Installing a subwoofer and amplifier into a 2009 Skoda Superb II + CD Tablet Holder

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Installing a subwoofer and amplifier into a 2009 Skoda Superb II + CD Tablet Holder

Hey everyone,

First up, huge shout out to Kamold on vwwatercooled forum for heaps of information and putting up with my ‘21 questions’ in trying to figure out how to do this.

Sorry as I don’t have photos while actually going through the process as I was under time constraints to get it done asap before the misses bday – which went really well btw, and she love the sub – double win!! Lol I did get someone to do most of the work for me, though the info was vital!

The car is a 09 series 2 Superb hatch with the upgraded 10 speaker sound system and the Columbus. This means there is an amp under the passenger seat (Australian model).

The power cable was run in through the firewall behind the glove box. I used this post to help with the removal of the glovebox: Removing the glove box - Skoda Superb II - BRISKODA. The process though is not that hard as you need to remove the side panel, between the door and glove box, and then the panel that is between the firewall and the glovebox in the footwell. From here you can run the cable along the left hand side, through a small cheat (used 8 Gauge cable) just tucking the cable under the side trim and sills without having to remove any of it.

The RCA input was spliced into the speaker cable coming in at the amp from the headunit using this guideline (Volkswagen RNS 510 pin assignments | my-gti.com. A Line Out Converter (LOC) was not used as I was told that it is a balanced line level output, not speaker level (Thanks Kamold!). Some of the cable covering was removed and the RCA was soldered in. Again, this was run under the seat and then tucked into the side sill cheekily without removing any of the trim.

We had a lot of trouble finding a location to source for the remote wire as it seemed most of the sources in the vehicle, such as the fuse box in the car, were all powered even when the vehicle was off (but I assume this was because it was unlocked). So my friend took the power from the positive for the headunit and then ran it to a switch which was fitted to the side of the transmission tunnel panel and then to the amp, again through the cheeky method of just squeezing it into the trim.

Removing the back seat was really quite easy through this: Skoda Workshop Manuals > Octavia Mk2 > Body > Body Work > Seat frames > Rear seats > Removing and installing rear seat bench
We didn’t need to disconnect the plugs for the rear seat heaters as we could just flip It forward. The ground was connected to a screw that was already existing under the bench seat and the cables (power, ground, remote, RCA) under the folded seat to the boot. The amp was mounted to the back of the seat and all the cables connected with the sub sitting just in front of it with the speaker wire connection.

All that is left is to tune and then enjoy!

I used a Kenwood KAC-8104D Class D Mono Block Amp for 300 watt RMS at 4 ohmns with a JL W3 sub in an unported box. I got these of gumtree and am loving them so far!

As a finishing touch I got a Xenomix Tablet Holder that uses the CD drive to clip into and hold a Nexus 7 tablet. I have ordered an OBD2 Bluetooth module (from ebay for about $8 posted) so that i can use either the Carista or Torque apps for on board data. Some forum posts have suggested that you might be able to do some minor changes to setting without requiring a VCDS.