How To Install A Sub And Amplifier In An R32

[Sean'O]

Hey,

Before this DIY I am going to assume that you guys know what a sub does for your music experience and what an amplifier basically needs to work. If not here’s a great video form Crutchfield that explains the basics.

Sub and Amp Guide

I had recently installed speakers to replace the stocko’s in my 32, so I did have a little experience with taking the car apart, especially the back seat etc. If you have not done this before, save yourself a headache and do a search on the forums, they are a great help. Similarly, if you have a friend with a bit of audio ‘know how’ they come in handy.

Tools you will need

- HU manual

- Screwdriver set

- Ring spanners (couple different sizes)

- Wire stripper

- Crowbar (easier on your back)

- Stanley knife/ scissors

Materials needed

- Amplifier wiring kit

- Sub

- Amplifier

- Duct tape (ohh yeah J)

- Black cloth (optional)

Step 1

Go down to you local shopping centre, pick up a sub, amp and wiring kit. The amp I would suggest getting second hand, unless you have lots of money to burn lol. You could also buy your wiring gear separately from any electrical specialist to save money, but I am a complete novice at this stuff so I just quoted the power I’m running at a JB hi-fi and they gave me the appropriate kit.

Step 2

Open up your hood and remove the negative wire from your battery terminal.

Step 3

Find out where you want to mount your fuse. Assemble fuse holder and wires to the positive battery terminal, (all connections included in wiring kit). Make sure you leave the fuse out.

Yes i know my wheels are crap lol, dw they are next to go lol

Step 4

Remove the kick panel one the drivers side by taking out a few screws.

Step 5

Find an existing hole in the firewall to pass through power cable, the closest one is on the drivers side, it will be plugged up with a piece of foam, just pop it out and follow the wired with your hands to a thick rubber seal.

Once you have found the seal, you will have to work a hole in it with a long screw driver. Its all trial and error process until you feel there is a large enough hole to pass the wire through. I found wrapping the end of the wire with thick duct tape made it easier to push through. Once you have pushed roughly 1 – 1.5 meters of wire behind the firewall, put your hand behind your pedals and search behind the carpet for your power cable.

This is by far the most laborious task of the whole install, I’m pretty sure some of the more experienced audio guys on SAU have a few tricks on how to make this easier.

Step 6

Time to take out the HU.

You will need to remove all the parts that cover the centre console. There are quite a few DIY specifically involving this, again I found searching a great help.

There are quite a few screws dotted along the centre console that need to be taken out. They start from about where the seatbelts are, don’t force anything, if it doesn’t come away freely you have probably just missed a screw.

Another thing to note is the black piece of plastic that surrounds your HU and the air conditioning etc, this also has to come off. Once you have removed your shift knob and gaiter there are two 2 - 4 screws and 2 clips that need to be popped up and it should come away quite easily. Don’t rush this, the plastic is flimsy and easy to crack.

Now you should be looking at a number of screws and brackets holding your HU in place.

Step 7

To remove your HU, there are 4 screws holding its bracket in place, simply pull these guys out and put them aside, it should look something like this.

Behind your HU you should see a number of wires all bound together and 2 holes for your RCA cable. This is where you need your HU manual, if you don’t have one do a search of your HU model on the net, that’s how I found mine. The manual will reveal what each wire does by color. You need to look for a ‘trigger cable’, in my case it was called a ‘AMP REM’ wire.

My trigger cable was already cut so I just stripped it and connected the new trigger cable provided in the kit. Next plug in your RCA cable into the appropriate slots in the HU. Take both these cables and pass them through the back of your center console on you passenger side, later you can wrap these guys under your glove compartment.

Helpful Tip: If you drop a screw behind your centre console, grab a strong magnet and use that to pull it out the back.

Step 8

Now you should have a length of red power cable sitting on your drivers side and a bundle of RCA and trigger cable on your passenger side.

Step 9

Take out back seat, basically pop out bottom section first with the crow bar and slide it out towards front of the car. Next take out two screws at the base of the top section, and slide the top section of the seat up (sounds nasty) and then pull towards the front of the car slowly.

Caution: Once you slide the top section of the seat up, before you pull towards the front of the car, look behind the seat to make sure that no wires are threaded into the cushion. I say this because the bloke in Japan who installed rear speakers in my car threaded a wire through one of the metal supports of the seat, I have no idea why, but this meant that I had to operate with half a seat in my face for the rest of the install.

