JJGTS08

I'm in the process of replacing my factory amp now, and I live in Texas, but I'm doing more than just that. I'm replacing the factory amp with a JL Audio 700/5, headunit with a Clarion NX702, front speakers with JL Audio C5-650, rear speakers with JL Audio C5-650x, and sub with JL Audio 10w3v3 2 ohm.

Therefore, it's going to be a complete custom set-up and not just really "replacing the amp."

I'm glad I'm replacing the door speakers too, because, look at what I removed from my rear doors:



And the front doors:



Isn't this supposed to be a 600 watt system? Let's do some math: 25 watts times 2 equals 50 watts; plus 50 times 2 equals 150 watts total for the door woofers, plus let's be very liberal and say 20 watts for the tweeters (can't see power rating on them, have crap epoxied on the back for the wiring harness) equals 190 watts. That makes, what, 410 watts for the subwoofer that's not even all that loud (but at an impressive 1.1 ohms none-the-less)? I doubt it, because check this out...



Yeah, that's the 10" sub. 75 watts? Are you f-ing kidding me? That's the power rating of the JL C5-650 door speakers I'm putting in.

So let's do some more math: (25 x 2) + (50 x 2) + 75 + 40 (for the 'mystery tweeters') equals 265. Where's my remaining 335 watts?

Quite a nice mixture too: 1.1 ohms, 4 ohms, and 2 ohms. I wouldn't put a pricey amp on this sort of crap.

This was the first car I bought that had an 'upgraded' stereo. And with the cost to replace all of this stuff, I can guarantee it'll be the last.

Sometimes you learn a lesson the hard way....

migs647

iTrader: (19)

Personally, I feel the factory system is garbage... but your math is off.

First off, you have to factor in ohms. Is it 600 watts at 1ohm, 2ohm, 4ohm? etc.

Second you have to realize the subwoofer is dual voice coil. That means 75watt + 75watt @ 1 ohm.

The system is most likely 2 ohm.

JJGTS08

Yeah, I managed to f-up the math, sorry. Regardless, after tearing all this apart I'm rather unimpressed and am now glad I'm replacing it all.

Zeroflux

Let us know how the head unit replacement goes, I am finally thinking about taking the next step and redoing all the speakers as well but untill I find a good head unit it's kinda pointless.

Do happen to have the steps to get at the door speakers, was it easy? I took a look but wasn't really to interested in tearing it apart when I started this thread but I am now,

migs647

iTrader: (19)

I replaced my entire system.

All kenwood eXile. Even the slim 10" kenwood carbon fiber eXile sub fit in the factory box perfectly. The tweeters fit perfect with their mounts into the tweeter covers. Very happy with it.

JJGTS08

I ordered a few brackets to make my new speakers work from Crutchfield and received their master install instructions for head unit, doors, sub, pretty much everything. I'll see if I can't get it all scanned into a large PDF or something.

As for the doors though, that's easy. There are just 3 screws that hold the door in place. One behind the pull handle (hidden by a flap), one behind the fixed handle (also hidden), and one towards the interior of the car (for the front door), or the exterior of the car (for the back door). After the 3 screws are removed, just pull on the plastic to unseat the tabs that keep it in place.

Removing the door speaker itself is easy: unplug the wiring harness and simply grab the speaker bracket and turn it counter-clockwise for an inch, if that, and you'll feel it unseat.

If y'all are just interested in replacing the head unit and keeping the rest of the OEM stuff, Crutchfield has an adapter harness that costs something like 150 bucks. Want to know why? Here's why...



It's a lovely mess, isn't it?

I would recommend what I'm doing, something similar to the Clarion NX702 I'm putting in place of the old unit. It has 6 RCA's so I'm just running 3 pairs of cables to my amp and a wire for remote amp turn-on, and that's it. I'll have to dig-in to find-out about the parking brake bypass (to allow DVD in motion) and steering wheel interface that I also have - other than that, it should just be power and ground.(keyword" SHOULD").

The funny thing about the head unit I'm about to install is that it has a 2.5 star rating - every review is either a 1 or a 5 star - a true love-hate relationship. Hopefully I'll be in the "love" section.

As for the head unit I chose, it does what the factory one does: DVD and navigation. That's all I was wanting, but the ipod/iphone interface is a bonus. Granted since no head unit I've seen has a CANbus connection, you'll lose stuff like instrumentation settings that you could view with the old one, but seriously: how often does one use that stuff? Me? I only used the unit to reset my "maintenance timer." So overall it's not a big loss in my book.

sgtboost

What speaker brackets did you order?

JJGTS08

The ones from Crutchfield claimed would work (that's all I find that site helpful for, information and accessories, everything else is too damn expensive), Scosche SAGMEQ656. They're listed for a Chevy Equinox and Saturn Vue, not specifically Mitsu.

Depending on what type of speaker you use them with, they'll either fit perfectly, or you might need to do some cutting on the weird triangle shape speaker hole in the door to make it work.

With the JL's I ordered, some cutting was required and therefore, this stereo will now never go back to stock.

Also, maybe I was just lucky and got the wrong harness, but my experience now is no matter what an installer says, a traditional Mitsu harness will not work on this set-up. I'm having to do it all by hand. Kudos to another forum for posting the essential wires needed (direct from Metra) for an aftermarket install, though. It's kept me going. The only thing I'm losing is connections like "phone mute" - it says it's a brown wire on the harness. Does the Mitsu harness have a brown wire? Yes, but I don't trust it - colors have been funky. Maybe I'll pay a shop to restore full functionality to the unit someday. But then again, I never use Bluetooth (non-handsfree is not illegal in all of TX - yet).

Well I need to get back to it. Now that I've got everything wired-up, I need to physically install the head unit, use the JL Clean Sweep CD to calibrate, and least fun of all: put the car back together.

JJGTS08

The beast is alive!!

Got the full system installed and calibrated, just need to put the car together.

Might I make a recommendation? When installing a higher powered sub in the factory box (which is certainly possible, although a pain in the ***), look out for how much power you're throwing its way: 300 watts into a JL 10w3v3-2 makes it sounds like the plastic is just going to tear itself apart. Perhaps I just need a Dynamat project - but we'll see...

sgtboost

What gauge is the factory wiring that runs to the speakers?

JJGTS08

18 to the door speakers, 16 to the sub

tackyevo

I just replaced my oem hu non-nav with the pioneer avicx940, now would I be able to replace the oem amp and still utilize the oem rf sub?!? If so, which amp would be the best bang for the buck to purchase?!? Also, will I still need utilize the mito-02?!! Reason, I'm asking is because I spoke to a stereo installation shop and they said no aftermarket amp would work with the oem sub and they want me to replace my sub as well. I think they're full of **** and just want my money, that's why I'm asking. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

dasmikechen

iTrader: (2)

Stock sub is dual voice coil at I think 1 ohm per channel, most aftermarket amps aren't setup to run at the resistance rating and the stock sub would likely clip at any good amount of power. I would think the person is right even if they didnt give you a good reason. But otherwise, you would likely want a 2 channel low ohm amp if you wanted to try it out. Not impossible, just not a great idea. Will definitely clip.

tackyevo

Awesome. Thank you for the info.

dasmikechen

iTrader: (2)

You could also get a mono amp, run the dual voice coil in series to achieve approx 2-ohm load at one channel, but I still think the stock 10" speaker will clip.