Conecting a compact subwoofer

[KD88]

My daughter has an Alpine CDA-9847R head unit installed in her mk1 MR2 which only has very small speakers front and rear, so in an effort to improve the overall sound I got her a Pioneer TS-WX11A amplified subwoofer for Christmas.
Neither of us are any where near electronic experts but we can usually manage basic car related jobs. The wiring instructions supplied with the sub look very complicated which would mean taking it to a dealer who would charge about 75% of what I paid for it, but the diagram for the head unit shows that the sub simply connects directly into the rear but I presume the sub will need its own power supply and earth.
Which instructions should I go for.
Regards and thanks in advance.
Nigel.
PS, please be gentle with me and talk in VERY simple terms.

[cartledge_uk]

Underneath the drivers seat there is already the conections for a sub! (the early mk1's had a sub there, the later ones just had the wiring)

tucked behind the crossmember that the seat is bolted to, there is a flap in the carpet and the wires should be there, if you want the easiest way, thats it.

Hopefully someone will be able to suggest a better route soon

[Tiny]

Bit far away from me or i would come and do it for you.

Fortunately Its not that hard you just need to take your time and make sure you have all the right bits before you start.

You will need a wiring kit and halfords do a good one about £20
WIRING KIT CLICKY that has everything you need and is a good price too.

The Alpine CDA-9847R head unit has 3 RCA pre outs i couldnt find a pic of the specific headunit showing the 3 pairs but this one shows you what your looking for

you see the 2 white and 2 red what looks like phono jacks (they basically are but they are called RCA preouts in the world of car audio). On the rear of the headunit you will have 3 pairs called Front, Rear & Sub in the kit you will need to fit the RCA lead into the rear of the head unit (just a push fit) and the other end into the Sub/amp. At the same time you need to find the Auto aerial lead from the headunit. (This provides a constant 12v Feed when you turn on the headunit)

In the AutoLeads Kit in the RCA lead down the center there is another single wire This is your remote lead its used to switch on and off the sub when the headunit is not switched on. You should in the wiring for the headunit have a Remote or a electric aerial lead. This provides a +12v feed when the headunit is on. You will need to connect one end to this lead and the other to the SUB should just be a simple screw tab and crimp the wire.

Now your set sound wise and switch wise we need to sort out your Power for the unit. If its going under the passenger seat i would recomend using one of the Seat mounts as an earth point you will need to remove it anyway to get the Sub under so Take some coarse wet and dry and remove any rust to make a nice clean strong connection round one of the 4 seat bolt holes and crimp a ring connecter that is big enough to take the seat bolt the one provided may not be big enough but just cut it and enlarge it connect the other end to the sub.

Now Positive +12v feed Ideally you want a pure battery connection so straight off the Positive terminal of the battery there is a fuse block about 4-6 inches from one end wire this end up to the battery (Dont connect yet it but that end goes to the battery) Now the other end you will have to push through a rubber grommet into the cabin and down to the amplifier you may have to move the carpet on the back firewall and put a small hole to pass the cable through to the sub then cut off the excess crimp on the connecter and connect it to the sub then connect the other end to the battery.

Put your interior back together and turn on the head unit if you have connected everything correctly it should work perfectly and get some nice deep sound.

[WeirdNeville]

Great description from tiny there. It sounds complex. But it's really not. Only thing I'd add is that if you have a T-bar then the strap for the panel behind the seat that goes to the floor makes an excellent grounding point. I used this for my cd changer.
Happy installing!

[jimi]

Underneath the drivers seat there is already the conections for a sub! (the early mk1's had a sub there, the later ones just had the wiring)

tucked behind the crossmember that the seat is bolted to, there is a flap in the carpet and the wires should be there, if you want the easiest way, thats it.

pin out for that plug


Jimi

[un1eash]

Good advice everyone but you missing something, this is a pioneer TS-WX11A it comes with a wiring kit and is a simple plug and play device.

Check the instructions and ignore all the high level speaker stuff and get yourself an RCA lead. This can plug straight into your headunit along with the remote turn on wire, usually blue.

Then run the power cable through the hole in the bulkhead behind the passenger seat and connect it the the battery, bolt the earth to somewhere metal, the mounting bolt for the centre console bracket works well.

And thats about it.

[Tiny]

pin out for that plug


Jimi

thats really usefull and will save you alot of time Im not sure its suitable to use the 12v feed for the sub its only got a 10amp fuse and probably isnt man enough for that kind of current draw.

[jimi]

Im not sure its suitable to use the 12v feed for the sub its only got a 10amp fuse and probably isnt man enough for that kind of current draw.

It was put there to run a sub, I very much doubt that a TS-WX11A draws more than 10A, even running flat out.
I've been running a 4 channel 150w amp from mine for over 2 years with no problems

[Tiny]

In that case RCA and A good earth is all you need

[KD88]

Thanks guys, we will have a go fitting it this weekend.

[Mr_Spanners]

Nigel, please report back if this fits under the drivers seat.

Thanks.

[KD88]

We were going to try last weekend but had visitors on Sunday. will have another go this Sunday if nothing else interferes, and will report back.

[KD88]

Hi everyone,
Sarah has now finished the installation so thanks to everyone who helped with advise. We tried under the seat but we weren't happy with the clearance so have Velcro'd it to the firewall carpet behind the passenger seat.
The difference in sound is remarkable and I would recommend this unit to anyone who wants a fuller sound. I appreciate it wouldn't satisfy an ICE expert but for anyone who would simply like a half decent sound in a mk1 this does work.
Regards
Nigel.

[cartledge_uk]

good stuff

Do you have any photos of the unit installed?

[BMR2L]

I finally got around to wiring up the TS-WX11A I 'borrowed' from the big car. Clearance under the seat is pretty tight but if you keep it as far forward and to the left as possible it stays clear of the seat adjustment spring.

Here is is before the seat was replaced:



The white wire is my ipod A/V USB lead and nothing to do with the sub. My car didn't have the power connector under the seat so I tapped into the junction box in the driver's footwell with one of those clip on vampire things and earthed it to a bolt head in the same area.

Like the previous poster said sound quality is much, much improved since you can turn off all the bass boost and loudness on your front speakers and let them do their job properly whilst the sub fills in the low frequency stuff.

Just make sure your dashboard speakers are solidly mounted as you'll want to crank up the volume and having those starting to rattle will spoil the whole thing. Mine weren't because I'd cut off 2 of the 4 mounting tabs to get them in and that allowed them to rock from side to side. Packing them underneath so they sit solidly on the dash sorted it out.

-Alan