Step 10 (Optional)

Once the top section of the seat has been taken out you will see a large metal plate held down by about 15 screws, take this sucker out, it’s

a) Creating a barrier between you and your boot and

b) It will impend valuable bass from coming into your cabin. Here is a pic

Step 11

Run your cables through either side of your car by removing the “skyline” door skirts and popping up the carpet (Just like in the Crutchfield vide). Don’t forget to pass your RCA and trigger cable underneath the glove box and then behind the kick panel on the passenger side.

Step 12

Duct tape the 3 cables underneath where your rear seat was so that they are out of the way where the clips go. Then simply pull the wires out into the boot.

Step 13 (getting there)

Grab your ground cable and attach it to one of the holes left vacant by the metal plate taken out. Your boot should now be looking something like this.

Step 14

Hook up your amp, there is heaps of documentation about this on the web and on SAU, again I am a novice and this was no problem at all.

Step 15

Get your speaker cable and connect it up to your sub, again heaps of info for this.

Step 16 (Testing Yeah!!)

Ensure everything on your amp is turned right down! Put your fuse in, reconnect your negative battery terminal wire, turn on your head unit and select your pre-sub output to ‘ON’. Even at low volumes with a tiny bit of gain you should be able to feel the sub vibrating just a little bit, if so WELL DONE!!, otherwise, something is not right L, look over all your connections, check your fuse, make sure your sub and amp are wired up correctly. If you can’t find the problem post in the Audio forums or call your local audio store, they will be able to sort your problems out.

Step 17

Cable tie/ duct tape any loose wires behind HU and in your engine bay then put your console back together in the reverse order. Don’t put your rear seat in just yet.

Step 18 (optional)

Remove the stock amplifier; it’s the silver grommet looking thing hanging at the top of your boot. To remove it you need to get back into the car and take out the parcel shelf wood cover thing. Pull it up where it is attached to the metal to pop it out of place in about 4 places. Take caution here, the wood (whatever it is) is quite flimsy and could snap, I found the easiest way to get it out is to put your finger in a hole in the centre of the cover, pull up slightly, let the wood bow in the middle and then pull slowly towards the front of the car.

Now you should be able to see a small metal plate held down by 4 screws, remove this as thus and move aside.

The stock amp is being held in by two screws, take them out and then slide the amp out from inside your boot. Put the metal plate back in the same place.

If you wanted to replace the rear speakers as well now would be the perfect time .

Like I said at the top of this post I had already installed aftermarket speakers 2-3 months before, but I found something very interesting. The wood cover thing, was actually sitting on the rubber surround of the speaker (since they did not quite fit in the existing holes in the wood cover thing). This would no doubt have done some serious damage if I left it.

SOLUTION

I fabricated some ‘rings’ made out of extra speaker cable so that the wood thing did not sit on any part of the speaker. It was a bit tricky to fit the wood thing back in……. I love duct tape.

Step 19 (optional)

If you put everything back together now, you will be able to see the back of your rear seat through the boot, and personally I think it’s a bit tacky.

I decided to cover this hole with some cloth I found lying around the house, I guess you could pick up some from Lyncraft or something, not really sure what cloth it is, just make sure it matches you chassis color. Use the metal plate at a template, cut a good 2 cm wider so that it covers the hole completely.

Next Duct tape the cloth over the hole from inside cabin, stretch it so that there are no kinks, you should now have a boot looking like this.

Much better

Step 20

Put car rear seat back in

Step 21

Tune your amplifier (again go to the audio forums, heaps of info here)

Step 22

Mount Sub and amp, then you’re Done! :sorcerer:

Thanks everyone,

Comments and improvements welcome,

Regards,

Sean’O

Edited October 12, 2006 by Sean'O

[dangtstr32]

Hi

i have a r32 aswell and ive done my stereo, i was always wondering what that box was in my boot under the parcel shelf i might take mine out. But that bit of plate looks like its a part of the structure of the car, i left mine in, i dont think u shouldve taken that out, but if it sounds good thats alright. Also the wire from the battery to the fuse should be a little shorter so theres no chance of it shorting to the body and not being able to protect the wire or the battery by a fuse. I like the ring idea to, and u cant beat duct tape. haha So how does it sound when u finished it?

