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Yet another 2012 SE Sport audio upgrade

31K views 45 replies 16 participants last post by  Andy2002a 
#1 ·
Hi,

I'm doing a full upgrade to my 2012 SE Sport 5spd. I've never done an install before but figured with all of the good info on these forums I'd be able to handle it myself.

In order to help contribute to the scant knowledge base currently available on the '12, I'll try to make as many pictures as possible for all the noobs like myself who have never done any of this stuff. If I end up doing something that looks stupid, feel free to second-guess and/or ridicule me.

Gear:
  • Amp: Rockford Fosgate R600-5 5ch (50W @ 4ohms x4, 300W @ 2ohms x1)
  • Sub: Polk db1040DVC 10"
  • Sub enclosure: Atrend E10S (sealed)
  • LOC: AudioControl LC6i
  • Front speakers: Polk db5251 5.25" components
  • Rear speakers: Polk db651s 6.5" coaxials
  • Power wire: Rockford Fosgate RFK4 kit (4 AWG)

I'll update this thread as I get components installed. It's tough for me because I live in the city and don't have a garage, so I have the added challenge of trying to dodge passing traffic as I tear my panels off.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
First thing I did was wire up the sub and put it in its enclosure. The Polk 1040DVC is a dual voice coil so I wired the two coils in parallel to achieve 2 ohms of resistance.

I wish the enclosure didn't have that stupid sticker on the corner. I don't wanna rip it off because who knows what it looks like under there.

I also got the grill cover for it so my girlfriend doesn't smack the cone with a shopping bag or something while it's in my trunk.

 
#3 ·
It's tough for me because I live in the city and don't have a garage, so I have the added challenge of trying to dodge passing traffic as I tear my panels off.
That just adds "degree of difficulty" to your score. We'll give higher marks, but the East German judge will still screw you over.

Interested in seeing behind the panels as you get the speakers off. Please do take lots of pics! Good luck, and enjoy the feel of the new tunes[thumb]
 
#4 ·
The next thing I did was to place the amp and LOC in the trunk. I don't anticipate needing to adjust the amp or LOC once they're tuned and set, so having them easily accessible isn't an issue. I took a cue from Yanner's thread and put them in the same spots he did. My amp is shaped differently than his Alpine so I had to do a little more cutting in the foam. For the amp, I cut all the way through the foam so that the amp rests on the bare metal of the trunk, which I'm hoping (as Yanner noted) will help with cooling. The LC6i is sitting on top of the foam in my install.

 
#5 ·
The rear seat bolt was the natural choice for the amp's ground wire attachment point, but the hole in the ring connector that came pre-attached to my ground wire was too small for it. Others have put new holes in their trunk floor to ground the amp, but I didn't want to do that.

I found some nice bolts next to the left rear seat latch. It involved taking a panel or two off to get to them, but it was worth it I guess.

This is the panel that had to come off to get to them. There were two Torx 20's to remove before the rest of it just popped off. Oh, and there's a wire that connects to the trunk light there so remove that before you take it totally off, as is pictured. You can see I loosened up the beige pillar near the door frame, too:



Here are all of the lovely bolts to choose from, right under the seat belt tensioner:



And here's the ground connection I made. I sanded it like hell and confirmed an adequate ground connection via multimeter:



The wire runs under the side cloth and pops out right next to the amp; very clean looking.
 
#9 ·
Are you going to run the wires from the LC6-i along the right side doors to the passenger console panel for speaker connections?
Yes, exactly. I plan on tapping into them as shown here.

And are you going to run new speaker wire from the amp or do what Yanner did ??
Using the factory speaker wire doesn't give me warm and fuzzy feelings... I'm thinking it'll be better to run new wire. I've already dinked around with the front speakers, and the wire that's going to them now is pretty tiny, looks to be 18 AWG, so I'd like to avoid it if I can. Plus if I used the factory wires it'd mean I'd have to cut them at some point, which I'd like to avoid in the case that I have to revert the system to stock for some reason.

I'm a little apprehensive of threading the new wire into the doors-- hopefully it won't be too difficult.
 
#12 ·
So I experimented with threading speaker wire through the door boots yesterday. I was disappointed to learn that the door boot isn't a simple rubber tube as I suspected but instead consists of a wire harness at the point where the boot meets the body of the car, meaning you can't pass a damn thing through it.

