When A V36 Sp Is Not Entirely An Sp...

[The Max]

Well, didn't I make a shock discovery today?

Ready to embark on my speaker replacement phase, before getting into the more laborious task of doing the amps and subwoofer for the boot, I had prepared myself with MDF to make the adapters for my 6.5" Boston Acoustics to fit into the 10" Bose space.

But once the door trim was off, I was greeted with evidence that my Sports Premium package did not have any Bose 10" speakers but rather a crappy Blaupunkt 6.5" in each door instead along with the large tweeter located next to the door lock handle!

I still proceeded with the upgrade and installed the tweeters in the side mirror finishers with a little creativity and a lot of professional effort on my part but now this throws a major spanner in the works, which will be confirmed once I remove everything from the boot floor to probably find not a single Bose amplifier exists either. This will entail rewiring the doors to accommodate the separate feed the tweeters will need from their crossovers as well as taking the speaker outputs of the head unit and feeding them to the JBL MS-8 DSP I've got.

If I'm feeling really adventurous, I may look into modifying the head unit so that I can extract the line level output for the MS-8 instead. My only other hope is that I find the wiring harness for the Bose set up in there anyway and just buy a Bose headunit to replace the existing one, again, provided the harness will accommodate this changeover. Somehow, I doubt that's going to be the case.

I'm guessing the Bose stereo was also an option in Japan when getting an SP?

[Alkatraz]

Do your speaker grills have small Bose emblems on them?

[Alkatraz]

http://www.j-spec.com.au/f15063/2007-Nissan-Skyline-370GT-Type-S_16.jpg

Something like the above is what is in my car

[The Max]

Bugger. That answers that then.

[The Max]

A double check of the boot floor shows that I have the HICAS unit where the amp normally is, at least according to the 2010 G37 FSM. On the right hand side are the GPS and Telephone Handsfree units.

Looks like I'll be using the speaker outs of the deck to feed the MS-8 after all. Damn.

[Alkatraz]

Strange. I thought that the BOSE system came standard on the SP's. The speakers on the rear parcel shelf also have 'BOSE' written across them.

EDIT: Just found this....http://www.jlimports.com.au/nissan-skyline-v36-370gt-coupe

"Another manufacturers option is the premium Bose audio system including a pair of three-way integrated speakers in the doors and four woofers in the doors and rear shelf"

Edited September 26, 2012 by Alkatraz

[The Max]

This is what I believed too but it looked like either I got shafted on the auction sheet, which specifically stated it is an SP, or the Bose system was optional even on the Premium packaged cars, considering I have all the other premium stuff, such as the dual climate control, heated seats, navigation, voice command button separate to the phone button (according to the G37 2010 FSM, that is a combined button on the base stereo as opposed to separate on the Bose).

I did do a little homework though and found that the Bose system was indeed an option even for the Premium packaged vehicles. Thankfully that's all I've missed out on so there's no drama there. Taken from JL Imports' website:

"Nissan Skyline V36 370GT Type SP - same as Type S model but with leather interior and an Adaptive Steering Wheel and Door Mirror position system (moves with the drivers seat position)."

No matter. If I didn't make this discovery, I'd still be absolutely chuffed with this vehicle and I am anyway. It just means more work for the audio upgrade.

Edited September 26, 2012 by The Max

[naz370]

can any of you guys get the memory seats to work?

[Alkatraz]

Mine work fine. Set the seat and steering wheel, press the 'Set' button, then one of the numbers. What's the problem with yours?

[The Max]

You have to make sure you press and hold one of the numbers until the LED goes out. Then you know it has been stored.

After that, no drama. Press it momentarily whilst the auto is in Park (or otherwise clutch is pushed in for the manual transmissions, I think) and it will recall the settings.

[naz370]

ive tried that and it doesnt do anything. the lights work but if i move my seat it doesnt restore it. ive got to try it again

[naz370]

got it working thanks guys, almost 2 years in the making lol

[The Max]

What were you doing wrong?

[bosco]

The Max - I was just wondering what size were the rear speakers? I am on the same boat as you, type sp coupe but without Bose! I am looking at upgrading the system as well! Did you use stock speaker wires or you ran some new speaker wires through to the door?

[bosco]

The Max - I was just wondering what size were the rear speakers? I am on the same boat as you, type sp coupe but without Bose! I am looking at upgrading the system as well! Did you use stock speaker wires or you ran some new speaker wires through to the door?

