Upgrading my 2000 323i stereo experience
LDaley
06-26-2005, 12:29 PM
Greetings, all!
I recently took it upon myself to upgrade the stereo system (Factory HK) in my 2000 323i. While the factory system was great, it needed more and since I am somewhat of an music afficionado, I believe that "Some is good.....more is better.....too much is just right!"
I dropped by here and searched for hours through the various posts of others who tested the waters before me and had much to offer for advice (Thanks, all!) so I thought I knew what to expect. I measured up the trunk and built up a nice box for 2-15" Rockford Fosgate subs, allowing for enough space to still get at the spare tire and routing all of the necessary power cables from the battery (which is conveniently located in the right rear 1/4 quarter panel).
That was the easy part.
Actually, running the two RCA cables and the remote bass control cables were pretty easy, too.....except for the part where I had to get them up through the dash to where the deck mounts. The solution was to use an electrician's fish tape, feed it down from where the deck mounts and pull the cables up through.
The second challenge was getting enough room to mount the JVC MP3 Deck.......the harness adapter takes up a lot of room behind it so it took a lot of creative stuffing to get it mounted right. With the correct dash kit, it now looks great.
So now I had a deck installed with two pairs of RCA cables running to the rear (and my RF bass control just under the dash for out-of-sight but still easy access).
Wired up the sub box and mounted the amps and capacitor, then routed all of the speaker and power wires accordingly. The fun then began.
Thanks to a lot of searching, I found a speaker wiring diagram on the net that was dead-on and I was able to find out which wires belonged to which speaker with 100 % accuracy (I have the link for those interested). Fortunately, among the wiring to the amp (located in the left rear quarter panel) was the remote since I had foolishly forgotten to run a wire specifically for this.
Since the connector to the amp is a patented, available-only-from-the -manuafacturer-to-BMW type, I had to bite the bullet and cut & solder where required. I used Rockford-Fosgate component systems that come with an external crossover, so there wasn't a lot of splicing to be done.....just cut, strip, & insert to terminal then tighten accordingly. The whole trunk ordeal took about an hour for the speaker to crossover wiring and another three to mount & secure the box and wire the power.
I'm not sure if BMW just uses speakers of different sizes arbitrarily, but in my case the rear deck and front door woofers were identical - somewhere around 6" or so (without actually putting a measuring tape to them). The midranges in the front doors (just under the handles) and in the rear doors were also identical. Too small to be good woofers, too big to be tweeters. The only actually tweeters were located in the door pods just inside of the mirror mounts. These were probably the easiest to change out.
As a set up to the next part, I used Rockford Fosgate P162S component systems - 6.5" woofers with two tweeters each, mountable in different configurations.....I highly recommend these because each unit is 60W RMS - 120W Peak when used with the crossover networks. As for every speaker connection....the woofers have screw terminals for eacy connections but the tweeters were all soldered in to the factory harness....factory connectors quickly cut off the wires.
Starting in the rear Deck....
I popped out the grilles and undid the three screws holding in the woofer, pulled it out and diconnected it. Using a wire stripper/cutter, nipped off the connectors from the factory harness and stripped about 1/4" off each wire. I configured the RF woofers to use just one of the pair of supplied tweeters (The RF kits Rock!....two tweeters per woofer and lots of hardware to mount multiple ways!) and fed the wire through the baffle into the trunk for the tweeter. The Rockford woofers dropped into the holes perfectly, but were not near the mounting tabs. The solution? Cut the tabs off the factory speakers and found that they almost clipped onto the metal flange around the speaker and reached the mounting holes. Using all three clips, I was able to secure the 6.5" woofer in place securely. From the trunk, I routed the appropriate tweeter wire to the crossovers (since all other wires were on the factory harness and these were additional tweeters). Rear deck speakers - 45 Minutes.
Rear Doors:
Remoed the trim panel and the clips from under the door handle to access four of the five screws. Removed the power window switch for access to the fifth. Using a screwdriver covered with felt, pryed off a corner of the door trim and gently pulled it off. Unplugged the factory mid, nipped off the connector and stripped the wires. I removed the factory mid from the door and using the original grill, mounted my second tweeter inside of it, the securing it to the door. You'll have to use your imgaination here, but I can provide tips to those interested. I soldered the tweeter's wires to the factory harness and re-mounted the door trim......two rear doors took about 1.5 hours taking my time.
Front doors:
The front doors panels come off the same as the rear....trim panel, screws under handle and screw inside of power mirror control...everything comes apart easily without much force and unplugs accordingly. Of course, the front doors are different....I have a mid just under the door handle, a woofer in the lower door panel, and a tweeter in the mirror pod (which I will get to later). Here's what I did.....
The woofer is already tight for depth, so anything aftermarket probably won't fit unless it is low powered with a small magnet....and we want more boom...not less. I removed the grill and using a jigsaw, trimmed 3/8" around the speaker hole (Not for the squeamish or for those who want to retain the "stealth" look.
