OEM+ Audio Install (Active Suspension)

[rob275 1817]

Hi All,

 

After reading through the supplied guide I decided to follow it but I did do a few things differently, I will also go in to a bit more detail for those that are considering the OEM Audio+ kit (which despite a few issues fits very well) I believe that my issues were perhaps due to me not providing as much info as I should have and the fact they were pushing to get the kit to me before Christmas.

 

Once I get my studio mic I will record some good quality audio from the car so that you can get a feel to how crisp it sounds. I will add you can achieve a better install for the money with aftermarket components. However if you want something that fits superbly well in to the factory headunit with a loom already made up, this is probably a kit you should consider... That said, it doesn't sound bad and definitely packs a punch.

 

The Guide

 

Step 1

 

First off you want to do the following:

 

1. Unlock both doors

2. Open the boot

3. lift the bonnet up

 

This is because you are going to disconnect the battery, if you don't do this you are sure to blow a few fuses along the way and you will curse yourself when sods law you don't have any spares in your garage

 

So disconnect the wires from the negative terminal, tuck them to the right of the battery so they don't pop back up and re-attach themselves.. Something they will want to do after being on the terminal for so long.

 

 

Step 2
 

Next you want to head over to either your driver or passenger seat and remove both the headunit surround and the headunit itself..

 

To do this get a flathead screwdriver and a thin microfibre clock of some kitchen paper will do also (to prevent any unwanted scratches) If you are a rebel, feel free to do without.

 

The below image shows where to place the flathead screddriver, there will be a small hole on the right side of the surround begin prising it off from here.

 

 

For reference here is where the clips are situated on the surround

 

 

Once this is off you will need to remove the four 10mm Hex nuts holding the headunit in place, shown below in the image

 

 

Disconnect the following cables, you may want to reference this image later when connecting it all back up, though it shouldn't be a major issue!

 

 

Step 3

 

Next you will need to remove the drivers side trim pieces at the front (In the majority of aftermarket installs you would be doing this for both sides to prevent alternator whine, this loom will only run up one side)

 

Place your hand roughly where mine is in the image and pull straight up. I wouldn't be too worried about snapping it, it will take some pulling and is fairly flexible. Work along until it is off.

 

 

Next you will need to remove the trim piece around the bonnet catch, there is one pop rivet and two green panel clips holding this on, Undo the pop rivet shown in the image. Then get your fingers under the panel next to the door seal and push it out and towards the pedals

 

 

Note: Check both green clips come off of the chassis, if one is left on, remove it with either a clip removal tool or a flathead screwdriver(using a microfiber again)

 

 

Step 4

 

Getting there... now on to the rear, we need to remove the seat and the rear trim piece

 

First loosen the door seal around the back trim

 

 

Next up there is a 10mm hex Nut butting in to an L bracket holding the seat in place, remove this

 

 

With one hand push down on the back of the seat, with your other hand grab the L bracket and pull up, this will unhinge the seat

 

 

How there is one pop rivet which was hidden by the seat you will see which is shown below, remove this.

 

 

Drop the rear seats down, you will see two pop rivets, remove these also. That's all the pop rivets fixing the rear trim in place, unfortunately there are a fair few panel clips

 

 

The way I removed this panel, on the left side of the panel where the door seal was there will be a gap along this edge, begin pulling here.

 

 

Pull at the lower locations shown here also

 

 

Are you still struggling? Lets hope not, if you are, here is an image below for reference of where the clips are situated on the panel...

 

 

Ok we are going a bit too quick, by now around an hour should have passed if it's your first time removing these pieces, if not they tend to come off a little easier and you can do this in around 30 mins when you get good at it

 

Now go grab yourself a cup of tea and feel please that you got this far hopefully with no broken clips...

 

Step 5

 

Now we have all the trim pieces out we can start with the small amount of chassis modification that needs to be done

 

There will be two speed nuts, attached to the Subwoofer enclosure, get these off as we need to slip these on to some brackets.. 

 

Note: You will end up with two pop rivets left over after the install, this is where they have come from!

 

The first bracket can be found where the bottom pop rivet came out of that was holding the rear trim piece in place, there will be two holes on this and a bend on the bracket. Grab a pair of needle nosed pliers and bend it so that it is relatively straight. Don't worry about scratching it, you won't see it and honestly the speed nut will scratch it anyway.... Attach Speed nut to the bracket

 

 

 

Now in the boot there will be a pop rivet directly inside, next to the rubber seal, pop it off, pull back the carpet around the hole and there will be a bracket. Place the speed nut on here

 

 

 

It's important to place the correct speed nut on the correct bracket, the one on the allen bolt goes on to the bracket next to the rubber seal...

 

Step 6

 

Now we need to route the main loom, infact the only loom, and this is where my guide will differ. OEM + say to put the trim back after routing the cable, we won't be doing this until after we have got the wire through the grommet as it's a tight fit and will just waste your time when you realise you don't have enough loom at the bulkhead right? Correct 

 

One end of the loom will have 3 multiple pinned connectors.. From memory I believe they were a 6 pin, 10 pin and a 12 pin. This is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, unless you have a fetish for even numbers on electrical connectors....

 

We will start with the end with the most connectors rub it behind the seatbelts and in to the boot leaving roughly as much as i have, for those with the normal OEM+ Install you just need to leave enough loom to get behind the enclosure. For those with the Active suspension loom it will split, the Amplifier is mounted on the subwoofer enclosure however the DSP Amplifier will be placed on the left side of the boot (We will get to this later)

 

 

You will have an earth wire on the subwoofer loom (yellow shrink skin over the crimp terminal). Just beflow the rear quarter window is a gold connector, this is your earth. Undo this 10mm hex nut and place the earth wire on to of the earth wires already there.