[naz370]

I dont know what i was doing wrong i followed the manual from the g37 so i was pretty sure i did the same thing but who knows. im just glad its working for me now. Now to find my AV inputs lol

[The Max]

The Max - I was just wondering what size were the rear speakers? I am on the same boat as you, type sp coupe but without Bose! I am looking at upgrading the system as well! Did you use stock speaker wires or you ran some new speaker wires through to the door?

The rear speakers are the same in all models - 6" x 9". I've bought a couple ABS plastic adapters which will allow me to mount my Boston Acoustic 6.5" in their place. I preferred ABS plastic to masonite and MDF (it would have to be no more than 4mm thick to avoid contact with the factory grilles). Hopefully the grilles won't make contact with the axial tweeter mounts as the overall speaker height above the surface would be 12mm. This could be a problem which might involve me having to find the Boston Acoustic flush mounts for the tweeters as spare parts in order to lower the profile.

Anyway, as for the wiring, what I'm doing is:

1) Cutting and intercepting the rear speaker wires to feed the audio input of a JBL MS-8 DSP, as they're the easiest to access and already in the boot area, compared to bringing back 4 wires from the headunit at the front. Less wire clutter in the cabin.

2) JBL MS-8 DSP line outputs will feed a Rockford Fosgate Power series T800-4AD (Class AD) amp (front and rear speakers) and a Sony XM-1002HX amp (removable subwoofer). Both the DSP and the Rockford Fosgate amp will be mounted stacked in the rear left corner of the boot where the Bose amp would normally be. There are a series of factory M6 bolts welded to the boot floor which will be for the mounting ears of the 1.6mm aluminium stacking mount I'm fabricating. The Sony amp will be mounted to the removable subwoofer box for a completely removable solution.

3) The Rockford Fosgate amp will feed the four Boston Acoustic crossovers which will be mounted in the rear right corner of the boot where there's sufficient real estate for them, again mounted on a 1.6mm aluminium stacking platform I'll be fabricating for that.

4) The outputs of the rear crossovers will be wired to the speakers using two 4-core Canford MCS4 speaker cables, primarily for neatness.

5) The outputs of the front crossovers will be wired to the speakers in a more complicated fashion in which a single 8-core Canford MCS8 cable will make its way to behind the headunit. From there, four of the wires will be used to intercept the existing factory wiring leading to the woofers. Because the tweeters are currently wired in parallel with the woofers (dumb design), an additional pair of wires (22GA) will be threaded through the door harness grommets to be connected to the tweeters. Granted, the existing factory wiring leading to the woofers is a bit on the thin side but it is not an issue with high voltage output amplifiers. It's high current amplifiers that are affected by thinner gauge wire. Though generally insignificant, any undesirable capacitance resulting from the factory wires can always be compensated for with the DSP anyway.

The biggest pain in the arse for all of this will be removing the entire rear seats so as to remove the side finishers (floor up to rear quarter windows and rear windscreen) just to be able to remove the friggin' rear parcel tray finisher!!! I love how Nissan engineer and assemble their vehicles but this is one exception that shits me.

So while I'm at it, I may as well then pass the 2GA power cabling and remote wire for the DSP (which then has its own remote output for the amps) and install the alarm plus some other secret gadgets because I don't want to take the car apart more than once in the same areas if I can avoid it. Clips don't like being inserted and removed too many times and they'll break as a result.

In short dude, brace yourself for a lot of hard work, if you want to do it properly.

[bosco]

Thx max! Geez it's not as easy as I thought I will turn out! I was thinking about putting the infinity kappa 6.5 components and the infinity kappa 6x9 with a alpine amp Pdx v9... I was thinking just running these with stock speaker wires... Might have to pay someone to do it! Sounds like a very complicating job

[The Max]

I wouldn't say it's complex but it will be difficult. The other concern out of this is that pin 1 of the headunit may not necessarily function as a remote output like the Bose system does. In which case, I'm going to be hacking into the headunit to find an appropriately switched output. Even a 5V rail will do as the JBL MS-8 has a switch-on threshold of 4V.

Given the degree of difficulty though and the amount of love it'll need, that's exactly why I wouldn't recommend finding someone to do it unless you know they have a track record for putting love into what they do. Chris Rogers is clearly one of them but if you're not in QLD, perhaps he can chime in and recommend someone in your state?