djdoughboy
05-10-2005, 12:07 AM
although it has been covered many times on this site... (extensively by the likes of pnsji and others) i thought id put together another how-to for the site... always good to have a couple different angles on a project right?
so anyway... i just finished installing a system in macaroni's 99 c230k... the project went quite well... except for the dang little kids running around trying to see what was going on...
this HOW-To is designed for those who know little or nothing about car audio... thus some things that you may feel is redundant... or just plain unneccessary... i felt i should include... so that all readers would have full understanding of how to complete this project...
heres how it went:
in order to install a sub and an amp you will need a head unit with sub woofer output and an amp kit... an amp kit can be purchased at almost any car audio store and should include the following:
18-20ft. of RCA cable
18-20ft. remote/trip wire
5-10ft. standard speaker wire
5-10ft. of 8 guage ground wire
18-20ft. of 8 guage power wire with in-line fuse
also i would recommend having a socket wrench with an extension and metric sockets... wire strippers... wire splice connectors... and a screwdriver
first things first... you MUST remove the negative terminal of your battery to avoid possible injury... the battery is located on the passenger side of the trunk... the negative terminal will be a black wire... (in this pic the power wire has already been installed... but you get the picture)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/DCP_4025.jpg
after the negative battery wire has been dissconected you now must remove the rear seat (on models w/o rear folding seats) this is a two step process...
first you must pull a lever located underneath the bench portion of the seat... there is one on each side...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/1rearbenchseathook.jpg
the levers will release the bottom portion of the seat... lift this portion up and out of the car...
now with the bottom of the seat gone you will have exposed three bolts which hold the top portion of the rear seat to the car...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/4rearseatback.jpg
use a socket wrench to remove these bolts...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/3rearseatbackbolt.jpg
the center bolt is difficult to remove and will require an extention to the socket wrench...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/5rearseatbackcenterbolt.jpg http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/6centerboltneedsextention.jpg
after the three bolts have been removed the upper portion of the seat can now be removed... when removing it lift upwards first... the rear seat is now completely out and you should see some insulation and some ports through which you can see the inside of the trunk...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/8holetotrunk.jpg
upon closer examination you will notice that there is a hole that is to the far passenger side through which you can fit your RCA wires and your remote/trip wire
...run these wires through the hole in the trunk being sure not to strip the wires on the sharp metal edges of the trunk port/hole...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/9wiregoingthroughtotrunk.jpg
make sure you pull most of the wire through the hole and into the car because once you begin to hide it under the molding you will not be able to pull any more slack should you need more...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/10wirecomingbackintotrunk.jpg
on the trunk side you will leave enough wire to hook into the amp and hide behind the carpet trunk wall... but you really dont need that much there to accomplish that...
...inside the car begin hiding the wires by slipping them under the insulation and then move them under the door molding...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/18runwiresundermolding.jpg
you can usually do this without removing the molding... but if it is neccessary it will just pop out of place...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/19wiresunderthemolding.jpg
after hiding the wires under the molding of both the doors... you will need to pull back the carpet on the front passenger side under the glove box... this will reveal a metal plat under which wires have already been run... hide and run your wires next to those...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/20wiresunderpassengerfloor.jpg
continue the wires under the metal plate and then begin to hide them under the plastic molding of the center consule...
...at this point you will want to take the head unit out... to do this you will need special tools that came with the head unit...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/11toolstoremoveheadunit.jpg
the head unit removal tools typically slide into slots on either side of the head unit...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/12wheretoolsgotoremoveheadunit.jpg
they then lock into place and allow the head unit to be pulled out...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/13wheretoolsgotoremoveheadunit.jpg
once the head unit it out you shoudl be able to pull the RCA wires and remote/trip wire from where you hid them underneath the plastic center consule molding... into the space where the head unit goes...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/DCP_4014.jpg
unscrewing and removing the plastic air vent on the center consule should help you get the wires up into the area behind the head unit...
...on the back of the head unit there will be a red and white sub woofer out... if your head unit has more then just the sub woofer out it will be labled... hook the RCA's up there... (red to red, white to white)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/15backofheadunit.jpg
next step is to find the blue wire with white stripe coming from the head unit wiring harness...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/21bluewirewithwhitestripe.jpg
this is the wire to which you will connect your remote/trip wire to... it will need to be spliced... to properly splice and connect the remote wire to the blue with white stripe wire you will need a wire splice connector...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/DCP_4021.jpg
most amp kits come with them... and they look like little pieces of plastic that can be screwed onto some spliced wires and then clamped to hold them there...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/16backofheadunit.jpg
now that those connections have been made you can slide the head unit back into its place and move to the trunk...
...in the trunk you will want to disconnect the positive battery terminal (red) and connect your red power wire with in-line fuse to it...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/22hookpowerwiretopositiveterminal.jpg
the ground wire cable you will simply bolt to a metal piece of the chasis... there are many places in the trunk to which you can bolt it... i suggest scrapping the area of the chasis, to which you bolt the ground wire to, first for better conductivity... unfortunately i do not have a picture of the ground wire connected to the chasis... but i plan to post one up soon...
...on most amps the terminals are labled so there should be no confusion as to where you hook your RCA, power, ground, and remote wire... and of course the speaker wire connects from your sub to your amp...
... at this point you may consider hiding what wires you can behind the trunk carpet wall...
...now reconnect the negative battery terminal... and you are done...
i would post pics of the end result... but ill leave that to macaroni since it is his ride...