Note: Most decent power speakers are bigger than factory and their grilles look pretty good, so mounting them like this is fine...just be prepared to let them go when you sell the car!
In any case, the speakers now fit like a charm, mounted the grilles and was very pleased with my work. Now on to the mids.
Some posts listed the mids as 3.5 full ranges. Dunno, but these were dinky 2" mids that ware all but useless. I removed the factory units and using the existing grilles, made a custom bracket to hold a tweeter within the factory housing. Again, my front speakers are the RF components, so I had two tweeters with each woofer. After the mids were mounted, I soldered the speaker connections and got to the tweeter pods.
Tweeter pods - front doors
These are tricky - DO NOT REMOVE THE GRILLES!!!!! There are two small plastic rivets along the front trim of the door - just above and below the hinges. Pry these out and the plactic housing the runs up along the door comes off super easy to expose the tweeter pods. Change out the tweeters which almost perfectly fit in the factory mounting post (secure them with some manner of garage engineering - I used small wire ties) and re-mount the tweeter pods. Re-assemble the doors. (Note - when replacing the plastic door trim after changing the tweeters, ensure that the weather strip is snig and that everything is secure - we don't want any leaks!
Make sure everything is back together, adjust up and test accordingly, then Enjoy!
I'm more than happy to help out anyone that cares to ask if they face the same quandary that I did....I'll give you more details on each area if you need.
I also have some pictures for those that are interested!
Summary:
Deck - JVC MP3/CD player (nothing fancy, just two sets of pre-outs)
Subwoofers - Rockford Fosgate P115S4 -200W RMS 15"
Mid/Tweet Amp - Rockford Fosgate P4004 4-Channel 50W RMS x 4
Sub AMp - Rockford Fosgate P3001 Mono 300Wx1 @ 2 Ohms
Front Speakers - Rockford Fosgate P162S Components - 6.5" Mid and 2-3/4" Tweeters with external crossover - 60W RMS
Rear Speakers - Rockford Fosgate P162S Componnets - 6.5" Mid and 2-3/4" tweeters with external crossover - 60W RMS
Power - 4Ga to In-line Fuse with 60A fuse, then 4Ga from fuse to main power block. 8Ga from main power block (each has 30A fuse) to capacitor and amps.
Ground - 4Ga ground to ground distribution block, then 8Ga from ground block to each amp and capacitor.
Capacitor - Lightning Audio 1 Farad for sub amp.
Misc Speaker wires & RCA cables - Stinger
Dash kit and wiring harness - Scoche
Cheers!
-Logan
I recently took it upon myself to upgrade the stereo system (Factory HK) in my 2000 323i. While the factory system was great, it needed more and since I am somewhat of an music afficionado, I believe that "Some is good.....more is better.....too much is just right!"
I dropped by here and searched for hours through the various posts of others who tested the waters before me and had much to offer for advice (Thanks, all!) so I thought I knew what to expect. I measured up the trunk and built up a nice box for 2-15" Rockford Fosgate subs, allowing for enough space to still get at the spare tire and routing all of the necessary power cables from the battery (which is conveniently located in the right rear 1/4 quarter panel).
That was the easy part.
Actually, running the two RCA cables and the remote bass control cables were pretty easy, too.....except for the part where I had to get them up through the dash to where the deck mounts. The solution was to use an electrician's fish tape, feed it down from where the deck mounts and pull the cables up through.
The second challenge was getting enough room to mount the JVC MP3 Deck.......the harness adapter takes up a lot of room behind it so it took a lot of creative stuffing to get it mounted right. With the correct dash kit, it now looks great.
So now I had a deck installed with two pairs of RCA cables running to the rear (and my RF bass control just under the dash for out-of-sight but still easy access).
Wired up the sub box and mounted the amps and capacitor, then routed all of the speaker and power wires accordingly. The fun then began.
Thanks to a lot of searching, I found a speaker wiring diagram on the net that was dead-on and I was able to find out which wires belonged to which speaker with 100 % accuracy (I have the link for those interested). Fortunately, among the wiring to the amp (located in the left rear quarter panel) was the remote since I had foolishly forgotten to run a wire specifically for this.
Since the connector to the amp is a patented, available-only-from-the -manuafacturer-to-BMW type, I had to bite the bullet and cut & solder where required. I used Rockford-Fosgate component systems that come with an external crossover, so there wasn't a lot of splicing to be done.....just cut, strip, & insert to terminal then tighten accordingly. The whole trunk ordeal took about an hour for the speaker to crossover wiring and another three to mount & secure the box and wire the power.
I'm not sure if BMW just uses speakers of different sizes arbitrarily, but in my case the rear deck and front door woofers were identical - somewhere around 6" or so (without actually putting a measuring tape to them). The midranges in the front doors (just under the handles) and in the rear doors were also identical. Too small to be good woofers, too big to be tweeters. The only actually tweeters were located in the door pods just inside of the mirror mounts. These were probably the easiest to change out.
