be placed under the dash.