Hello all, I am new to this forum, but I just completed a rather large task, and I have some info some of you may find useful. I just installed 2 10 inch subwoofers in the trunk of my new Scion IA. They are Kicker shallow mount 10CVT104's. I am powering them with a brand new Kenwood KAC-9106D amplifyer. Since I have the subs wired in parallel down to 2 ohms, they are pounding somewhere around 1000 watts consistently. I have to say seeing as how the rear seat back trims a significant amount of sound out, having that much power is adequate for bass to reach the drivers seat.
Some of the things I would like to bring up in this post were minor speed bumps in me completing this task, but proved very time consuming. First off, with the lack of ability to install an aftermarket stereo, we are unable to adjust settings that I prefer to have control over. Mainly high and low pass filters. Not a big deal, but the lack of RCA jacks for the amp's inputs is frustrating enough to find yourself an input for your amp. I ended up using this amp's speaker level inputs to wire into the back door speakers. If your amp doesnt have this input, the concept is the same for a line out converter. (By the way, if you purchase a kenwood amp with a speaker level input, be prepared to call the manufacturer because they don't, in any part of the instructions, have a diagram that tells you which wire is which)
Which brings me to the main hang up with this install. I found it nearly impossible to find a wiring diagram for this car showing which wires are positive and negative in the rear door speakers. Some of you may laugh at my inadequacy in this regard if you magically already have access to this information, but I eventually got some answers on the topic, and I can share with you so that you don't spend hours searching like I did. The rear left door has brown wire which is positive, and a light blue wire which is negative. The rear right door has a green wire which is positive, and a yellow wire which is negative. Be aware though when you take the door panels off, that the extremely short length of wire that is accessible is completely wrapped in a fabric that you will have to cut through very carefully in order to get to the wires themselves. In any case, you must also be very careful while pulling the door panels off too, because the clips holding them into place break very easily (insert me not divulging how many I broke) ALSO: as you are working in the tiny space available, it becomes increasingly apparent how difficult it would be to pull the entire door panel off, what with all the contraptions attached to it. I myself resolved to leave them hanging while I worked. Either way you decide to do this, please for the love of all that is holy, double triple check to make sure your door handle wire is placed correctly before you close the door. There is a little nub at the end of the wire (it looks exactly like the end of a choke cable wire for an old motorcycle carburetor) that MUST be in place correctly, and it can slide out pretty easily while you are working without you realizing it. If you put the door panel back on and that nub is not seated correctly, guess what? That door is never going to open again without tearing apart half the car. Luckily enough for me, I had the foresight to make sure it was in place before closing the doors.
As for the remote wire on the amp, I wrapped it around the 15 amp fuse for the "F. Outlet" in the fuse box near the driver's door. I had some concerns about this because normal fuses I have done the same thing to have a nice space in between the prongs for extra wrapping room. This fuse does not have that, instead it has an extension of the plastic housing that for the most part fills in the entire gap between the prongs. However, after finishing the install, the small amount of metal contact with this bizarre fuse seems to suffice.
For the power wire I normally try to take great care where I decide to push the wire through the firewall in all of my installs. After much hemming and hawing, I found a perfect spot to drill through the firewall. Although there is that filler carpeting covering everything behind the pedals, there is a small O shaped ring that is cut out of the fabric that exposes the bare metal. It is located just to the left of the brake pedal, or more specifically south-west-west of the leftmost bolt holding the brake booster in place. Drilling through this conspicuous location proved effortless, and with no consequences on the other side of the wall. A barren enough location on the other side of the firewall with no obstacles in the way was easily reached from where the massive drill bit decided to peak its head out. A little putty to seal up the gap between the metal and the not quite actually 4 gauge wire, and we were under way.
All in all, it wasn't the most difficult car audio installation I have done. The door panels, and kick panels were super easy to get off, and everything buttoned up very nicely. As for outside the car, the bass is pretty noticeable from a distance, everything about this car is "thin" there is not much to it for the body of the car. I can however say, and this may be just because the car is so new, but absolutely NOTHING rattles on this car, and this is a pretty hefty amount of bass. Nothing inside or out seems to rattle currently, and every other car audio install I have done has rattled at some point or another. So needless to say, I am very pleased with the results of this install. And an interesting side note, the lights don't dim in the slightest even while the music is turned way up. I don't anticipate experiencing any issues with the battery and/or alternator as the result of this install, but who knows, only time will tell.