This leaves me the option of drilling new holes in the metal or using the stock wire runs, like Yanner did. I'm leaning towards the latter. Either choice results in an irreversible modification to the car, and I figure reconnecting some wires is less egregious than trying to patch holes in sheet metal.

I don't think the loss from using the factory wires will result in too much signal degradation, based on some numbers I punched in here: http://www.bcae1.com/images/swfs/speakerwireselectorassistant.swf

I'm going to try to run the power wire tonight. I'm planning on running it in through the existing grommet on the passenger side, as others have done. I'd like to be able to cross it over to the driver's side after than and run it down the driver's side doors, but we'll see if that's possible.
 
#13 ·
Did you notice that in the fronts only just under the boot on the frame side there are rubber grommets, can we pass a wire from there into the door boot?

This is not the case in the rear. But if you do drill holes for the rear, be , sure to add a grommets for protection. Let us know,which way you go
 
#15 ·
So I ran the power cable thought the firewall earlier today. It was not without its episode of drama.

I decided to do the "Yanner technique" and run the power wire through the large rubber grommet on the passenger side of the engine bay. First thing I did was remove the glove box to get easy access from the cab. There are five black screws that need to be unscrewed to yank the glove box off-- two inside the glove box, one on the door side that you need to remove the side panel to access, and two on the underside of the glove box. You'll need to remove the felt panel near the passenger's feet to access these, and they're tricky to find, so look hard. You don't need to remove the two silver bolts down there, just the black screws.

While I was disconnecting the positive terminal on the battery, I broke the self-tightening bolt on the terminal. This was some crazily-shaped bolt that I've never seen before, and I ran over to Pep Boys to see if I could find one. No luck. However, I was able to fashion a makeshift bolt out of a hex bolt, nut, washer, and a wing nut.



I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring that out.

Here's where I tied the fuse on, using two zipties. Looks like some kind of sensor wiring so I don't think it'll get hot and melt the fuse casing:



Finally, I ran the wire though the grommet. I tried making a cut near the existing wires at the center like you're supposed to, but I couldn't get a good angle on it to do that. Instead, I pulled the grommet to the side and ran the wire on the outside of the grommet. Then, from the inside of the car, I made a notch on the outer rim of the grommet so that the wire would run through the notch and the grommet would be more flush against the car. I know this is completely different than all of the other installs I've ever seen on this site where existing grommets were used, but I was having difficulty doing it the "right" way, and it seems like the seal is adequate.

From the engine:



From the cabin near the passenger's feet (sans glovebox):



I'll run it though the passenger side doors (along with the input and output speaker wires) sometime later this week.
 
#17 ·
I ran all the wires to the trunk on Thursday. I decided, after reading what others have posted online, that running the speaker wire and the power wire along the same is not a huge deal. I'll be listening for noise problems once I get everything rolling but I'm hopeful I'll be OK.

Here are all the panels along the right side, pulled up. There are multiple panels to remove, including the cupholders in the rear, which were especially tricky to remove, as they had some of those plastic fasteners. You need to remove the bottom of the rear seat to get that panel off, too. The seat is only held on with two big Torx screws. Just pull up to remove.

I ran all of the wires along the door sill. Looking from the back seat forward:



Looking from the front seat, backward:



Here are the wires running under the carpet under the right rear seat to my components in the trunk. I used two four-strand 18-gauge wire snakes to run from the head unit to the LOC, and four twisted-pair 16 gauge wires to run from the amp back to the wire harness up front.



Wires ready to be soldered into the wire harness, run under the carpet on the passenger side:

 
#18 ·
After running the wires to the trunk, the next thing to do was hook up the components. Hooking up the LOC was easy enough with the wires I used. I have one channel for the front and another for the rear. The LC6i will duplicate the 2nd channel output into the 3rd channel output if there is no 3rd channel input-- this is for routing the rear channel to the subwoofer channel. I made use of this feature. The power and turn-on wires go to the amp, which I will show you next.



Despite Rockford's website, which says that the R600-5 can accept a 4 AWG power wire input, it definitely cannot. It felt pretty lo-tech trimming some copper strands from the wire to make it fit into the terminals, but it worked. I taped them up after the trim job because all of those copper strands straying everywhere freaked me out. I also jammed the power wires from the LOC into the terminals alongside the power wire. The green wire is the remote turn on wire from the LC6i-- once the LC6i senses a signal on its input wires, it sends +12V to the amp which can be used in lieu of the remote turn on wire from the head unit, which is nice.



