MK5 stereo install advice

**Mr ©harisma** · 21-03-2008, 03:41 PM

Interesting, should be good in the GT. 1.5inch excursion might rattle some trim

**Greg Roles** · 24-04-2008, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by glidn

you could always remove your spare wheel and mount the amps in there?

I do not know the law there, but here you do not legally have to have a spare wheel.

OK, the setup is ready to install, and I've taken a lead from the kiwi crew, and used a foam box to bed in all my speakers. I'm sure the neighburs are very very sick of my cd mix!

I have swapped the spare wheel for a can of tyre repair / inflator and have cheapy 12v compressor to carry as well. I'm going to start on the spare wheel / amp caddy tonight, and see how much I can get done over the weekend. Should be all up and running in a week or so.

Looking forward to it all, it sounds good just in the foam box!

**glidn** · 27-04-2008, 12:33 PM

awesome, nice little sub you have there, i would be very interested to see how it goes.

As long as you keep up the good work, and Photo library too, it's all good.

**Greg Roles** · 06-06-2008, 03:46 PM

OK so I am FINALLY geting my install underway. Work going nuts, and a hot hot new girlie

have kinda delayed the audio plans, but we're finally getting there.

Thus far I've only got the head unit in this week, but had a bit of a problem. I ran direct 16ga power wire for the head unit, fused, to the battery, but on hooking it up to the terminals the positive wire started to get a bit warm at the battery end despite the stereo being off ( no ignition ) and before I worked out the wire wasn't hot from the torch I had next to it and cut it, it had blown the fuse in the line in a nice puff of smoke!

Now I have hooked it up via the 12v in the headunit plug, and it's running fine.

My question is, why? I couldn't find any shorts, and double checked all the wires before powering it up, and on hooking up the dash 12v it is running just fine. I can't figure out the reason for the current drain that made the direct wire get hot, nor why 16 guage wasn't enough. Is the mistake too thin a wire direct to the battery??

I'm very lost ( but GLAD nothing serious went bang! )

**glidn** · 09-06-2008, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by cogdoc

OK so I am FINALLY geting my install underway. Work going nuts, and a hot hot new girlie

have kinda delayed the audio plans, but we're finally getting there.

Thus far I've only got the head unit in this week, but had a bit of a problem. I ran direct 16ga power wire for the head unit, fused, to the battery, but on hooking it up to the terminals the positive wire started to get a bit warm at the battery end despite the stereo being off ( no ignition ) and before I worked out the wire wasn't hot from the torch I had next to it and cut it, it had blown the fuse in the line in a nice puff of smoke!

Now I have hooked it up via the 12v in the headunit plug, and it's running fine.

My question is, why? I couldn't find any shorts, and double checked all the wires before powering it up, and on hooking up the dash 12v it is running just fine. I can't figure out the reason for the current drain that made the direct wire get hot, nor why 16 guage wasn't enough. Is the mistake too thin a wire direct to the battery??

I'm very lost ( but GLAD nothing serious went bang! )

16 Gauge will most cetainly not be enough for power requirement, you would be better off with the likes of 10G or even 8G, or at least that is the sizes of wiring i run for the head units.

These are the only other reason i could think of that can cause this:

1. The other thing can also been that your ground was not connected correctly so positive wire gets hot as it can not get rid of voltage.
2. Could have a small crack in the cable that could cause to voltage jump from wire to chassis.

These are some of the things i could think of.

If you run the wire from the battery to a little desk in front of the car and wire up the radio again. Does it still produce the same symptoms?

**Greg Roles** · 14-07-2008, 10:45 AM

Hey can any of you educate me on the adaptors to allow an aftermarket head unit be controlled by the steering wheel buttons? I'm missing the volume and track skip, and I know there are adaptor kits out there, just don't know anything about them. I had one set shown to me once at a audio shop, but it looked very rough and like an electronics kit more than a commercial kit.

Any advice? I'm running a 9887 Alpine, and very very happy with it.

UPDATE: Running the PAC system, and it works a treat. there is a bit of a delay, but hey, it's nice to have use of all the buttons again.

**Greg Roles** · 15-10-2008, 08:53 AM

Man this has to be the most drawn out install of all time!

FINALLY, I've taken a few days off work just to finalise this. Thus far I've decided on a rear left sub mount and box idea, managed to build an approx 8L enclosure with just a little metal work, made up a amp shelf where the spare used to be, and am into the rear doors. The sub suits 8.5L so I'll look at adding a bit extra today. Despite the poor corners in my "box", once it was fully glued, siliconed and dynamatted, it's a rather sturdy setup. I had to bend it a bit from the initial nice "bench setup! I'd like to take the time to make it beautiful, but so long as it's tight and sealed, and works, well I simply don't have the time!

I decided to leave the lower section below the sub, as this is where the air vent from the boot to the outside is, and I've run into trouble with the flap setup before, where it flapped in time with the sub and it sounded just terrible. Hopefully by isolating the box, the effect will be minimised, plus I'd like to make a second pocket for tools etc.

Here's the library this far: