Joined
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251 Posts
Hello all, just picked up a 2013 Focus last Monday, Ford rebates were too good and I couldn't pass it up. I chose the SE without MFT, we have it in our Edge and I'm not a fan. I rented a Focus a few weeks ago with the standard stereo and realized how much I prefer physical buttons. For the past year or so I'd been planning on getting an ST but common sense won out and I decided on the SE, we'll be looking for a real fun car next year.
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I pulled the sub and amp out of my old car before I sold it, so I had those parts available to me. I followed suit after Yanner and others here and picked up a pair of Polk DB6501s for the front and DB651s for the rear.
Stage one was to get the door speakers installed, amp wiring to the hatch area, and hook up what I had available. Stage two will be to add an LC7i, a second amp, and to build a sub box for a forthcoming shallow-mount sub (right now I'm leaning toward a RF P3SD2-10). I'll lay down some 1/2" plywood in the trunk floor then cut out holes in the foam for the amps to sit down in. The sub box and the amps will then be anchored to the plywood floor so nothing goes flying around.
It was a bit disconcerting tearing into a car that I'd only owned for four days, but I really wanted an improvement in audio, and I just happened to have a couple of days off of work, so the timing was in my favor.
Others have covered the in-depth details much better than I, so I'll stick to a top-level view.
Pulled the glovebox out to get access to the firewall.
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Pulled the passenger side panel off to get access to the head unit wiring.
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Ran the amp power wire through the wiring harness grommet on the passenger side of the firewall. I added wire loom to protect it and zip tied it to the wiring harness all the way over to the battery.
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Here it is coming out of the firewall and entering the trim. Without removing the trim I was able to tuck the wire underneath all the way to the back seat.
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I did pull the trim by the back seat so that I could make sure it was routed properly into the trunk.
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Started pulling more interior pieces out:
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Wife was gone for the weekend, so I sent her a picture to make her nervous.
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I wanted to run the speaker wires away from the power wire, so out came the passenger seat and the rear seat bottoms.
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With all of that out, it was easy to snake the wires out of the console and through the carpet, up to the hatch. I actually used trailer wiring for the high-power speaker wires. It's 4-conductor 16-gauge wiring with an extra weather-protection coating on the outside, so it was perfect. I used four-conductor serial cable to get the signal from the head unit back to the amp.
I went ahead and tapped into the Orange/Yellow antenna power wire for a +12V signal but didn't end up needing it - my amp has speaker-level inputs with an auto-turn-on feature when it senses input.
To make the speakers fit properly in the doors, I cut spacers out of 1/2" MDF for the fronts and 1/4" MDF for the rears. I used foam spacer and double-sided foam tape to hold everything tight and prevent any vibrations.
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For now, there's no rhyme or reason to cable management, as everything will change once I get the LC7i and second amp in place.
As it sits now, two the amp's channels go to the two front speakers, and the other two channels are bridged to the sub's dual voice coils.
![]()
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(As you can see, my dog has taken one ride in the hatch. So much for a new clean car.
The box was designed to fit perfectly behind the wheel well in my last car:
![]()
Since the Focus is quite a bit smaller (28" shorter, actually), I'll be building a new enclosure so that I can maximize available hatch space. No point in buying a hatch if I'm going to fill it up with subs.
I'm very happy with the audio improvement already made. I just won a Pioneer GM-D8400M mono amp that should push 300W RMS at 4 ohm into my sub of choice. Once that arrives I should be in even better shape as all four door speakers will be amplified and the sub will have an extra 100W RMS to play with.
Thanks for everyone that has posted information on wiring diagrams, speaker installation, and interior disassembly, it came in handy many times!
[cheers]
I pulled the sub and amp out of my old car before I sold it, so I had those parts available to me. I followed suit after Yanner and others here and picked up a pair of Polk DB6501s for the front and DB651s for the rear.
Stage one was to get the door speakers installed, amp wiring to the hatch area, and hook up what I had available. Stage two will be to add an LC7i, a second amp, and to build a sub box for a forthcoming shallow-mount sub (right now I'm leaning toward a RF P3SD2-10). I'll lay down some 1/2" plywood in the trunk floor then cut out holes in the foam for the amps to sit down in. The sub box and the amps will then be anchored to the plywood floor so nothing goes flying around.
It was a bit disconcerting tearing into a car that I'd only owned for four days, but I really wanted an improvement in audio, and I just happened to have a couple of days off of work, so the timing was in my favor.
Others have covered the in-depth details much better than I, so I'll stick to a top-level view.
Pulled the glovebox out to get access to the firewall.
Pulled the passenger side panel off to get access to the head unit wiring.
Ran the amp power wire through the wiring harness grommet on the passenger side of the firewall. I added wire loom to protect it and zip tied it to the wiring harness all the way over to the battery.
Here it is coming out of the firewall and entering the trim. Without removing the trim I was able to tuck the wire underneath all the way to the back seat.
I did pull the trim by the back seat so that I could make sure it was routed properly into the trunk.
Started pulling more interior pieces out:
Wife was gone for the weekend, so I sent her a picture to make her nervous.
I wanted to run the speaker wires away from the power wire, so out came the passenger seat and the rear seat bottoms.
With all of that out, it was easy to snake the wires out of the console and through the carpet, up to the hatch. I actually used trailer wiring for the high-power speaker wires. It's 4-conductor 16-gauge wiring with an extra weather-protection coating on the outside, so it was perfect. I used four-conductor serial cable to get the signal from the head unit back to the amp.
I went ahead and tapped into the Orange/Yellow antenna power wire for a +12V signal but didn't end up needing it - my amp has speaker-level inputs with an auto-turn-on feature when it senses input.
To make the speakers fit properly in the doors, I cut spacers out of 1/2" MDF for the fronts and 1/4" MDF for the rears. I used foam spacer and double-sided foam tape to hold everything tight and prevent any vibrations.
For now, there's no rhyme or reason to cable management, as everything will change once I get the LC7i and second amp in place.
As it sits now, two the amp's channels go to the two front speakers, and the other two channels are bridged to the sub's dual voice coils.
(As you can see, my dog has taken one ride in the hatch. So much for a new clean car.
The box was designed to fit perfectly behind the wheel well in my last car:
Since the Focus is quite a bit smaller (28" shorter, actually), I'll be building a new enclosure so that I can maximize available hatch space. No point in buying a hatch if I'm going to fill it up with subs.
I'm very happy with the audio improvement already made. I just won a Pioneer GM-D8400M mono amp that should push 300W RMS at 4 ohm into my sub of choice. Once that arrives I should be in even better shape as all four door speakers will be amplified and the sub will have an extra 100W RMS to play with.
Thanks for everyone that has posted information on wiring diagrams, speaker installation, and interior disassembly, it came in handy many times!
[cheers]
