Symphony II+ Sub Install DIY
Time:
- 3 / 3.5 hours
Tools:
- Coat Hanger or Stiff Wire
- Screw Drivers
- Drill
- Razor/Knife
- Needle Nose Pliers
- Electrical Pliers
- Wire Taps
- Electrical Tape
Also needed....
- power wire (i used 8 gauge),
- ground wire
- remote wire
- inline fuse
- beer / joint, or both in my case.
- Topgear or your favorite music playing in the background.
I found running the power line was going to be the trickiest of the whole bit.
I thought it would be pretty easy running the coat hanger through the firewall in the engine compartment, next to the battery, but i was dead wrong! I found the easiest way was to take out your glove box. I think there are 8 or 9 screws holding it on. From the along top (3-4), inside glove box (2-3) one I couldn’t find was behind my ipod dock, if you have one it just pulls out. The last couple are in the foot well, and one last one is in the side panel (like the fuse box) but on the passenger side. It took me some time so just make sure you have them all off and it slides out pretty easy (it’s a bit heavier than I thought) So go put that in a safe place, with the screws in a bag!After many attempts I gave up going that way....so next I used the ghetto fabulous coat hanger and a razor blade. I used a razor blade to cut into the black rubbery plastic, which encases the foam and wires between the glove box and firewall. So working from inside the car (another person comes in handy here) I got my girlfriend with small hands to put fingers inside the rubber nipple on the left side of the battery (which you take off) and I ran the coat hanger throw my hole I cut in the car up through the foam padding (took about 15 minutes of pure sweat) until she could feel the wire, then I switched, grabbed my needle nose pliers and yanked it through. Next I used a inline fuse (25 amp which is what infinity recommends in manual) which you can see in the picture (ran out of zip ties, so I ghetto rigged it with wire, which reminded me when I took these:) Then I used one of the two external power sources off the battery, its just a little tray that you can flip open the lid…makes it pretty easy. ( DO NOT POWER ON UNTIL GROUND AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS DONE, you don’t want a hot wire sitting around while you work on your car, nor do you want a dead battery ☹ )
Next I ran my power line back to the trunk. You can cheat or be legit here. Basically you can use a screw driver and tuck the cable along the door jams or pull up (mostly clips) the plastic door jams and feed the wire through…I did a little of both. I couldn’t get the area at the base of the seat belt (I think they are considered B pillars) to come up so used the stuffing method there but everything else popped out with a bit of brut force. Once you get it the back seats you can pull your back seats off, which again will take some brut force. Just yank really hard on both sides and it pops right out. Set that aside in a safe place. Moving along I just ran it around and under the seat into the trunk. I left my seat off to drill a small hole for my ground. Make sure you don’t drill big hole!!! Gas tank is near by. Mine is on the skirt of the seat, just make sure you scratch the paint off around to get to bare metal to make sure it’s a solid ground connection.
So to be honest, hard part is over….grab another beer or joint, what have you, and relax because for me running that god damn power wire through the firewall took me a quite a while, you might be luckier than me though.
So next I took a leap of faith on a AW post.. http://forums.audiworld.com/a4gen2/msgs/1030723.phtml
It gives you a break down of the wires running into your stock amp. You can access the amp on the right hand side of the trunk behind the plastic/felt case which just pops out….(I have an avant, might be different on the sedan) Once you access the amp unplug it and cut the cloth tape to access the internal wires, just make sure you don’t cut any wires in the process. Once you find the brown with light blue and red and light blue….those are your stock sub wires. Splice into those /without cutting of course. Make sure you leave some room so when you plug you amp back in you have room to work with (basically cut up as far as you can, not close to the amp (notice in picture) You also want to tap into your remote which is the white wire (this turns the amp on when you turn the stereo on, off when stereo is off)
sorry for the blur, but you can see two wires going into - (brown/baby blue) and two wire going into + (red/baby blue)
You can also see the white remote line on left.
coming from spare tire compartment, and up through seat crack....
I used the wires infinity provided me which I plugged into R/L rear interface (picture) on the sub enclosure and tapped them into the corresponding - / + subwoofer wires. Same goes for the remote wire. I almost for to mention, I just snipped my old sub's wires and left it plugged in. When I sell the car, or take out the sub I will just tap those back together, cover with electric tape so its good as new.
I ran the wires into the tire compartment below the amp (see in picture above) and back out where the seat folds down. It was the cleanest and easiest way to hide any wires. Next double check your connections, secure ground, good tap’s, fuses are good, etc. Now you can go and plug in your power line to the battery! I was recommended to turn my bass on the factory radio to around -2 or -3 and turn treble and mid up to around +3 to +5. Then use my bass controller, which is provided, in the box to turn bass up/down. That controller gets plugged into the back of the sub and you have to run it up to front of the car which I ran on the drivers side and into my manual holder which fits nicely. If you want you put it in the glove box as well, which you can run this wire at the same time as the power wire. I just like having quick and easy access to it and if someone is in my car where I don’t want bass to be booming I can just turn it down easily.
After I double checked everything I used a couple small screws and secured the sub on the lid/floor of the trunk. Basically so I could still drive fast around corners and not have the sub go flying around in the back.
Couple things I noticed so far…
WAY WAY better than stock sub. Especially in the avant, with the open cabin. Im sure it would make a big difference in the sedan as well. I hated the low end bass and this definitely fixes the problem.
After I turn the car off, the power light stays on in the sub for about 30 seconds or so. I think it has something to do with our cars and being able to turn the radio on without the key in? Anyways not a big deal if it happens to you.
Next if you have factory blue tooth it can be kinda annoying when you turn the car off. If you have it, after you turn your car off, the radio screen comes back on and says PHONE and makes a dah ding sound which gets amplified through the sub which isn’t bad for it but it just gets on my nerves after a bit. So when I turn my car off I just turn the bass all the way down on the controller so it doesn’t do this.
So if your confused have questions let me know, Id be happy to help as much as possible.
Good luck
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