Here's the final product:

 
#19 ·
I don't think running the power wire outside the grommet is a good idea. Over time, vibration against the metal of the car will cut through the wire jacket and short the wire. This should blow the fuse, but it could cause a fire. You could try wedging a piece of hard plastic between the wire and the metal, like a section of PVC pipe, or you can run it through the grommet. I notice that you made one slice, but you should actually make an "X" which would make it easier to push through the grommet. In any case, for long term longevity, I recommend you fix it somehow.
 
#23 ·
^^^ Ditto to this on my first install...way back in the day. While cruising along with tunes blaring, bass just stops. I assumed the amp had just overheated and it would come back on, but it didn't. Luckily, I had installed a fuse near the battery (even though I didn't fully understand why it mattered where it was located). Could have been a really bad day.

I haven't taken a look at the firewall (Sony system in mine), but I've seen a couple of people say that they couldn't find a good place to run their power wire. If it is that bad, you can probably locate a nice place to drill a hole and install a grommet from your local parts store. Just ensure you source out your grommet before chucking up your drill...
 
#24 ·
I'm gonna reinforce that power wire today. In the mean time, here is the wiring into the head unit I did on Friday.

You can pull out the wiring harness to make it easier on yourself to sit in the passenger seat while soldering. I cut the wires above the harness (i.e. between the harness and the head unit). I soldered the wires from the head unit into the LOC wires and the speaker wires into the wiring harness, which goes out to the rest of the car. You'll have to strip back some of the black cloth wrap to get at the wires.

Here are the eight wires you need to cut-- it's the four brown and four white ones near my thumb. Note there are other brown and white wires in the harness, but it's those eight together that are the speaker wires. Glad I did my due diligence before I started snipping.



From another thread, here are the wire colors with the pin numbers:

24: LR- brown w/yellow stripe
25: LR+ brown w/green stripe
26: RF- white w/orange stripe
27: RF+ white w/purple stripe

36: LF+ white
37: LF- white w/brown stripe
38: RR+ brown w/white stripe
39: RR- brown w/blue stripe

I soldered the wires together end-to-end. Took me a few hours, but here is the finished product. Looks like a damn mess, but it works. Once I got one of the channels wired up, I turned the car on to test and see if the whole system was working, which, much to my elation, it was. Then I finished the other three channels up.

 
#26 ·
Last set of photos.

The Rockford amp I purchased comes with a remote subwoofer level knob, which is nice. I ran the cable for this in the car's roof up the left side. Why, you ask, didn't I run it along the floor? Well, my dealership ran a cable for my aftermarket rear sensing system in the same place along the left side of the roof, so I figured I'd just follow their lead. Why reinvent the wheel, right? It's only one small wire.



All I had to do was sneak the wire from the amp behind the same panel I used to conceal my ground wire and from there just tuck it into the rear door molding. I threaded it above the airbag on the side pillar (don't wanna get in the way of that thing) and in the front door molding down to the fuse box. I have the wire coming out of the fuse box and have the sub level knob right under the headlight knob. I mounted the knob with mounting tape, but that's been coming off lately so I may sack up and mount it with the included screws-- just gotta find the time to drill the holes for it.

The final task to complete the install was to install the speakers. I decided to tackle the components first. I won't go into how to remove the doors as there is plenty out there already on this topic.

As Yanner and others have noted, the Polk tweeters fit very well into the stock housing. As pictured below, I pulled one of the plastic tabs off with needle nose pliers (it's the tab that doesn't have a barbed edge) and the Polk tweeter basically snapped into place there. I used a little duct tape to make sure that sucker won't pop out once it's installed. (Don't judge.)





The crossovers fit nicely into that little hole in the door foam. I didn't even use anything to adhere them to the door in there, I just stuck them in. I've already had to reach inside the door and pull them out once to adjust the tweeter level, so I don't think you'll want to mount them unless you end up hearing them start knocking around in there or something.



The two wires that you'll wanna send to the input terminals on the crossovers are both black, which was a big inconvenience, because it makes it impossible to distinguish positive from negative if you lose track (which I did). To figure out which is which again, you'll have to get at the wiring harness you just finished soldering up and use a multimeter to find which pin corresponds to which wire.