As a set up to the next part, I used Rockford Fosgate P162S component systems - 6.5" woofers with two tweeters each, mountable in different configurations.....I highly recommend these because each unit is 60W RMS - 120W Peak when used with the crossover networks. As for every speaker connection....the woofers have screw terminals for eacy connections but the tweeters were all soldered in to the factory harness....factory connectors quickly cut off the wires.
Starting in the rear Deck....
I popped out the grilles and undid the three screws holding in the woofer, pulled it out and diconnected it. Using a wire stripper/cutter, nipped off the connectors from the factory harness and stripped about 1/4" off each wire. I configured the RF woofers to use just one of the pair of supplied tweeters (The RF kits Rock!....two tweeters per woofer and lots of hardware to mount multiple ways!) and fed the wire through the baffle into the trunk for the tweeter. The Rockford woofers dropped into the holes perfectly, but were not near the mounting tabs. The solution? Cut the tabs off the factory speakers and found that they almost clipped onto the metal flange around the speaker and reached the mounting holes. Using all three clips, I was able to secure the 6.5" woofer in place securely. From the trunk, I routed the appropriate tweeter wire to the crossovers (since all other wires were on the factory harness and these were additional tweeters). Rear deck speakers - 45 Minutes.
Rear Doors:
Remoed the trim panel and the clips from under the door handle to access four of the five screws. Removed the power window switch for access to the fifth. Using a screwdriver covered with felt, pryed off a corner of the door trim and gently pulled it off. Unplugged the factory mid, nipped off the connector and stripped the wires. I removed the factory mid from the door and using the original grill, mounted my second tweeter inside of it, the securing it to the door. You'll have to use your imgaination here, but I can provide tips to those interested. I soldered the tweeter's wires to the factory harness and re-mounted the door trim......two rear doors took about 1.5 hours taking my time.
Front doors:
The front doors panels come off the same as the rear....trim panel, screws under handle and screw inside of power mirror control...everything comes apart easily without much force and unplugs accordingly. Of course, the front doors are different....I have a mid just under the door handle, a woofer in the lower door panel, and a tweeter in the mirror pod (which I will get to later). Here's what I did.....
The woofer is already tight for depth, so anything aftermarket probably won't fit unless it is low powered with a small magnet....and we want more boom...not less. I removed the grill and using a jigsaw, trimmed 3/8" around the speaker hole (Not for the squeamish or for those who want to retain the "stealth" look.
Note: Most decent power speakers are bigger than factory and their grilles look pretty good, so mounting them like this is fine...just be prepared to let them go when you sell the car!
In any case, the speakers now fit like a charm, mounted the grilles and was very pleased with my work. Now on to the mids.
Some posts listed the mids as 3.5 full ranges. Dunno, but these were dinky 2" mids that ware all but useless. I removed the factory units and using the existing grilles, made a custom bracket to hold a tweeter within the factory housing. Again, my front speakers are the RF components, so I had two tweeters with each woofer. After the mids were mounted, I soldered the speaker connections and got to the tweeter pods.
Tweeter pods - front doors
These are tricky - DO NOT REMOVE THE GRILLES!!!!! There are two small plastic rivets along the front trim of the door - just above and below the hinges. Pry these out and the plactic housing the runs up along the door comes off super easy to expose the tweeter pods. Change out the tweeters which almost perfectly fit in the factory mounting post (secure them with some manner of garage engineering - I used small wire ties) and re-mount the tweeter pods. Re-assemble the doors. (Note - when replacing the plastic door trim after changing the tweeters, ensure that the weather strip is snig and that everything is secure - we don't want any leaks!
Make sure everything is back together, adjust up and test accordingly, then Enjoy!
I'm more than happy to help out anyone that cares to ask if they face the same quandary that I did....I'll give you more details on each area if you need.
I also have some pictures for those that are interested!
Summary:
Deck - JVC MP3/CD player (nothing fancy, just two sets of pre-outs)
Subwoofers - Rockford Fosgate P115S4 -200W RMS 15"
Mid/Tweet Amp - Rockford Fosgate P4004 4-Channel 50W RMS x 4
Sub AMp - Rockford Fosgate P3001 Mono 300Wx1 @ 2 Ohms
Front Speakers - Rockford Fosgate P162S Components - 6.5" Mid and 2-3/4" Tweeters with external crossover - 60W RMS
Rear Speakers - Rockford Fosgate P162S Componnets - 6.5" Mid and 2-3/4" tweeters with external crossover - 60W RMS
Power - 4Ga to In-line Fuse with 60A fuse, then 4Ga from fuse to main power block. 8Ga from main power block (each has 30A fuse) to capacitor and amps.
Ground - 4Ga ground to ground distribution block, then 8Ga from ground block to each amp and capacitor.
Capacitor - Lightning Audio 1 Farad for sub amp.
Misc Speaker wires & RCA cables - Stinger
Dash kit and wiring harness - Scoche
Cheers!
-Logan
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