...if you have any other questions about this type of install please feel free to ask me...
Sean
so anyway... i just finished installing a system in macaroni's 99 c230k... the project went quite well... except for the dang little kids running around trying to see what was going on...
this HOW-To is designed for those who know little or nothing about car audio... thus some things that you may feel is redundant... or just plain unneccessary... i felt i should include... so that all readers would have full understanding of how to complete this project...
heres how it went:
in order to install a sub and an amp you will need a head unit with sub woofer output and an amp kit... an amp kit can be purchased at almost any car audio store and should include the following:
18-20ft. of RCA cable
18-20ft. remote/trip wire
5-10ft. standard speaker wire
5-10ft. of 8 guage ground wire
18-20ft. of 8 guage power wire with in-line fuse
also i would recommend having a socket wrench with an extension and metric sockets... wire strippers... wire splice connectors... and a screwdriver
first things first... you MUST remove the negative terminal of your battery to avoid possible injury... the battery is located on the passenger side of the trunk... the negative terminal will be a black wire... (in this pic the power wire has already been installed... but you get the picture)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/DCP_4025.jpg
after the negative battery wire has been dissconected you now must remove the rear seat (on models w/o rear folding seats) this is a two step process...
first you must pull a lever located underneath the bench portion of the seat... there is one on each side...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/1rearbenchseathook.jpg
the levers will release the bottom portion of the seat... lift this portion up and out of the car...
now with the bottom of the seat gone you will have exposed three bolts which hold the top portion of the rear seat to the car...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/4rearseatback.jpg
use a socket wrench to remove these bolts...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/3rearseatbackbolt.jpg
the center bolt is difficult to remove and will require an extention to the socket wrench...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/5rearseatbackcenterbolt.jpg http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/6centerboltneedsextention.jpg
after the three bolts have been removed the upper portion of the seat can now be removed... when removing it lift upwards first... the rear seat is now completely out and you should see some insulation and some ports through which you can see the inside of the trunk...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/8holetotrunk.jpg
upon closer examination you will notice that there is a hole that is to the far passenger side through which you can fit your RCA wires and your remote/trip wire
...run these wires through the hole in the trunk being sure not to strip the wires on the sharp metal edges of the trunk port/hole...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/9wiregoingthroughtotrunk.jpg
make sure you pull most of the wire through the hole and into the car because once you begin to hide it under the molding you will not be able to pull any more slack should you need more...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/10wirecomingbackintotrunk.jpg
on the trunk side you will leave enough wire to hook into the amp and hide behind the carpet trunk wall... but you really dont need that much there to accomplish that...
...inside the car begin hiding the wires by slipping them under the insulation and then move them under the door molding...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/18runwiresundermolding.jpg
you can usually do this without removing the molding... but if it is neccessary it will just pop out of place...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/19wiresunderthemolding.jpg
after hiding the wires under the molding of both the doors... you will need to pull back the carpet on the front passenger side under the glove box... this will reveal a metal plat under which wires have already been run... hide and run your wires next to those...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/20wiresunderpassengerfloor.jpg
continue the wires under the metal plate and then begin to hide them under the plastic molding of the center consule...
...at this point you will want to take the head unit out... to do this you will need special tools that came with the head unit...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/11toolstoremoveheadunit.jpg
the head unit removal tools typically slide into slots on either side of the head unit...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/12wheretoolsgotoremoveheadunit.jpg
they then lock into place and allow the head unit to be pulled out...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/13wheretoolsgotoremoveheadunit.jpg
once the head unit it out you shoudl be able to pull the RCA wires and remote/trip wire from where you hid them underneath the plastic center consule molding... into the space where the head unit goes...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/DCP_4014.jpg
unscrewing and removing the plastic air vent on the center consule should help you get the wires up into the area behind the head unit...
...on the back of the head unit there will be a red and white sub woofer out... if your head unit has more then just the sub woofer out it will be labled... hook the RCA's up there... (red to red, white to white)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/15backofheadunit.jpg
next step is to find the blue wire with white stripe coming from the head unit wiring harness...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/21bluewirewithwhitestripe.jpg
this is the wire to which you will connect your remote/trip wire to... it will need to be spliced... to properly splice and connect the remote wire to the blue with white stripe wire you will need a wire splice connector...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/DCP_4021.jpg
most amp kits come with them... and they look like little pieces of plastic that can be screwed onto some spliced wires and then clamped to hold them there...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/16backofheadunit.jpg
now that those connections have been made you can slide the head unit back into its place and move to the trunk...
...in the trunk you will want to disconnect the positive battery terminal (red) and connect your red power wire with in-line fuse to it...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/djdoughboy/22hookpowerwiretopositiveterminal.jpg
the ground wire cable you will simply bolt to a metal piece of the chasis... there are many places in the trunk to which you can bolt it... i suggest scrapping the area of the chasis, to which you bolt the ground wire to, first for better conductivity... unfortunately i do not have a picture of the ground wire connected to the chasis... but i plan to post one up soon...
...on most amps the terminals are labled so there should be no confusion as to where you hook your RCA, power, ground, and remote wire... and of course the speaker wire connects from your sub to your amp...
... at this point you may consider hiding what wires you can behind the trunk carpet wall...
...now reconnect the negative battery terminal... and you are done...
i would post pics of the end result... but ill leave that to macaroni since it is his ride...
...if you have any other questions about this type of install please feel free to ask me...
Sean