[Sean'O]

Gday mate,

Yeah you don't need the stock amp, i found mine was rattling quite a bit, when i took it out there was something broken and rumbling around inside it lol.

The big plate, well.... I understand your logic, yes it is technically part of the structure of the car, but if I were challenged about it I would say it only serves an aesthetic purpose to hide the back seat through the boot. That’s why I chose to cover it up with the cloth. A cop would have to look very hard to notice it was missing. However i could be wrong and would have no problem putting it back in , only a 30 min job max.

But yeah i have been in a 32 with the plate in, much more rattles and less sound so...i just chose to take her out.

Thanks for the fuse idea, like I said I’m not really the best audio guy when it comes to the technical details , I might have a play with it when I install my speed meter in the coming weeks (another DIY coming).

lol, yeah the ring, i thought i was pretty clever after that :sorcerer:, because i didn't want to cut into anything if possible, i suppose this could work for 6 x 9 speakers too if you manage to get the magnets through the stock holes in the shelf, cauz I know for a fact you can't hack into the metal.

Lets just say the sound is WOW!! compared to the old speakers

Overall I am very pleased with how my system sounds especially when considering how budget it is compared to others out there.

Cheers mate

Regards,

Sean'O

Edited February 6, 2007 by Sean'O

[dangtstr32]

U dont have to spend much do u to get good sound lots of people would spend shitloads on a stereo and use about 20 percent of the power its pretty stupid ha.

Nice System, ill catcha on the next thread

[Sean'O]

Hell yeah man, i'll take a bargin over flashy stuff anyday.

Finished installing the speed meter today without a hitch, so expect another DIY pretty soon

Cheers,

Regards,

Sean'O

[ZILR-34]

sean'o your got a pic of the stock amplifier? i just want to make sure i riped out the right thing

cheers

bill

[Sean'O]

Gday Bill,

Yeah i thought i would hold onto it just in case i needed it later.......like now lol, anyway this is what it should look like, i'm pretty sure they will be the same for every R32, however i could be wrong.

My one is a Clarion Unit, model number: EP-812D.

http://image-cache.skylinesaustralia.com/f...0_11_786716.jpg

Here is another angle,

http://image-cache.skylinesaustralia.com/f...0_11_792171.jpg

Just make sure you don't remove the rear wiper motor or something silly like that and you should be fine,

Cheers,

Regards,

Sean'O

[linxus40]

i know in my skyline when i drive quick the stuff in the boot shoots about all over the place. i think that plate between the boot and the rear seat is to protect you and your passengers. say you had a toolbox in your boot and you broke hard or hit something, that little piece of foam in the back seat wont stop jack and you’ll cop it in the back of the head.

just my 2 cents

[Sean'O]

Yeah true, you make a good point,

However, the way I mounted my sub, it is pointed towards the cabin and is pushed up against the rear seat, virtually covering the hole left by taking out the plate. So i don't know too many things that could squeeze through and have enough inertia in the event of a crash to push through the seat.... and then though my head lol.

Second, my sub doesn't have a cage of some sort to protect it, so I wouldn't be letting stuff fly around in my boot anyway lol.

But yeah I totally agree with you, I said that on my original DIY that its optional to take out the plate. If you often have heavy stuff in your boot that is loose, your probably better off keeping it in.

Safety First guys,

Cheers linxus40,

Regards,

Sean'O

[Rekin]

Thank you very much for the awesome instructions and pics

Installing amp wiring now and would have been lost without these steps.

Browsing other threads about common probs with installation, ill group them up in this thread so others in the future wont have to search

Best Way to feed the Power cable through the firewall hole is by removing the inner guard as explained by mr 32:

What you need to do is

1. In the car on the drivers side take of the kick panel (right foot side when sitting in the car) with this off you should be able to see the firewall and in the corner a large rubber grommet.