 

 

Now that is done we can run the cable through the cable tunnel, there is a which oblong tube* (Do these even exist  ) It has 3 white clips running along it, unclip this and fold it back, the carpet is stapled to it. 

 

 

Now I will apologise here, i'm missing a picture for you, I forgot one (doh)... Within this tunnel there are more clips, undo these and tuck the loom in to this and clip it back up.

 

It will go in from the boot like this

 

 

And come out in the drivers footwell like this (run it to where I have annotated with red circle)

 

 

Next up OEM+ say to cable tie the loom to the grey cable shown below, this is located above the pedals. I would honestly leave it loose for now

 

 

Step 7

 

This part is probably the trickiest part of the install, they don't go in to enough detail on how to successfully get through the grommet, luckily this one isn't tricky if you know how to do it!

 

Above the pedals to the right will be this grommet (use a torch) there is a nipple on the other side that when cut will make a convenient hole (presumably there for the JBL OEM install) the hole is unfortunately on the top side of the grommet, i've marked roughly where it is below.

 

 

Now that you know where is is , head out to the bonnet and adjacent to the Master Brake Cylinder you will see the grommet with a convenient nipple on it, cut the tip with a stanley knife, the guide says to cut it all off, just put a slice half way through. This will be fine.

 

 

This is now the tricky bit, we need to get the power cables through this grommet, there is a 14 Gauge and a 12 Gauge cable so luckily not all that thick. Get a metal rod (which is not too thick and can bend but not too thin so that it bends when forge is on it. Get some electrical wire around 40cm in length each. Slice the elctrical wire and take one wire out of it. Tape this and the metal rod together with electrical tape. Now push the metal rob through the grommet. It should go through easily, if its not, wiggle it until it slides through freely. I can assure you there is already a hole there for it so no need to force it! If you force it you may slice one of the electrical wires already running through it.

 

Once it's through pull it through to the other side. Now remove the metal rod and tape the power cables from the loom to the electrical wire. Go back to the bonnet side and pull it through. (I've probably saved you around an hour of crying trying to get it through 

 

Step 8

 

Now that is all done, you need to route the loom up above the pedals and in to the headunit bay. I honestly can't get pictures of where to route these, but directly to the right if you look in the hole where the headunit came out of you should be able to see the pedals. It's best to get another pair of hands to grab the loom as you feed it up.

 

Once that's done, conenct up the OEM+ loom to the OEM loom as shown below

 

 

 

Next plug the OEM+ Loom in to the Headunit and also the other OEM loom connectors which are sitting around (Should be 3 of these) Once done it should look something like this..

 

 

 

Well done, now put the headunit back in! and clip the trim back on!

 

 

Guide to be continued....

[Special K 442]

Rob...

 

... this is a ".. how to.." with nobs on! Respect, my man..

 

See ".. What's On.." to claim your SpecK MOTD award... (err.. that's 'Man Of The Day', not some silly footy crap..)

 

 

Spec K

[Guest]

Great guide thanks Rob, This is also a great guide to trim removal, often a nerve racking experience as its oh so easy to pull something the wrong way and break the trim.

[Twigman 93]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 7

 

This part is probably the trickiest part of the install, they don't go in to enough detail on how to successfully get through the grommet, luckily this one isn't tricky if you know how to do it!

 

Above the pedals to the right will be this grommet (use a torch) there is a nipple on the other side that when cut will make a convenient hole (presumably there for the JBL OEM install) the hole is unfortunately on the top side of the grommet, i've marked roughly where it is below.

 

 

Now that you know where is is , head out to the bonnet and adjacent to the Master Brake Cylinder you will see the grommet with a convenient nipple on it, cut the tip with a stanley knife, the guide says to cut it all off, just put a slice half way through. This will be fine.

 

 

 

This is now the tricky bit, we need to get the power cables through this grommet, there is a 14 Gauge and a 12 Gauge cable so luckily not all that thick. Get a metal rod (which is not too thick and can bend but not too thin so that it bends when forge is on it. Get some electrical wire around 40cm in length each. Slice the elctrical wire and take one wire out of it. Tape this and the metal rod together with electrical tape. Now push the metal rob through the grommet. It should go through easily, if its not, wiggle it until it slides through freely. I can assure you there is already a hole there for it so no need to force it! If you force it you may slice one of the electrical wires already running through it.

 

Once it's through pull it through to the other side. Now remove the metal rod and tape the power cables from the loom to the electrical wire. Go back to the bonnet side and pull it through. (I've probably saved you around an hour of crying trying to get it through 

 

 

 

 

http://www.gt86.org.uk/forums/topic/1639-oemaudio-cf400reference-install-blog/?p=23383

 

On the attached post is my solution to this problem....it took me hours of head scratching as I could not get access to the end of the tube to cut the end off with a stanley knife. Hydraulic pipes and fat hands prevented that.

[rob275 1817]

I agree it's hard to get to the nipple, luckily I had a long stanley knife which gave me some extra reach needed to get to it.

[Twigman 93]

Poking a braddle from the inside pokes a tight hole in the end of the tube - probably results in a tighter seal around the wires

[rob275 1817]

Poking a braddle from the inside pokes a tight hole in the end of the tube - probably results in a tighter seal around the wires

 

You're meant to silicone it, though I admit I haven't done this yet, I dont think its required.