I hope some if not all of this information has been helpful for anyone trying to accomplish a similar bass setup, and please feel free to ask any questions, and I will try to answer as best I can!
Craig
Some of the things I would like to bring up in this post were minor speed bumps in me completing this task, but proved very time consuming. First off, with the lack of ability to install an aftermarket stereo, we are unable to adjust settings that I prefer to have control over. Mainly high and low pass filters. Not a big deal, but the lack of RCA jacks for the amp's inputs is frustrating enough to find yourself an input for your amp. I ended up using this amp's speaker level inputs to wire into the back door speakers. If your amp doesnt have this input, the concept is the same for a line out converter. (By the way, if you purchase a kenwood amp with a speaker level input, be prepared to call the manufacturer because they don't, in any part of the instructions, have a diagram that tells you which wire is which)
Which brings me to the main hang up with this install. I found it nearly impossible to find a wiring diagram for this car showing which wires are positive and negative in the rear door speakers. Some of you may laugh at my inadequacy in this regard if you magically already have access to this information, but I eventually got some answers on the topic, and I can share with you so that you don't spend hours searching like I did. The rear left door has brown wire which is positive, and a light blue wire which is negative. The rear right door has a green wire which is positive, and a yellow wire which is negative. Be aware though when you take the door panels off, that the extremely short length of wire that is accessible is completely wrapped in a fabric that you will have to cut through very carefully in order to get to the wires themselves. In any case, you must also be very careful while pulling the door panels off too, because the clips holding them into place break very easily (insert me not divulging how many I broke) ALSO: as you are working in the tiny space available, it becomes increasingly apparent how difficult it would be to pull the entire door panel off, what with all the contraptions attached to it. I myself resolved to leave them hanging while I worked. Either way you decide to do this, please for the love of all that is holy, double triple check to make sure your door handle wire is placed correctly before you close the door. There is a little nub at the end of the wire (it looks exactly like the end of a choke cable wire for an old motorcycle carburetor) that MUST be in place correctly, and it can slide out pretty easily while you are working without you realizing it. If you put the door panel back on and that nub is not seated correctly, guess what? That door is never going to open again without tearing apart half the car. Luckily enough for me, I had the foresight to make sure it was in place before closing the doors.
As for the remote wire on the amp, I wrapped it around the 15 amp fuse for the "F. Outlet" in the fuse box near the driver's door. I had some concerns about this because normal fuses I have done the same thing to have a nice space in between the prongs for extra wrapping room. This fuse does not have that, instead it has an extension of the plastic housing that for the most part fills in the entire gap between the prongs. However, after finishing the install, the small amount of metal contact with this bizarre fuse seems to suffice.
For the power wire I normally try to take great care where I decide to push the wire through the firewall in all of my installs. After much hemming and hawing, I found a perfect spot to drill through the firewall. Although there is that filler carpeting covering everything behind the pedals, there is a small O shaped ring that is cut out of the fabric that exposes the bare metal. It is located just to the left of the brake pedal, or more specifically south-west-west of the leftmost bolt holding the brake booster in place. Drilling through this conspicuous location proved effortless, and with no consequences on the other side of the wall. A barren enough location on the other side of the firewall with no obstacles in the way was easily reached from where the massive drill bit decided to peak its head out. A little putty to seal up the gap between the metal and the not quite actually 4 gauge wire, and we were under way.
All in all, it wasn't the most difficult car audio installation I have done. The door panels, and kick panels were super easy to get off, and everything buttoned up very nicely. As for outside the car, the bass is pretty noticeable from a distance, everything about this car is "thin" there is not much to it for the body of the car. I can however say, and this may be just because the car is so new, but absolutely NOTHING rattles on this car, and this is a pretty hefty amount of bass. Nothing inside or out seems to rattle currently, and every other car audio install I have done has rattled at some point or another. So needless to say, I am very pleased with the results of this install. And an interesting side note, the lights don't dim in the slightest even while the music is turned way up. I don't anticipate experiencing any issues with the battery and/or alternator as the result of this install, but who knows, only time will tell.
I hope some if not all of this information has been helpful for anyone trying to accomplish a similar bass setup, and please feel free to ask any questions, and I will try to answer as best I can!
Craig
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