2. Jack the car up, front driver’s side wheel, take the wheel off. once the wheel is off you need to remove the plastic cover in the wheel arch. don’t take it all off as there are like 500 screws just what is nessacery to pull part of it down. ps. you might want to put some car stands to hold the car up instead of leaving the car on the jack

3. standing at the side of the car where you took the wheel off take the power cable and push it through the guard there should be an opening near brake booster side of the guard (back end of the guard behind the strut tower) just feel around under the guard to find the opening. once you have found the opening, push it through the cable should know be in the wheel arc where you pulled the wheel cover down. put your hand up there and find the cable and then push the cable trough the grommet you should be able to feel it at the back of the guard

4. the cable should now be inside the car

mr 32

In my attempt, you dont need to remove the wheel as the jack lifts the body of the car making it easy to access all screws if you have a small screw driver

[Sean'O]

ahh,

I knew there was an easier way to do it, meh, it gave me a good days work anyway lol,

Ohh and just for the record, i've had no problems what so ever with the install, so i'm pretty sure its on the money ,

Glad to be of assistance mate

Thanks fellas,

Sean'O

[CATKICKER]

just finished mine, came up well, sounds the goods too

[Rekin]

CATKICKER that is awesome!

Can you please upload more pictures as I am stumped on my boot design!

What are your Amps mounted to? A board mounted on the metal plate? Or was that removed. Did you mount directly to the seats? How is it mounted?

The sub is in the spare tyre well?

If these questions stray outside the guidelines of the tutorial section could you post it in the car audio section?

Cheers

[CATKICKER]

Thanks mate, here is a quick run down of what I did...

I took out all the flooring, wheel ect, ripped out the screw point for the wheel and welded it over.

Built a frame around the top of the wheel well so I could screw a level board onto it and sealed it. (Make sure it will be high enough for the woofer to clear bottom)

Painted the wheel well in sound deadening tar and once dry, applied 5 layers or fibreglass and resin (to strengthen the enclosure)

Made a wall to cover the rear seat, mount the amps to and to hide the wiring and shaped it to the boot lining (making note of the swinging boot arms)

With both the amp board the the floor boards in place (to be accurate), I the began creating the jigsaw puzzle of mapping the line of the boot floor. I then traced the lines onto a piece of cardboard and test fitted and adjusted further (this is a VERY long process if you want it to be spot on).

Once I was happy with the fake floor, I used 2 thin pieces of MDF (around 6mm). You will not get it in, in once piece so the best option is to get 2 pieces, butt the straight edges together and trace around the cardboard template with the join in the middle.

With all the pieces in place, I confirmed everything was flush and cut the hole for the sub.

The amp board was carpeted out of the car and holes for the wired drilled. Once that was in place with the wires poking through, I glued an screwed the floor board to the frame. I then squeezed the final floor panels into place onto some more glue and carpeted the floor.

I then mounted and wired up the amps, poked the overlap of carpet on the floor down the edge and mounted the sub.

Doesn't sound too complex but I have left a lot of specifics out and getting things to fit right is a lot harder than it seems. I did this over a couple of months so I didn't get complacent and it paid off!

I will add some pics tonight when I get home. Here is one uncarpeted.

Hope that helps people! If done right the end result is well worth it!

Todd

EDIT: HERE IS THE PIC OF MY WHEEL WELL SOUND DEADEND AND FIBERGLASSED...

Edited January 30, 2007 by CATKICKER

[Haysey]

heres mine.....

who needs boot space

pfft

did it a year or so ago when i had nothing to do.. took a few days of hard labour but love the end result... not hard to take out or get to the spare either...

got plenty more pics too!

[CATKICKER]

That has come up well Haysey!

[Sean'O]

Holy Crap , just put my sub to shame guys lol ,

Glad to see they came up so well

Enjoy them guys, you deserve em'

Sean'O

[dangtstr32]

nice installs, like the v12 installs mostly cos im an alpine fan, and i like the way u mounted the sub box into the tire well, cos i did it to my car. even though i didnt use sound deadener and fibreglass it turned out alright it rattles alot though, all i did was made an mdf three sided box to shape into the tire well and siliconed it into place and put a hole in the top. i had to reverse my sub for it to fit but i like it because it makes a cage around the moving cone so it can get damaged and without a big box in there makes a big difference to the looks of it.

Great stuff

[burnsie]

reading this thread has made we wanna put my sub in. thanx heaps guys for all the info

[DjeMz]

Awesome write up dude, I already have a amp + sub, but the cabling is only 12gauge :S So although all i really had to do was "follow the existing wires and replace them", sure was a good thing to know!