The black wires are also too short to reach your crossover if you put it where I put it, so I had to solder on an additional few inches of speaker wire to the black wires to make them reach.

As far as setting the tweeter level, +0dB sounded good to me when testing it out at first, however after driving with it for a while I needed to cut the tweeters to -3dB. As I'm sure you've noticed the rear stock speakers can't reproduce high frequencies for crap so once I got the Polk coaxials in there the whole system brightened up and the tweeter level needed to be cut.

Putting the coaxials in the rear doors was simpler. This time, your wires are colored appropriately so you won't have to figure out your polarity from scratch. However, you will still have the problem of the wire being too short. You could cut the wires inside the door and make them reach, I guess, but I decided to just go the safe route and extend the current wire and route it back into the door.

Oh, PS, the rear left positive wire will be white/green as opposed to the brown/green listed in a previous post. [???:)]



And, finally, I put the sub in the trunk and hooked it up the amp with a very short speaker cable. Simple.

I guess that's it! The system sounds great, and I haven't noticed any noise or vibration problems yet. If I had to give one word of advice it would be to not underestimate the value of a pair of work gloves when trying to reach into the tricky, tight spots behind panels, under carpets, etc.

Let me know if there's pics of any of the "finished product" you'd like to see.

[werd]
 
#27 ·
I finally fixed the power wire through the grommet today. And not a day too soon-- the wire was already showing signs of crimping.



Thanks to Pastorius for the tip on making the "X" instead of a simple slit-- it made it WAY easier to thread the wire through.
 
#28 ·
Hi Mr. Wobble...I'm in the process of putting in what looks to be the same Polk components in my front doors, and had a quick question: You mentioned that we want to use the dual black (UGH!!) wires to plug into our crossover's input. I can't seem to get it out of my mind that (to me at least) it seems like we're sending only the signal that our stock mid was receiving, rather than a 'full range' signal. What's your thought on this? I've seen virtually everyone else do this in these forums, so don't feel like we're the only ones who tapped the black duo.

I was thinking that there has to be a place where the tweeter and woofer wires separate from the main speaker wire. That is, unless the headunit is actually powering each of those speakers separately (making it a 6-channel headunit). I kinda think that's doubtful, so I'm just curious if I might be able to somehow tap into the 'daddy wire' and run it into my crossover?
 
#29 ·
Good question. I was worried about this too until I saw how the stock tweeter was wired in-- it had a fixed capacitor wired to it in parallel, with the woofer in series. That capacitor basically functions as the "crossover" in the system, letting only high frequencies in the tweeter and low in the woofer. Once you remove the stock tweeter (and therefore the stock "crossover"), you'll remove any of these filtering effects and should get the full-range signal to your new crossovers. This is barring any filtering that is done at the stock head unit, which may or may not be happening, but there's nothing you can really do about that I suppose.
 
#30 ·
As a professional car audio installer I strongly recommend trying to rerun your power wire down the driver side of your car. You always want to run it down the same side as the batter. You'd also want to go through the grommet not through the outside of it pressing against the metal. there is a plastic cover where the clutch plate would go, i recommend going there to run the wire into the car. Your are much less prone to problems this way. going across the engine you increase the heat against the wire as well as have it rub against the metal between the firewall and grommet.
 
#31 ·
Thanks for the tips.

Regarding the metal-on-wire contact, I fixed this already and am now running it through the grommet instead of outside of it (see post #27 in this thread). I would have used the clutch plate as you suggested, however I have a clutch there at the moment. :)

Regarding running the wire across the engine bay, I made sure to tie the wire high in the engine bay to maximize the space between it and the engine to reduce the heating effects you mention. I have not had any issues after 10,000 miles of operation, so hopefully everything is OK the way it is.
 
#32 ·
I have the same LC6i installed, and I'm using the yellow/orange power antenna wire to power it, but the unit doesn't turn on. I tested the cable with a multimeter and it has 12v running on it. I was wondering what cable you used to run to the 12v input of the LOC? Does it need to be a constant 12v source, or should the power antenna cable be fine since it just turns on with the HU?
 
#33 ·
I had to look at my old pictures to remember what I did...

I just wired the +12V in parallel with the amp. I simply ran wires from the power terminals of the amp to the power terminals of the LOC. This is what AudioControl recommends in the manual.

Even though that antenna wire has +12V, it might not be working because the LOC can't draw enough current through that circuit.

P.S. nice choice of vehicle!
 
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